London Mayor confirms order to extend New Routemaster fleet to 1,000

As TFL extends the New Routemaster fleet to 1,000,
CT Plus orders the Enviro400H city for their route 26 contract.

In my previous article I wrote about route 59 and 91 receiving New Routemaster buses and now Wrightbus have just published their press release, so I need to break this news.

From Wrightbus

New order for 195 New Routemaster buses protects 300 jobs at Wrightbus

• New Routemaster supply chain supports UK businesses from Cornwall to Darlington

The Mayor of London is in Northern Ireland today (29 February) where he is confirming an order with Wrightbus for another 195 of the iconic New Routemaster buses.

Routes 59 and 91 to have Hybrid Buses...

These hybrid buses will get an extra door and staircase.

LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society) has reported that routes 59 and 91 are being converted to hybrid buses which have 3 doors and 2 staircases and called the New Routemaster, which is manufactured by Wrightbus. Currently route 59 has a small mixture of diesel-electric hybrid buses along with conventional diesel buses whilst route 91 has a full allocation of diesel buses.

Express bus services in London

As there are over 600 regulated bus routes in the Greater London area it's understandable that not many commuters know about the existence of the express bus routes, so I thought I would write an article about these routes to help make Londoners aware of them.

Bus operators pay £1 per New Routemaster bus a year for rental

Taking a look at the “Contracts released under FOI” (Freedom of Information) page on the TFL website  reveals the PDF files for the contracts in relation to the New Bus for London, which is now called the New Routemaster - a hybrid bus with 3 doors and 2 staircases manufactured by Wrightbus.

Anyway, let’s get into the subject matter; taking a look at the New Bus for London Lease Agreement document and scrolling down to page 33 it says:

Consultation for routes 108, 135, 277, D3, D7 & D8 and A Buses Bill

TFL has put forward proposals for changes to the London Bus Routes serving the Tower Hamlets borough.

From the TFL consultation

We have reviewed bus routes serving Canary Wharf, the Isle of Dogs and Bow, to make sure that services can match future travel demand in the best way possible.

Proposed changes for route EL2 goes ahead

On November 25th 2015 I did an article about the proposed changes to the East London Transit services. The proposed changes have now been given a green light and will occur on 19th March 2016.

USA: AVTA to serve entirely with Electric Buses

Over in the United States of America, north of Los Angeles County in the State of California, Antelope Valley Transit Authority (AVTA) have decided to buy 85 electric buses manufactured by BYD in order to make its entire fleet zero emission.

From AVTA Press release

ANTELOPE VALLEY TRANSIT AUTHORITY TO BECOME NATION'S FIRST 100 PERCENT ELECTRIC PUBLIC TRANSIT FLEET

Los Angeles-based BYD Motors will supply up-to 85 all-electric buses to Transit Agency

CT Plus orders 21 Enviro400H City buses

They will be on route 26 operated by CT Plus

LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society) news have issued their weekend London Bus News update for enthusiasts and this time CT Plus has finally placed an order with Alexander Dennis for 21 Enviro400H City buses.

From LOTS news:

2016 Tube map from a 2004 perspective

Since the Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers have written about this I thought I would add some more detail to those proposed services from the map.

I've only just found out about the 2016 Tube map from a 2004 proposal and a lot has changed when compared to the present one we have.

New hybrid buses for routes 21, 63 and 189

A hybrid bus with an extra door and staircase.

The tender awards have arrived for Tranche’s 536, 537 and 539 as LOTS reports.

From LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society).

The following contracts have been awarded by TfL. All routes retained by existing operators:

Tranche 536

·         21/N21 re-awarded to London Central with new Euro VI battery hybrid double deck, PVR 27 (a). Start date 8 October

·         63/N63 re-awarded to London Central with new Euro VI battery hybrid double deck, PVR 32 (a). Start date 12 November

·         321 (24 hour) re-awarded to London Central with 2009 Euro V double deck (ex route 21), PVR 20. Start date 8 October.

·         363 re-awarded to London Central, PVR 12 (a). Start date 12 November

·         P12 re-awarded to London Central with 2011 Euro V single deck (existing P12 vehicles + D8), PVR 15. Start date 8 October.

(a) = additional PVR to account for Crossrail and Roads Modernisation Plan (2 on 21/N21, 2 on 63/N63, 1 on 363).

10 years of diesel-electric Hybrid operation for London Buses

Wright Electrocity

This article will be a bit of a surprise for most you, in-so-far as today is the 10th anniversary of the first hybrid bus operation in London.

The first diesel-electric hybrid buses to enter London service were the Wright Electrocity buses (based on VDL SB120 chassis) which began operation on route 360 on 8th February 2006. They were then temporarily withdrawn due to engine overheating problems.

So then, let’s take a look at the old press releases from TFL about the hybrid buses.

On the 7th February 2006, TFL issued the following press release about their first hybrid bus.

EasyJet to trial hybrid hydrogen powered plane

I realise this news is about aviation but I have decided to share it in order to raise awareness of the increasing use of  zero emission hydrogen technology which is now going to be used on aircraft.

EasyJet is a low-cost airline carrier based at London's Luton Airport in Britain. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on over 700 routes in 32 countries. Their fleet size is 221 aircraft and they have 134 destinations. The company was first founded in 1995.

EasyJet will be the first airline company to operate hydrogen aircraft after they revealed their plans in the following press release.

TFL plans to extend New Routemaster fleet to 1,000!

The 600 figure has grown...

This news has certainly come as a surprise to me.

So then, TFL is planning to extend its fleet of the 3 door 2 staircase hybrid buses to 1,000. Previously they'd planned to extend the fleet of NRM’s by 35, which I wrote about in my previous article.

From 3rd February 2016 TFL board paper titled ‘New Routemaster’.

The Board is asked to approve additional unbudgeted Financial, Project and Procurement Authority for the purchase of up to 195 additional New Routemaster (NRM) buses.