As the Wrightbus New Routemaster rollout comes to an end, a Freedom of Information request shows the final route to convert to the three-door two-staircase hybrid buses will be route 267.
From What Do They Know
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We do not have a date for delivery of the 17 New Routemasters from Wrightbus yet, but we expect to receive them shortly and will allocate them to route 267 by the end of the year.
Route 267 serves Fulwell, Isleworth, Brentford, Chiswick and Hammersmith.
Currently, the New Routemasters are on (daytime) routes 3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 21, 24, 38, 48, 55, 59, 68, 73, 76, 88, 91, 137, 148, 149, 159, 168, 189, 211, 253, 254, 390 and 453, East London Transit routes EL1, EL2, EL3 and night routes N3, N8, 10, N11, 12, N16, 24, N38, N55, 76, 88, 148, 149, 159, 189, 390, 453 and EL1.
Once route 267 converts to New Routemasters it will make a grand total of 34 New Routemaster daytime routes.
As the New Routemaster rollout is ending, there won’t be any more three-door two-staircase hybrid New Routemaster buses ordered by TfL.
In 2014, TfL referred to the Mayors 2020 vision (by previous Mayor Boris Johnson) which is to have 2,000 New Routemaster buses by 2020. TfL wrote about manufacturers developing their own double deck buses with NRM features like the glazed staircase.
From TfL board back in November 2014 (Link to document)
Members were advised that the TfL remained on target to achieve the Mayors 2020 vision of 2,000 vehicles. TfL was able to purchase up to 1,000 buses from Wrightbus under the current contract. No decision was proposed on the order of the next 1,000 vehicles as other bus manufacturers were looking to develop their own double-decker buses with NRM features, which would give TfL options when considering future vehicle choices.
Following this the previous Mayor, Boris Johnson, answers a question from a Greater London Assembly member about the proposed 2,000 New Routemasters by 2020.
From GLA website
Main question by Valerie Shawcross
Can you show how 2,000 NRMs will be on London's streets by 2020. Please break down the purchases by financial year.
Answer from the Mayor Boris Johnson
I expect to see the DNA of the NRM adopted on many of the new double deck buses introduced, as older vehicles are renewed and contracts re-let, through the normal tendering programme. TfL is therefore well positioned to meet my aspiration by 2020.
In March 2016, I mentioned in my article that the Mayoral candidates were vowing to discontinue purchases of New Routemaster buses.
A few months after Sadiq Khan became the Mayor of London in May 2016, the conductors for the New Routemaster buses was axed in order to fund the ‘one hour hopper’ fare scheme.
In the December 2016 TfL’s business plan, it says:
New capital investment will be reduced significantly as we discontinue purchases of New Routemaster buses. We will carry on investing in the fleet however, by retro-fitting 3,000 vehicles with Euro VI standard emission technology by 2020.
Heatherwick Studios was the designer of the New Routemaster and the owner, Thomas Heatherwick, talks about the New Routemaster bus in this video:
As the New Routemaster production is discontinued, a couple of years ago the designer, Thomas Heatherwick, praised the Alexander Dennis Enviro400H City as ‘back to front’ compliment.
Currently the Enviro400H City operates on daytime routes 26, 78, 133, 333 and 388. They also operate on night routes N26 and N133 – they may soon appear on night routes N550 and N551 when the new contract starts on 1st September 2018, operated by CT Plus.
The fleet numbers of the Enviro400H City buses are:
· HA1 - HA53 owned by Arriva
· 2501 - 2538 owned by CT Plus
This makes a total of 91 Enviro400H City buses for the London Bus network.
The DNA of the New Routemaster has increased throughout Britain, all thanks to the Enviro400 City which attracted several bus operators in Britain to purchase these buses.
Here’s a list of bus operators in Britain that have purchased the Enviro400 City buses:
Firstbus West of England (bio gas)
Nottingham City Transport (bio gas)
Plymouth Citybus (alternative livery for luxury service)
The Wrightbus Gemini 3 also features a New Routemaster design cue which is the glazed staircase.
Arriva Derby Sapphire service
RATP-Dev London United for Kingston University service
Stagecoach Cumbria for Lakesider open top service
This shows that the DNA of the New Routemaster, notably the glazed staircase, is used for the Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City and Wrightbus Gemini 3. That’s why the above design cue is seen on buses throughout Britain.
If I missed any bus companies out who use the Enviro400 City and Gemini 3 with the glazed staircase design, let me know in the comments section below.
As for the two-door, one-staircase Wright SRM (with Volvo B5LH hybrid system), currently there are six of them which are owned by RATP-Dev London Sovereign and they appear on route 183. The fleet numbers for the SRM are VHR45203 - VHR45208. There are still no new orders for the SRMs.
There’s still no new update on the SRM with the Volvo B5LHC hybrid system, but you can read the August 2017 update here.
Here’s a London Bus news update from LOTS:
1. LT149 went out on London United route 267 on Tuesday 7th as the precursor of what will be a batch of LTs for the route. The Optare MetroDecker demonstrator OM 1 is now with Metroline at West Perivale (PA) Garage.
2. Saturday 11th marked one of the largest set of movements in one day for a long time, when four major routes changed hands. With a total pvr of 115 (thus about 130 including spares), Abellio took route 45 with new E40Hs, London United the 18 with new B5LHs, Go-Ahead the 176 with EHs and WHVs (a few new but most based at or transferred in to Camberwell) and the 188 with new B5LHs. In consequence, numerous Volvo B7TLs were withdrawn made up from Arriva (batch VLA43-77), Go-Ahead (batch PVL298-328) and more of Abellio’s 90** batch were withdrawn, as well as a large batch of Metroline’s Volvo B9TLs (VW1846-1894) that are likely to go off lease.
3. New deliveries to London continue to pour in and the emphasis now turns to single-decks. The first examples are here from the batches of StreetLites (WS104-117) for Go-Ahead route 170, E20Ds ENX31/32 for a top-up on Arriva route 289 and E20Ds ENS29-39 for Arriva route W6. Last but not least the first of the BYD/ADL E200EVs (SEe 52-65) for the 360. Watch LVF for entry into service.
4. Arriva at Hemel Hempstead put its fleet of nine 17-seat Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibuses into service on Monday 6th on town services there. Each bus replaced 45-seat Volvo B7RLEs one-for-one with no frequency increase! Meanwhile, the unpopular minibuses at Arriva Guildford have been switched from town route 3 to the X1 (Guildford- Horsham express).
5. At Metrobus Crawley the first couple of what will be 26 OmniCIty double decks from Brighton & Hove are being prepared for service. As they are replaced by new Streetdecks in Brighton, Scania OmniCity double-decks (to be 6960-85) will in due course replace OmniDekkas 6469-78/82-97)
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