Route 76 to have New Routemasters

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A short news update:

Route 76 is to convert to the 3 door 2 staircase hybrid New Routemaster buses. The new contract will commence on 28th January 2017.

Bus service maps of London and the Home Counties

Since there are loads of cross boundary bus services bordering the Greater London area, many of those cross boundary routes are part of London Buses.

The North West, North East, South East and South West London bus maps also show cross boundary services. The routes that are in green are not part of the London Buses network and so different fares apply.

Proposed changes for London Bus routes 167, 387, W11…

Here are the consultations from TFL on the proposals to change the London Bus routes.

Route 167

Debden and Loughton in Essex are currently linked to North East London by TfL bus routes 20, 167, 397 and 549. Essex County Council provided funding towards the operation of routes 20 and 167, however this stopped in April.

Mid June new bus orders

Today I will be sharing articles from various sources about the new bus orders.

First off, Ensignbus orders high capacity buses for their private hire, railway replacement service and corporate work.

Share of the London Bus Market

Different companies, same service

Please note: I won't be showing any political bias here as this article is solely for informational purposes only.

Back in early 2015, I wrote an article about the private companies contracted to TFL; in this article I will be explaining about the operational share of the London bus market based by share from European, International and British companies.

Mid-June update on the hybrid bus and New Routemaster

An update on the hybrid bus scene in London.

From LOTS

1) CT Plus now has about half of its new E400H-City buses and the first (2501) entered service on route 26 on 10th June.   Delivery began in the past week of the batch of E400H-MMCs (batch 12365-400) for Stagecoach Selkent route 53.  

2) The current Volvo hybrids at Plumstead are to stay there and thus more routes (eg the 51) will gain hybrid buses and diesel E400s are to move to Romford.  Delivery has also started of the final batch of LTs from the original order (batch LT789-811) due for Metroline route 189 and a small pvr increase on route 16.

The Oddities of London Buses

This article will be about the more obscure moments of London Buses. The mainstream history of London Buses revolves around the red buses, so I have researched and compiled some of the histories that I've found.

The general public only knows the London Bus service as the red bus in London, but there are several oddities when taking a closer look at the history of London Buses.

Update on hybrid bus conversions

As the London hybrid bus fleet is increasing, I will update you with the next route conversions to hybrid buses.

Here’s the table of hybrid bus conversions; I collected the information from London Bus Routes service changes page.

Non-red London Buses

This is a response to an article from Londonist titled “Why Are London Buses Red?” as the author forgot to mention that some of the London Bus services during the 1980s and 1990s were non-red.

Here is a brief history of the non-red London Buses:

London Regional Transport (LRT) was formed in 1984 by the British Government which took powers away from the Greater London Council controlled, London Transport Executive. Basically the LRT was formed to privatise the London Bus Routes to competitive tender.

The private bus operators contracted to LRT were not required to have their buses carry LT Red livery, but they were required to carry a “London Transport Service” banner to signify a London Bus service.

Bulk of Oxfordshire's bus routes to be cut on 20th July!

Over in Oxfordshire, there have been reports that the council are cutting at least 50 services in their area.

From Oxford Mail

AT LEAST 50 bus services in Oxfordshire are to be axed in July and campaigners fear the number could still rise.

Stagecoach today confirmed it would close 11 of its services but said 11 others under-threat would continue unchanged or with different timetables.

The announcement came after Thames Travel – the other biggest rural operator – said it would close 13 of its routes and keep 14 going, with smaller providers set to close a further 28.