Route 10 confirmed to be withdrawn as part of Oxford Street bus changes

Route 10, which uses the three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemaster buses is set to be withdrawn in November 2018 as part of changes to the Oxford Street transformation.

From TfL consultations

We have today confirmed that, having considered all of the issues raised in last year’s consultation on the proposed transformation of Oxford Street, we will proceed with those changes to bus services on Oxford Street which have merit.

The changes are:

Route 10 will be withdrawn, but we will amend Route 23 to run between Westbourne Park and Hammersmith The amended route 23 will continue to run between Westbourne Park and Marble Arch, but will then follow the existing route 10 from Marble Arch to Hammersmith. We plan to implement these changes in November 2018.

We intend to withdraw routes 113 and 159 between Oxford Circus and Marble Arch at all times. Route 94 between Piccadilly Circus and North Row will be withdrawn during the day. These changes will be made in line with the phased opening of the Elizabeth line or in response to wider bus network changes. Night bus services on route 94 will continue to operate to Piccadilly Circus.

The changes to route 94 would require some minor changes to roads managed by Westminster City Council. We will discuss these changes with the Council shortly. The changes to route 94 would take place only once the necessary highway works have been completed.

Routes 7, 98, 139 and 390 will all continue to operate along Oxford Street.

You can view the consultation report here.

My suggestion is, with the three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemaster buses, they should be reformed and used as a branded Bus Rapid Transit on routes which I’ve stated in my previous article a couple years ago. Currently, all East London Transit (ELT) routes use the New Routemaster buses serving the Barking and Dagenham borough.

Recently, routes 32 and 415 are seeing the presence of New Routemaster buses mixed alongside the conventional buses. As the whole route 10 and a small part of route 159 is set to be withdrawn, this will increase the number of spare New Routemaster buses. This means they could be moved on to other bus routes in London, like with routes 32 and 415.

There are only 1,000 New Routemaster buses; there are six of the two-door, one-staircase New Routemasters with the spec known as the Wright SRM with the Volvo B5LH hybrid system operating on route 183. Also there are two Wright SRMs with Volvo B5LHC and charging points yet to be installed, which are currently in service on route 37. 

The spin off to the New Routemaster is the Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City; the bodywork of the design is popular amongst (non-London) bus companies around Britain, this makes it a new potential ‘iconic bus’ for Britain. The London spec known as the Enviro400H City currently operates on routes 26, 78, 133, 333 and 388. The pure battery-electric spec of the Enviro400 City was ordered by Metroline for their new route 43 contract and is expected to enter service somewhere in 2019.

Here's the London Bus news update from LOTS:

• Go-Ahead’s  B5LHC-SRMs VHP 1 and 2 continued to be out every  day on route 37 in the past week, although the BCI  tri-axle is not expected to be in use until 25th August.   The nomadic electric Yutong bus YG18CVS is expected to begin service on Metroline route 46 in the coming week.
•  There is no sign yet of any of the 34xDLEs, 7xDXEs and 20xADHs needed by RATP for 1st September  although Wright’s has started to deliver three months early the 12 x B5LH/Gemini3s (VH 45298-309); these would operate from Edgware on route H12 until they move to the 79 in November.

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Bus operators pay £1 per New Routemaster bus a year for rental
Fare evasion on New Routemaster buses

Image attribution
By Au Morandarte from London, Middlesex, England - London United LT153 on Route 10, Hammersmith, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34085341