The Alexander Dennis Enviro400H City

The Alexander Dennis Enviro400H City is a diesel-electric hybrid bus with bodywork feature design cues based on the Wrightbus New Routemaster, a 3 door 2 staircase hybrid bus. On the engineering side it has a Cummins four-cylinder, 4.5 litre iSBe engine; BAE Systems’ HybriDrive technology and the latest generation of Lithium-ion batteries.

Currently the buses are on London Buses route 78 which goes from Nunhead to Shoreditch via Peckham and Tower Bridge and is operated by Arriva from Ash Grove (AE) Garage.

TFL to buy another 30 New Routemasters

I find it interesting that TFL has placed an order for another 30 hybrid buses with 3 doors and 2 staircases known as the Wrightbus New Routemaster!

As we approach the Mayoral and London Assembly elections to be held in May, TFL have decided to order another 30 New Routemasters, increasing the fleet to 835 NRM’s. It's strange though that they subtracted 3 from the fleet of 808 NRMs which TFL mentioned on its previous order back in October 2014.

During mid 2015, TFL unveiled the rear door modification of the New Routemaster which removes the ability to have an optional rear platform which was the original purpose of the project.

Big 5 UK bus operators announce contactless travel for all buses by 2022

The Department for Transport has announced that Arriva, First Group, Go-Ahead Group, National Express and Stagecoach will have contactless travel on all of their buses by 2022.

From Department for Transport

Transport Minister Andrew Jones welcomes progress as biggest 5 UK bus operators announce contactless travel for all buses by 2022.

Virtual Electric bus for Bristol

39191 SN65ZGS

Good news for Bristol as they see the Alexander Dennis Enviro400H Virtual Electric buses coming to their town. They will be operated by First bus in Bristol on route 72 which goes from the City Centre to UWE’s Frenchay Campus via Whiteladies Road & Gloucester Road.

From First Bristol News

Two revolutionary virtual electric buses were launched this week in Bristol. First West of England are introducing the state-of-the-art low emission buses in partnership with Department for Transport, Bristol City Council and University of the West of England (UWE).

The buses use Geo-Fencing GPS technology to run on pure electric mode in areas of low air quality, producing zero emissions. The small diesel engine only runs in areas of better air quality and simply charges the electric engine.

Update on the three Harlow operators

LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society) have released an update about the three Harlow bus operators who lost their Operating licenses.

Reported on Monday 11th January 2016:

After a third Public Inquiry within four years, the three Harlow operators Townlink Buses, Road Runner Buses and Olympus Bus & Coach have finally had their Operators’ Licences revoked by the Traffic Commissioner from 2359 on Friday 26th February, They had been operating without an effective Transport Manager since at least March 2014 and for a very long time had been somewhat ‘cavalier’ (!) with respect to route registration dates and adherence  to routes and timetables.

Singaporeans vote to colour their buses

The LTA (Land Transport Authority) in Singapore have decided to let the residents of Singapore vote to colour their own buses in bright red or lush green.

From the LTA Press release

Bright Red or Lush Green?

You decide! Vote now

Now is the time for you to have your say on the look of Singapore’s public buses. We invite members of the public to select from two colours—red or green— for the new livery that public buses will don in the future. In conjunction, LTA is also proud to unveil the new SG Bus logo that will be featured on all of our public buses in Singapore, together with the new livery.

A common livery for a unified identity

With the transition to bus contracting model, the Government will gradually own all public buses. A common livery will create a unified and distinctive identity for our Singapore Bus.

News about Townlink, Road Runner & Olympus bus companies

It’s now official; the Traffic Commissioner has decided to take away the O Licences for the following companies:

Townlink Buses

Roadrunner Buses

Olympus Bus & Coach Ltd

I had previously written back in late October 2015 that the Harlow bus operating companies had to face a Traffic Commissioner’s Public Inquiry. This took place on the 3rd November 2015.

LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society) have a report on their news page as it’s their only news item:

More Hydrogen buses for London route RV1

I've just found out that Van Hool has been awarded a contract by TFL to build two single decker Hydrogen buses for Route RV1.

From Van Hool press release

Van Hool, an independent designer of buses, coaches and industrial vehicles, has entered into a contract with Transport for London (TfL) in the UK for the construction of two latest generation hydrogen buses.

Green bus fund to upgrade buses announced

The Department for Transport has announced awards of the Green Bus fund to enable local authorities to upgrade their local buses to have Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) in order to cut emissions.

From the Department for Transport:

Hundreds of cleaner buses for England’s towns and city centres

New Hybrid Buses for routes 47 and 68

London Buses routes 47 and 68 are to have new hybrid buses; route 47 will have Volvo B5LH Enviro400H MMC body whilst route 68 gets Wrightbus New Routemaster, a 3 door 2 staircase bus.

From LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society)

1) Virtually no change since last week, with just a very few more of the outstanding new vehicles entering service, especially more HA’s (Enviro400H City) on the 78 and more WHVs on the 155.  Since the introduction at Merton of new SE-class E20Ds,  four (of fourteen expected) of the SOEs from Merton have started to move to Camberwell to replace the fourteen ELS class Scanias on route 42, which are being withdrawn and sold off.

10 years of the Enviro400

First of these entered service on route 24

First of all, I'd like to wish all my readers and followers a very Happy New Year. 2016 is the 10th  anniversary of the Alexander Dennis Enviro400 in London bus service. Please note, I do not know much about the Enviro400, if I miss anything important out then please let me know in the comments section below. This article is mostly aimed at the Enviro400 operation in London.