More
news on the New Routemaster bus, but first I'll update you with the news from
LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society)
about the new hybrids for London.
1) Conversion of routes 59 and 68 to LT
operation is now almost complete, the
68 gaining its last five buses recently to complete batch LT664-690. Tower Transit now has the majority of its new VHs in use on the 328. Many of Stagecoach’s new E40D/ E400MMCs are delivered and the first two have entered service
in the past week from Barking on routes 62 and 145. Most of Go-Ahead’s E40H/E400MMCs (EHJ class)
and some of their B5LH/MCV MHV class have been delivered, these are due to
take over route 35 and 40 on 30th
April.
2) At London United,
route 148 has the first group of LTs
that are receiving opening windows and one or two are now in service. Other
than the new VHs on route 94, just
one or two buses in the normal fleet have gained their new fleet numbers, eg SP 49 at Hounslow is now SP 40049 and
SLE 25 is SLE 40625. The StreetLite
demonstrator, now numbered WS 20225,
that was delivered last December finally entered service on route K4 on 16th
April.
The
small number of LT’s for route 148 now have window openings; here is a photo of
LT120 with window openings posted on Flickr.
I’ve
found out that the shortened New Routemaster is being delivered to Holloway (HT) Garage. The fleet number
for the bus is ST812 and yes, the letter is different to signify the shortened
design of the NRM. Here are photos of ST812 at Heysham Docks taken on 16th April 2016.
They
will appear on route 91 and will be mixed with long and short 3 door 2
staircase New Routemaster buses.
A quick update on the
two door Volvo B5LH SRM (Son of Routemaster) as a photo emerges of the two
door Routemaster being delivered. Once again, I
should say that those buses are bought and paid for by the private bus operating
company, compared to TFL buying the 3 door 2 staircase New Routemaster (LT and
ST) buses then leasing them to private companies at the cost of £1 per bus per
year.
I've
also updated the table of new hybrid
buses for London Bus service:
Route
|
Hybrid
bus type
|
Operator
|
Date
expected
|
1
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
1st
October 2016
|
14
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
19th
November 2016
|
21
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
8th
October 2016
|
26
|
Enviro400H
City
|
CT
Plus
|
25th
June 2016
|
35
|
Enviro400H
MMC
|
Go
Ahead London
|
30th
April 2016
|
40
|
Volvo
B5LH MCV EvoSeti
|
Go
Ahead London
|
30th
April 2016
|
53
|
Enviro400H
MMC
|
Stagecoach
|
23rd
July 2016
|
63
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
12th
November 2016
|
72
|
Unknown
|
London
United
|
3rd
September 2016
|
74
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
19th
November 2016
|
85
|
Volvo
B5LH Gemini 3
|
London
United
|
2nd
July 2016
|
91
|
New
Routemaster
|
Metroline
|
April
2016
|
114
|
Volvo
B5LH Gemini 3
|
Metroline
|
3rd
September 2016
|
140
|
Volvo
B5LH Gemini 3
|
Metroline
|
3rd
September 2016
|
182
|
Volvo
B5LH Gemini 3
|
Metroline
|
3rd
September 2016
|
185
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
1st
October 2016
|
189
|
New
Routemaster
|
Metroline
|
July
2016
|
211
|
New
Routemaster
|
Abellio
|
June
2016
|
328
|
Volvo
B5LH Gemini 3
|
Tower
Transit
|
30th
April 2016
|
363
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
12th
November 2016
|
430
|
Unknown
|
Go
Ahead London
|
19th
November 2016
|
Since
the evolution of the New Routemaster bus design we can see that the Enviro400H
City holds some of the design cues while the Volvo SRM takes the most.
Hopefully those buses will have zero emission technology as opposed to being
hybrids that still use diesel to charge the batteries.
I
do hope we will see more zero emission buses entering service in London which
will reduce pollution and harmful emissions which contribute to Climate Change. 'Zero
emission' technology is the way forward for London as diesel-electric
hybrid technology still pollutes our environment.
What
is more important, a hybrid bus with 3 doors and 2 staircases called the New
Routemaster, zero emission buses which are battery electric and/or hydrogen or
more standard and stylish hybrid buses?
Please let me know what you think in the comments section below.
You can follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google Plus which is @CLondoner92
Previous articles on New Routemaster
project:
Image attribution
By Darren Glanville from Acle, Norfolk, UK - New Routemaster, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35992868