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.
More
recently since Trustybus came on to the Harlow- Epping- Ongar corridor in
November, a fares war between them saw fares halved. This changed over the weekend 9/10 January
when Townlink (but not Roadrunner) ceased
operating altogether after Saturday 9th.
From
Monday 11th January Trustybus altered their
419/420 services to cover most of Townlink 19/20/21 and reinstated fares
to a normal sustainable level. Ensignbus
took route 21 Brentwood- Ongar from 11th January. As at today (11Jan) Olympus
741 to London and Road Runner R1 In Harlow are still running, but all Townlink
routes (19/20/21, T15, 524/524A have ceased. Arriva will in due course be
covering parts of Townlink T15 with a new route 9.
TL/RR
had a combined fleet of around forty Darts to serve a pvr of about eighteen but
the newest are 51-reg. Trustybus has
been acquiring Scania single-decks, until recently on Go Ahead London routes
358 and 42.
Then on Wednesday 13th January, LOTS updated:
Townlink,
Roadrunner and Olympus have lodged an
appeal against their licence revocations.
Although Townlink Buses did cease operation after Sat 9th January and
did not run at all on 10th or 11th, a
partial service resumed on Tuesday 12th on all their routes 19/20/21, T15 and
524/A but with service gaps, using 9 (instead of the usual 13) buses. The Townlink depot had been vacated and these
are running from the Roadrunner depot.
Here
is the latest London Bus tender update as Go Ahead Blue Triangle wins again.
Tranche 530
·
608 re-awarded to Blue
Triangle with existing Euro IV diesel double deck, PVR 3, start date 3
September 2016
·
646 re-awarded to Blue
Triangle with existing Euro V diesel single deck vehicles ex routes 507 &
521. PVR 3, start date 3 September 2016
·
648 re-awarded to Blue
Triangle with existing Euro V diesel single deck vehicles ex routes 507 &
521. PVR 2, start date 3 September 2016.
·
652 re-awarded to Blue
Triangle with existing Euro IV diesel double deck, PVR 2, start date 3
September 2016
·
656 re-awarded to Blue
Triangle with existing Euro IV diesel double deck. PVR 2 + 1 crosslinked from
652, start date 3 September 2016
·
679 re-awarded to Blue
Triangle with existing Euro IV diesel double deck, PVR 3, start date 3
September 2016
·
686 re-awarded to Blue
Triangle with existing Euro IV diesel double deck, PVR 2, start date 3
September 2016.
The
buses from routes 507 & 521 are the Mercedes-Benz Citaro which will be
replaced with Zero-Emission electric single deck buses by this
summer.
I
am also aware of the accident at Westminster Square involving Three
Wrightbus New Routemaster buses which are LT504 crashing to the rear of LT142
which caused injury to 13 people. It happened on Monday 11th January during the afternoon. The LT29 has very minor damage as I read from
a bus enthusiast group that it only clipped a wing mirror. I do wish the
injured a speedy recovery and hopefully we'll know soon what the verdict will be
with this case.
That’s
all I have to report on today, so follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google
Plus which is @CLondoner92
Image attribution
"Road Runner bus (RX53 LFH), 2010 North Weald bus rally" by Chris Sampson - RX53LFH-1 040710 CPS. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Road_Runner_bus_(RX53_LFH),_2010_North_Weald_bus_rally.jpg#/media/File:Road_Runner_bus_(RX53_LFH),_2010_North_Weald_bus_rally.jpg