 |
| Route 3 will be served with 3 door 2 staircase buses |
LOTS
(London Omnibus Traction Society) have reported that route 3 is due to convert
to Wrightbus New Routemasters along
with route 68.
·
Just
a few more of the various batches of new vehicles into London continue to enter
service.
Meanwhile the last of the
Abellio LTs (batch LT 602-640) for route 159 are now in service and just six of
Metroline’s LTs (batch LT641-663) for the 168 remain to enter service. Next deliveries of LTs are due for Go-Ahead route 68 and for Abellio route 3. The ‘shortened’ LT that was unveiled earlier
in December should arrive soon for trials on route 91.
Since routes 159 and
168 converted to New Routemasters, the official next conversion is route 91 as
Metroline retained the contract to operate the route with New Routemasters,
which is expected on 6th February 2016. LOTS have
said that the Short New Routemaster
will trial on route 91 so does this mean that route 91 will be fully served
with shortened New Routemaster buses?
LOTS have announced
that the next deliveries of New Routemasters are for route's 68 and 3; these
are basically an upgrade to a 3 door 2 staircase hybrid bus as TFL ditched the
rear platform design of the New Routemaster bus. Since
they are openboarding buses it requires increased revenue
protection due to possible fare evasion as we saw with the now defunct bendy
buses in London. So the bus operators would be better off buying the
Alexander Dennis Enviro 400H City as it has a standard boarding procedure.
Anyway,
here’s some more news from LOTS:
·
The
Optare Versa Hybrid OP07ARE at Quality Line (as HOV 01) has now entered
service, mostly on route 465. Carousel Buses new StreetLites (401-405) are now
regulars on routes 730/740/A40. First
Berkshire’s latest new StreetLites
(63313-16) are now in use on route X74 Slough & High Wycombe; they have
replaced the last Dart SLFs in the company.
·
Two
new Bus Stations opened in our area over the past week. On Monday 21st, that at Hemel Hempstead
is on buses-only streets in the shopping centre and replaces various odd stops
and the old Bus Station. At Luton
Airport a new Bus and Coach Station with nose-in stands and boarding platforms
has replaced the former arrangements which had awkward bays, tight u-turns and
conflicts with several pedestrian crossings.
·
The
major change to management at Arriva takes effect from 1st January.
The TfL red-bus operations of Arriva the Shires at Garston pass to
Arriva London North control and that of Arriva Kent Thameside at Dartford and
Grays Garages is expected to follow in due course. No vehicles will move although renumbering
of both red fleets into ‘London’ sequences will follow eventually. Not only
that, but from 1st January ’Shires garages at Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage and
Ware transfer to Southern Counties control.
The residual commercial routes and their buses at Garston stay there but
are controlled variously by Luton (321) and Hemel (8,10,324). In practice though and as this note is
prepared, the necessary changes to Operators’ Licences have not yet taken place. Arriva the Shires residual operations from
garages al Luton, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and High Wycombe are being combined
with Arriva Midlands under common management.
As
always, don't forget to follow me on Twitter,
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which is @CLondoner92
Previous New Routemaster articles
that I've written:
New Bus from Alexander Dennis (Enviro400H City)
New Routemaster project now costs over £300 million, time for electric buses?
New Routemaster project now costs over £300 million, time for electric buses?
Image attribution
"Abellio London 2434 on Route 3, Piccadilly Circus" by Au Morandarte - Flickr: Abellio London 2434 on Route 3, Piccadilly Circus. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abellio_London_2434_on_Route_3,_Piccadilly_Circus.jpg#/media/File:Abellio_London_2434_on_Route_3,_Piccadilly_Circus.jpg