Sunday 6 March 2016

New tender awards with existing diesels

Route 313 is retained with single decks built in 2011.



This is a very quick news update; LOTS have updated their news page showing that TFL have announced the tender awards for their London Bus routes.


Friday 4 March
The following contracts have been awarded by TfL:
Tranche 534
·         276 re-awarded to Docklands Buses with 2011 Euro V diesel single decks, PVR 19. Start date 17 September.
·         376 re-awarded to Blue Triangle with 2011 Euro V diesel single deck, PVR 8. Start date 17 September.
·         D3 re-awarded to Stagecoach East London with existing 2009 Euro IV diesel single deck, PVR 14. Start date 17 September.
·         D7 re-awarded to Docklands Buses with 2011 Euro V diesel double deck, PVR 13. Start date 17 September.
Tranche 535
·         346 awarded to Blue Triangle (currently Arriva Kent Thameside) with 2015 Euro VI single deck (from W19), PVR 3. Start date 1 October.
·         W19 awarded to CT Plus (currently Blue Triangle) with new Euro VI single deck, PVR 15. Start date 26 November.
Tranche 538
·         279/N279 re-awarded to Arriva London North with 2011 Euro V double deck, PVR 33. Start date 15 October.
·         313 re-awarded to Arriva London North with 2011 Euro V diesel single deck, PVR 8 with one double deck. Start date 5 November
·         W3 re-awarded to Arriva London North with 2011 Euro V diesel double deck. PVR 23 +1 crosslinked from 29. Start date 15 October.

Interestingly, Arriva won route 347 last year from Go Ahead Blue Triangle and this year Go Ahead won route 346 off of Arriva. Since route 346's length is 3 miles with a Peak Vehicle Requirement of 2 buses, they could have rolled out electric buses for this route.

Regarding the zero-emission buses, I'd like to bring to your attention that Simon Harris (a senior correspondent for ITV London News) stated on his ITV London news article that the main candidates for the upcoming Mayoral election won’t be buying any more 3 door 2 staircase hybrid buses called the New Routemaster.

Here are their quotes:

"My ambition if elected on May the 5th is to ensure the entire fleet moves electric as quickly as possible."
Zac Goldsmith MP, Conservative Mayoral Candidate

"What we should be doing is thinking about either proper hybrid buses or by 2020 all the buses we order should be either electric or powered by hydrogen cell."
Sadiq Khan MP, Labour Mayoral Candidate

I don’t want to turn this into a political article, but it's amazing how my predictions have been shown to be correct as others now are saying London should move on to buy zero emission buses for the London Bus routes. I like the New Routemaster bus because of the innovative design such as the glazed staircase and the rear platform. Ever since TFL decided to convert routes to New Routemaster without the second crew member, this has lead to the modification of the rear door which opens outwards like the middle doors.

Times always change and as manufacturers like Alexander Dennis have designed their own bus which has features based on the New Routemaster bus, then hopefully we may see more buses with similar designs in the coming years. Currently there is the Alexander Dennis Enviro400H City which has similar features like the glazed staircase. They are currently on route 78 and soon to be on route 26; the bus operating companies ordered those buses for their contracts as opposed to TFL buying them.

Going back to the electric buses - routes 507 and 521 will be getting electric buses which are expected to commence service on 27th August 2016. The type will be a BYD eBus with the Enviro200 MMC bodywork. Parts of the bodywork are based on the Enviro400H City which shows a more modern design for the electric buses. There are currently a small number of electric buses on those routes. I should also mention that Go Ahead London paid £19 million for those electric buses.

Currently routes 312, H98, RV1* 507 and 521 have single deck electric buses.
*RV1 is currently served by hydrogen buses which are zero emission buses.

The reason why TFL should move on to buy more zero emission buses (battery electric or hydrogen) is because of the dangers of diesel emissions which contribute to Climate Change. We'll wait until 2020 to see how many changes have been made to the London Bus fleet.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus for all the latest transport news which is @CLondoner92

Image attribution
By Tom Page from London, UK - IMG_2065, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32064230

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