Merry Christmas to my readership

A very Merry Christmas to all of you.

First of all, I have to apologise for the lack of new articles on this site over the last few months - this is due to personal circumstances.

This year has been an interesting one in the transport scene as we saw the opening of the new London Bridge railway station in January ; The last ever New Routemaster bus (LT1000) appearing on Route 267 in February; The announcement for new double deck electric buses for London Bus routes 43 and 134 which is expected to launch in 2019; The Volvo B5LHC with Wright SRM bodywork appearing on route 37 in August; And in September, there was a launch for the new Glider Bus Rapid Transit service for Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Unfortunately, we were expecting the Crossrail Elizabeth Line to open up the new main core tunnels serving Central London in December 2018. Now we have to wait until the autumn of 2019 because of essential maintenance and testing along the new section of the Elizabeth Line.

Sorry if I missed anything out, but you can see the list of my articles in 2018 on the right hand column.

Anyway, here are the recent London Bus tender awards:

LBSL intends to enter into new contracts for the following routes with the operators listed below:

Route	Current Operator	New Operator	PVR	Vehicles
8/N8	Stagecoach	Stagecoach	28	2014 Euro V New Routemaster
81	London United	Metroline	16	2911/12 Euro V diesel double deck
100	Docklands Buses	London Central	9	New electric single deck
205/N205	Stagecoach	Stagecoach	23	2014 Euro VI hybrid double deck
209/609	Metroline	London General	10	New Euro VI diesel single deck
232	Metroline	London General	16	New Euro VI diesel single deck
395	Metroline	London Sovereign	6	New Euro VI diesel single deck
490	Abellio	Abellio	16	2012/16 Euro V/VI diesel single deck
497	N/A - new route	Stagecoach	2	New Euro VI diesel single deck
H13	London Sovereign	Metroline	6	2011/12 Euro V diesel single deck

All Euro V vehicles will be upgraded to Euro VI emissions standards.

The above contracts will commence on the following dates:

· 29th June 2019: Route 8/N8
· 27th July 2019: Route 81
· 3rd August 2019: Route 232
· 17th August 2019: Route 209/609
· 24th August 2019: Routes 490 & 497
· 31st August 2019: Route 205/N205
· 7th September 2019: Routes 395 & H13
· 21st September 2019: Route 100

Here are some of the videos hosted on my Dailymotion channel.

I do expect 2019 to see an increase in the number of zero emission electric buses for London. I hope to see the launch of the new Crossrail Elizabeth Line in the autumn of 2019 (according to the press release) without any major problems and then hopefully the long wait for the new Crossrail Elizabeth Line will be over.

Also, just to point out that 2019 will be the last year of the 2010’s decade as we head in to a new decade in 2020. Hopefully we will be seeing some new services along the way.

I do wish my entire readership a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

You can follow me on Twitter by searching for @CLondoner92

Image attribution
By Sludge G - New CT Plus buses on the 26, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49459692