Tuesday 23 August 2016

London Bus contracting: operators get paid by the mile



This is one of my spontaneous articles going into great detail about London Bus operations.

Ever since London Bus services were privatised during the mid-1990’s, to competitive tender, I’ve been watching closely and have found out they’ve talked about the Cost-Per-Mile on the route contract.

I won’t go into detail about the contracting, but TFL have hosted a document on their website which is titled ‘London’s Bus Contracting and Tendering Process’.

Here’s the selected routes I’ve listed, the calculations may not be accurate so please forgive me if there’s any errors on this:


Route 96
Woolwich - Bluewater
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £5,570,750
Cost per mile £4.82
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 24
Length of route (miles) 13

Total cost of a single journey £62.66
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £1,503.84
Total cost for 5 years £27,853,750


Route 11
Fulham Broadway – Liverpool Street Station
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £8,215,976
Cost per mile £10.37
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 26
Length of route (miles) 7

Total cost of a single journey £72.59
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £1,887.34
Total cost for 5 years £41,079,880


A brief comment: Since route 11 uses the New Routemasters, the conductors will be withdrawn on 2nd September 2016. With the high cost per mile, they should have retained conductors throughout the route contract. Also, bus operators pay £1 per New Routemaster bus per year for rental from TFL.

Route 149
Edmonton Green - London Bridge
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £7,942,000
Cost per mile £6.76
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 38
Length of route (miles) 9

Total cost of a single journey £60.84
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £2311.92
Total cost for 5 years £39,710,000

This route also uses 3 door 2 staircase hybrid buses called New Routemaster.

Route 365
South Hornchurch – Havering Park
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £2,672,997
Cost per mile £4.22
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 11
Length of route (miles) 9

Total cost of a single journey £37.98
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £417.78
Total cost for 5 years £13,364,985

Route 370
Romford Market - Lakeside
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £2,233,500
Cost per mile £3.87
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 11
Length of route (miles) 12

Total cost of a single journey £46.44
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £510.84
Total cost for 5 years £11,167,500

Route 15H
Trafalgar Square – Tower Hill
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £1,222,000
Cost per mile £25.40
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 5
Length of route (miles) 3

Total cost of a single journey £76.20
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £381
Total cost for 5 years £6,110,000

This route uses crew operated AEC Routemasters which is a short working of the main route 15.

Route 25
Oxford Circus - Ilford
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £18,170,049
Cost per mile £7.77
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 60
Length of route (miles) 11

Total cost of a single journey £85.47
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £5,128.20
Total cost for 5 years £90,850,245

Busiest bus route of the London Bus network.

Route 507 (Red Arrow)
Victoria Bus Station – Waterloo Station
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £2,672,859
Cost per mile £9.17
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 15
Length of route (miles) 2

Total cost of a single journey £18.34
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £275.10
Total cost for 5 years £13,364,295

Joint bid with Red Arrow route 521 totalling £7,033,839 per annum, multiplied by 5 gives a total ofto £35,169,195. This will cover the cost of £19 million for the purchases of new Enviro200 MMC/BYD Electric buses.
                                                                                                                                         
Route 193
Romford Queen’s Hospital – County Park Estate
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £2,368,557
Cost per mile £4.43
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 12
Length of route (miles) 7

Total cost of a single journey £31.01
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £372.12
Total cost for 5 years £11,842,785

Route 347
Romford - Ockendon
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £125,500
Cost per mile £4.07
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 1
Length of route (miles) 12

Total cost of a single journey £48.84
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £48.84
Total cost for 5 years £627,500

Route 674
Harold Hill – Romford
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £75,000
Cost per mile £36.66
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 1
Length of route (miles) 6

Total cost of a single journey £219.96
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £219.96
Total cost for 5 years £375,000

Route X26 (express)
Heathrow Central – West Croydon
Cost per year (from accepted bid) £2,176,178
Cost per mile £3.55
Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) 9
Length of route (miles) 24

Total cost of a single journey £85.20
Total cost of single journeys from Peak Vehicle Requirement £766.80
Total cost for 5 years £10,880,890

Compare this to outside of London where there are deregulated bus services in which bus companies have to rely on fares as their income.

With the income they get from the contracts, they have to pay for drivers, insurance, administration, maintenance, purchase/lease of new buses and many other things.

With the length of the route and peak vehicle requirement, I’ve taken the information from London Bus Routes’ operational details page.

Again, this information may be inaccurate but feel free to correct me in the comments section below.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter and Google Plus which is @CLondoner92

Image attribution
By Felix O - First London BJ11 DVT VN36138 Wrights Volvo, 25 route., CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16805794

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