Arriva London have just published a news story on their website announcing
preparations to operate route 48 from Stagecoach London.
From Arriva London
Arriva London is pleased to have
been awarded the contract to operate TfL bus route 48 between Walthamstow Central and London Bridge.
The new contract starts this
Saturday 25th February operating from Ash Grove garage in Hackney, requiring 70 drivers and 25 buses.
To present a seamless overnight
transition from the current operator to Arriva a major mobilisation plan has
been in place leading up to the change. Buses from within the current Arriva
London fleet have moved to Ash Grove to start the contract ahead of operation
with the new style of Routemaster buses
later this year.
Arriva London Commercial Director Peter Batty said: -
“It has been a tremendous team
effort across our business to prepare for this contract with new drivers
recruited and a complex cascade of buses, all to be in the right place at the
right time ready for the weekend. Our experience of starting routes 157 and 333
in south London in the last couple of months proved a great learning curve with
new contract mobilisation, so we are confident that route 48 settles down in
the same way to provide our customers with the high standard of service they
expect”
Route 48 operates for almost 21 hours of the day from just after 5am
to the last one arriving at Walthamstow shortly before 2am, with the service
running every 8 minutes during the day.
According to London Bus Routes service changes page,
they will be operating 22 VDL DB300
buses with Wrightbus Gemini 2 bodies. Then during August 2017, they will be
converting to the three-door two-staircase New Routemaster buses sourced from
other routes and operators. This could mean that route 48 will be the last
route to convert to New Routemaster buses.
However, Route 254 will be
the last route to convert to the newly
built New Routemaster buses. The contract starts on 3rd June
2017 retained by Arriva London.
The first New Routemaster prototypes entered service on route 38 in
2012 - which shows us that Arriva have been operating the first and possibly
the last routes (48 and 254) to use New Routemaster buses.
Now of course, as we move forward, things are continually evolving and
that applies to the world of bus innovations too. We are going to see the
rollout of increasing numbers of zero-emission buses and no doubt new bus
designs with the environment and pollution in mind when it comes to their
designs. This of course will give us cleaner air to breath in the cities and
help to combat Climate Change.
Thankfully, the New Routemaster design will live on in the Enviro400H City and the Wright SRM. The Enviro400H City buses
are on London Bus routes 26, 78, 133, 333 and 388. All six of the Volvo B5LH
SRM’s operate on various routes contracted to RATP-Dev’s London Sovereign from
Edgware garage (BT).
You can find the SRM’s on London Vehicle Finder - the fleet code is VHR.
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