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| Yes driverless trains strike too! |
Firstly, sorry about the lack of posts recently but I have been busy preparing for a short holiday and as I'm leaving tomorrow I thought I'd better give you an update on the London Transport services before I go.
First off,
we have the latest London Buses tender awards:
Notification
of Tender Results
4th
November 2015
LBSL
intends to enter into new contracts for the following routes with the operators
listed below:
Route
Current Operator New Operator PVR Vehicles
· 57 (24h) London United London General 27 Existing diesel double deck
· 65/N65 London United London United 27 Existing & new diesel double
deck
· 85 (24h) London General London United 15 New battery hybrid double
deck
· 213 (24h) London General London General 20 Existing diesel double deck
· 265 London United London United 12 New diesel single deck
· 371 London United London United 15 Existing diesel single & double
deck*
· E2 Metroline Metroline 15 Existing diesel double deck
· E5 Metroline West Abellio West London 12 New diesel single deck
· E7 Metroline West Abellio West London 10 New diesel single deck
· E8 Metroline Metroline 15 Existing diesel double deck
· E9 Metroline West Abellio West London 8 Existing diesel double deck
* Includes
five battery hybrid single decks.
Contracts
will commence on the following dates:
28th May
2016: Routes E2, E5, E7, E8 & E9.
2nd July
2016: Routes 57, 65/N65, 85, 213, 265 & 371
So routes
85 and 371 will be getting hybrid buses whilst the rest will have used/new
diesel buses. We really should have been seeing more electric buses by now in
order to help combat emissions!
Next up, a
'news update' from LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society).
Sunday 1
November
1) The first of Tower Transit’s new E20Ds
(DMV 45112-4 and DM 45115-20) arrived in the past week at Lea Interchange Garage. Meanwhile, all seven of Go-Ahead’s latest
E20Ds (SE 261-267) are now in use on route 352.
More of Metroline’s new E20Ds (batch DEL 2145-2154) are now running at Uxbridge, invariably on
routes 331 and A10.
2) Next deliveries from ADL to London should
be the 19 E40H-‘City’ buses (HA 1-19) for route 78 later in November. These are
the first production examples of the ‘MMC-City’ variant first seen at the NEC
show four weeks ago.
3) 30 (of the 42) LTs (batches 513-516 and
564-601) due for Arriva route 149 have now been delivered and most are in
service, allowing DWs in the 4** range to replace older DWs and VLWs at
Enfield. The 39 LTs (LT 602-640) for
Abellio route 159 are due to follow on during mid–November as that route will
be taken over from Arriva from 12th December.
4) Route 295 passed from Tower Transit to
Metroline West at Willesden junction Garage from 31st October. However, only a
handful of the new Volvo B5LH/ Gemini 3 buses (batch VWH 2122-2144) had been
delivered so, by a set of vehicle moves from other garages, a mix of VW and VWH, some being loaned from
Willesden and Potters Bar, are assisting
on the route at present. The newest
buses are to the revised body style already used on Go-Ahead’s WHVs at Croydon
Garage.
5) An historical note now: This weekend
marks 34 years since the closure on the night of 30/31 October 1981 of the old
Plumstead (AM) and Abbey Wood (AW) Garages and the transfer of most of their
allocations and routes to the new (and current) PD Garage in a different part
of Plumstead. The MD class featured
prominently in that change-over!
At least
the fleet code for the Alexander Dennis Enviro400H City has been revealed which
is ‘HA’. I just thought it would have a unified fleet numbering system
like the New Routemaster with their ‘LT’ fleet code.
Also, the Docklands Light Railway held industrial action over
operational safety and here are the latest press releases' from RMT and TFL. This shows that driverless trains are not
immune to strikes according to my previous article about driverless trains for
London Underground.
As I've said above, I have been really busy lately but I will write an article commemorating the 10 year anniversary of Route 15H when I return in a few days time and I'll hopefully have some first-hand reports on the local buses, along with some video for you. Also, if you check out my Dailymotion channel you'll be able to watch the latest videos that I've recently filmed in London.
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Plus which is @CLondoner92
Image attribution
"DLR train 95 at West Silvertown" by Oxyman - Own work. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DLR_train_95_at_West_Silvertown.jpg#/media/File:DLR_train_95_at_West_Silvertown.jpg