TfL has recently announced new contract awards for their London bus services.
One of the notable routes mentioned is the 25 which TfL awarded the new contract to Stagecoach London.
A Brief history of route 25
During the years of 2004 to 2011, TfL contracted Stagecoach London to use bendy buses (Mercedes-Benz Citaro artic) which enabled a high capacity operation.
Then Stagecoach lost their contract to First Group in June 2011, reverting back to double deck operation as part of TfL’s plans on withdrawing bendy buses.
During the year of 2013, First Group sold their London operations to Metroline, Go-Ahead London and Tower Transit. Route 25 was novated to Tower Transit with minimal disruption to the service.
Now we see Tower Transit have lost their route 25 contract back to Stagecoach London with new Euro VI hybrid double deckers.
You can read more about the history of London Bus route 25 here.
LBSL intends to enter into new contracts for the following routes with the operators listed below:
| Route | Current Operator | New Operator | PVR | Vehicles |
| 25/N25 | Tower Transit | Stagecoach East London | 31 | New Euro VI hybrid double deck |
| 282 | Metroline West | Metroline West | 16 | 2013 Euro V hybrid double deck* |
| 425 | Tower Transit | Stagecoach East London | 21 | New Euro VI hybrid double deck |
| 482 | Metroline West | Abellio West London | 8 | New Euro VI hybrid double deck |
| G1 | London General | London General | 13 | 2015 Euro VI diesel single deck |
* Already upgraded to Euro VI emissions standards.
The above contracts will commence on the following dates:
· 7th March 2020: Route 282.
· 21st March 2020: Route 482.
· 2nd May 2020: Route G1.
· 23rd May 2020: Route 25/N25.
· 4th July 2020: Route 425.
I should mention that Northern Irish bus manufacture Wrightbus is having issues finding a new investor to keep their business active; also, they have new double deck hydrogen orders for Aberdeen and London.
Wrightbus is becoming a political issue for the UK government since the former London Mayor Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. The new government plans to bail out Wrightbus due to cash flow problems.
I’ve made criticisms with the Wrightbus double deck products such as the Gemini 3 and SRM because I believe they should tweak their designs to compete with the Alexander Dennis products, most notably their Enviro400 City (bodywork) is sold in Euro 6 diesel, hybrid, biogas and battery electric drive systems.
I have also written that Alexander Dennis and BYD have reached 100 new sales for their Enviro400EV product as orders are made by Stagecoach Manchester, National Express West Midlands and RATP-Dev London.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter by searching for @CLondoner92
Image attribution
By Arriva436 - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10736561