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.

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