New Completion date for 600 New Routemasters revealed

The original plan for the ‘New Bus for London’ (yes their original name) rollout was to have 600 vehicles deployed by April 2016, but the the Surface Transport Panelhas revealed on their ‘2015/16 Surface Plan and Update on Performance Targets’ paper that their target for 600 New Routemasters has been moved forward to 31^stOctober 2015.

What is also interesting is that their 2015/2016 budget is £110 million for the New Routemaster vehicle purchase which includes the extra 200 vehicles.

The completion date for the total of 800 New Routemasters is by March 2016. The Estimated Final Cost for the New Routemaster project is £286 Million. I will emphasise again that the project is nearly £300 million! The original cost for the project, with the fleet of 600 buses was £224 million.

The order for the extra 200 buses, which brings the total to 800, started in October 2014. The reason why they want to order them is because TFL board members were advised to remain on target to achieve the Mayors 2020 vision of 2,000 vehicles. But TFL haven't made a decision to order an extra 1,000 New Routemaster vehicles as other manufactures are planning their own double decks with ‘NRM features’.

I found from ‘Bus Lists on the Web’ on the New Bus for London list page that it revealed that the NBfL Durability Vehicle is listed. Their chassis number is‘SA9DDRXXX14141266’ and their body number is ‘AH 529’. The notes column says ‘NBfL durability trial vehicle. Wright show as model DD2D’. There is no full explanation on what the initials ‘DD2D’ means? Enthusiasts reported the initials stand for ‘Double Deck 2 door’ which would mean that the New Routemaster will be two door.

According to the TFL’s Surface Transport Panel Managing Director’s Report, on Paragraph 3.1.10 it states

“We plan to roll out 800 New Routemasters by 2016 including 200 negotiated at a lower unit price with manufacturer Wrightbus. All additional vehicles will benefit from the more expensive and lower emission Euro VI engine, an enhanced wheelchair ramp and rear door modifications.”

It's probable that the extra 200 New Routemasters are going to have two doors, but I don’t know if it’s going to be at the front and rear like a Volvo Ailsa V3 or at the front and middle like the conventional buses have in London. It will be interesting to see what the extra 200 NRM’s will feature.

If anyone knows about the ‘NBfL Durability Vehicle’ please let me know in the comments section below.

By June 2015, Route 73 will be served by New Routemasters which means that the roll out will reach 500 vehicles. But it's unusual that the route already has Hybrid buses and is being replaced by another hybrid type which is the New Routemaster.

In other news there will be more hybrid buses, but the individual bus operating companies order the buses themselves instead of TFL. The operator buys them under new contract which TFL requires them to operate the route with hybrid buses. There is no mention on how much the hybrids cost as it brought and paid for by the private operating companies contracted to London Buses.

So here is the quick list of the routes which will be served by hybrid buses as reported from ‘London Bus Routes’.

Route	Operator	Bus type	Commences on
78	Arriva London	unknown	14th November 2015
135	Go Ahead Docklands Buses	Volvo B5LH/E400MMC	23rd May 2015
177	Stagecoach London	Volvo B5LH/E400MMC	30th May 2015
285	London United	Volvo B5LH/Gemini 3	27th June 2015
295	Metroline (West)	unknown	31st October 2015

It also mentions that Route 6 (operated by Metroline) will get a partial allocation of hybrids (Volvo B5LH/Gemini 3) which were originally ordered for routes 245 and 460.

By 5^th September 2015, Route 312 will have single deck electric buses operated by Arriva London. I think TFL should move on to purchasing electric buses because hybrids need to use diesel which do emit emissions and is still harmful to the public, so it will be interesting to see the future of the London Bus fleet turning into low emission and no emission buses.

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Also see:

Failed Route tests for New Routemaster conversion

TFL Plans to have 200 more New Routemasters

New cost for individual extra 200 New Routemaster buses now revealed

No more Heatherwick designed buses for London?

More Electric Buses for London

Board Papers:

New Bus for London Roll Out (20^th September 2012)

200 New Routemasters (5^th November 2014)

2015/16 Surface Plan and Update on Performance Targets (13^th May 2013)

Managing Director’s Report (13^th May 2013)

Image Attribution
"York Way bus stand, Kings Cross, 26 April 2014 (2)" by Au Morandarte from London, Middlesex, England - The Two Halves of the 10. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:York_Way_bus_stand,_Kings_Cross,_26_April_2014_(2).jpg#/media/File:York_Way_bus_stand,_Kings_Cross,_26_April_2014_(2).jpg