The good news is that London Buses Route 13 will not be axed due to political intervention from the GLA’s Mayor of London; this is because of the upcoming General Election.
LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society) have reported:
“TfL’s consultation period for routes 13/113/139/189 has finished but political intervention from the Mayor means that there will now be no change for the foreseeable future.”
The consultation on TFL’s website have updated their page which states:
“There has been a high level of interest in this consultation. We received over 3000 responses to the consultation which is now closed. However, concerns have been expressed that the consultation has been partially undertaken during the pre-election period which runs until 7th May.
It is therefore our intention not to progress the scheme at this time. The comments received from this consultation will however be used to inform future bus network planning in the Finchley Road and Abbey Road areas, and any resulting proposals would be subject to further public consultation.”
So this means that due to political concerns, the consultation has been withdrawn. The route has a long history since it was formed on 3rd October 1934.
Currently, the routes Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) is 22 buses which uses the Volvo B5L Hybrid, with Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini body since 31st July 2013. The route operates from Edgware (BT) garage and the operation is under contract to London Sovereign, a subsidiary company of RATP Dev.
The proposal has been halted but it may return in the future.
In other news, ‘London Bus Routes’ website have updated their Service Changes page which now says “Route 73, New Bus for London double deckers introduced. Expected date: May 2015”
At least there is a second confirmation regarding Route 73's conversion to New Routemasters.
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Image attribution
"Au Morandarte Flickr DSC02183 (12212092544)" by Au Morandarte from London, Middlesex, England - DSC02183Uploaded by Ultra7. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.