Here’s a brief transport update with regards to the Coronavirus pandemic.
First of all, the new London Bus Tender awards have finally been announced and it seems to be a huge ‘retains’ by various bus operators using existing hybrid double decks and Euro VI single deck buses.
LBSL intends to enter into new contracts for the following routes with the operators listed below:
| Route | Current Operator | New Operator | PVR | Vehicles |
| 200 | London General | London General | 15 | Existing hybrid double deck |
| 283 | London United | London United | 10 | Existing diesel single deck |
| 649/650/651 | Blue Triangle | Blue Triangle | 9 | Existing hybrid double deck |
| S4 | Abellio London | Abellio London | 6 | Existing diesel single deck |
All the vehicles detailed above will meet Euro VI emissions standards.
The above contracts will commence on the following dates:
· 5th December 2020: Route S4.
· 2nd January 2021: Route 649/650/651.
· 20th February 2021: Route 200.
· 27th February 2021: Route 283.
1) LBSL intends to enter into a new contract for the following route with the operator listed below:
| Route | Current Operator | New Operator | PVR | Vehicles |
| 456 | London General | London General | 5 | Existing diesel single deck |
The vehicles detailed above will meet Euro VI emissions standards.
Route 456 replaces current route W10. The provisional start date is 17th October 2020, subject to confirmation.
I should also mention the rest of the bus news from LOTS:
2) The standing-down of many buses that are now temporarily surplus due to reduced PVRs across the whole bus route network in London during April is around 300 vehicles, not a lot in the context of the overall fleet of over 8000. One effect was to convert routes like 321, 432 and W7 from Volvo diesels to all-hybrid. Some LTs at Go-Ahead were stood down, causing routes 21 and 176 to have a main allocation of ‘normal’ hybrids.In the country areas though, it is at least 40% (often more) of the overall fleets and largely driven by the much more severe cut-back in bus services.
3) From Monday 20 April when the new passenger boarding system began in London, the need for ‘social distancing’ on board buses became a problem in some cases. Route X26, the only single-door double-deck route in London, had them replaced by EHs. Arriva route 313 at Enfield was converted to all double-deck to provide extra seats. Several other single-deck routes that regularly see the odd double-deck anyway (e.g. 95, 163, 164, 190, 200, 256, 296, 396, 487 had a few more.
I personally believe the three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemasters should be used on different suitable routes to help maintain social distancing for essential commuters.
Crossrail has issued a few updates regarding their developments on their Twitter page.
VIDEO: The #Crossrail
programme continues to hit key programme milestones with #CustomHouse
the first of the central section @Elizabethline
stations to be handed over to Transport for London.
#MovingLondonForwardhttps://t.co/OE1HMBHIXJ
pic.twitter.com/nNe0gkfKbl
—
Crossrail Project (@Crossrail) April
22, 2020
Essential and
business critical work continues across the #Crossrail
programme ranging from software development for the @Elizabethline
signalling and #train
systems, to assurance and safety certification and the handover of
completed assets to TfL.#MovingLondonForward
pic.twitter.com/p4x3IQ3bBg
—
Crossrail Project (@Crossrail) April
24, 2020
#Crossrail
is focused on making as much progress as possible with the handover and
assurance process for the @Elizabethline.
Over 200,000 documents must be completed as part of this and many staff
are doing this from home.#MovingLondonForward
pic.twitter.com/8cDJ9IWqbO
—
Crossrail Project (@Crossrail) April
24, 2020
The UK government’s Department for Transport has announced a package to help maintain and support freight logistics and transport services during the pandemic.
Extract from Department for Transport
Vital routes for supplies and people have been protected today (24 April 2020) through a coronavirus support package to keep the flow of goods and services running smoothly in and out of the UK, and around the country, throughout the pandemic.
The funding will ensure the ongoing supply of critical goods into the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, with up to 31 routes eligible for support, subject to discussions with operators.
The UK is working closely alongside French and Irish partners and today pledged in a joint statement to “strengthen partnership and share best practices”, to ensure the continued movement of freight across the continent.
Alongside the protection for freight routes, the Transport Secretary also committed to fast track the launch of a new trial using drones between the mainland and St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight, helping ensure it is equipped to tackle the virus. This follows £28 million awarded by the government earlier this year to Southampton and Portsmouth councils to carry out drone trials of this kind as part of a wider future transport zone trial.
The Department for Transport has announced that thousands of volunteers, vehicles, aircraft and ships from the transport sector have been placed on standby in a new ‘Transport Support Unit’ (TSU) to assist frontline responders during the crisis across the whole of the UK.
Assets made available in the TSU include 4 fixed-wing aircraft owned by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, one of them a Boeing 737. They can be made available for tasks including moving emergency patients and medical supplies.
Highways England can also release control vehicles for potential use as mobile COVID-19 testing centres.
Network Rail, with the 8th largest commercial vehicle fleet in the country, has 8,500 vans and lorries which can be used to transport essential items during the crisis. It is making available its seven regional distribution centres which can be used for COVID-19 related supplies.
The government can also confirm that it will support the light rail systems in Sheffield, Manchester, West Midlands, Nottingham, and Tyne and Wear, and is working with local authorities to identify what support is needed to allow essential services to continue.
The funding will help services continue to run and enable key routes to remain open for people travelling to hospitals, supermarkets or those who cannot work from home, such as NHS staff.
It seems to be that London (for DLR and Tramlink) is missing from the list of Government support for light rail services.
TfL announced they will be placing 7,000 of their staff on furlough and has asked the UK Government for support during the pandemic.
Extract from TfL press release
TfL is to place 7,000 staff whose work has been reduced or paused as a result of the coronavirus pandemic on furlough from Monday.
This will allow TfL to access funding from the Government's Job Retention Scheme, saving the organisation an estimated £15.8m every four weeks.
This will partly reduce the huge financial impact of coronavirus whilst constructive discussions continue with Government on the wider revenue support that TfL will need to continue the effective operation of London's transport network.
Since London entered lockdown on 23 March, TfL has - as part of the national strategy to beat the virus - been urging Londoners to only make essential journeys.
The vast majority of Londoners have listened to TfL and the Mayor of London's advice to stay at home, to not travel and so save lives.
The success of this vital advice has seen Tube journeys fall by 95% and journeys on buses fall by 85%. However, this has meant that TfL's main source of income has almost disappeared.
The Government's Job Retention Scheme means TfL can access funding for 80% of the salary of furloughed staff up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. TfL has carefully assessed which roles within the organisation are suitable for the scheme, ensuring that all staff required for recovery planning and delivery are retained.
7,000 staff will be placed on furlough, for an initial period of three weeks. This represents around 25% of the workforce employed. TfL will pay the remainder of salaries of all furloughed employees and continue to pay pension contributions, to ensure that people are supported.
And lastly, I actually have some good news to report... London’s air quality has improved greatly due to the Coronavirus ‘lockdown’:
Extract from Greater London Authority
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today published new evidence which shows dramatic improvements in air quality as a result of the halving of traffic in London due to the coronavirus lockdown. This is in response to environment ministers’ call for evidence which will feed into the Government’s response to COVID-19.
The Mayor has already made huge strides in cleaning up London’s air, including introducing the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in central London. Reductions measured in recent weeks are in addition to the significant improvements delivered since 2016. A report on these improvements has been published today to provide important context to the COVID-19 reductions. The report also confirms the effectiveness of clean air zones in tackling air pollution.
In 2020, before measures to address the COVID outbreak were introduced, hourly average levels of harmful gas nitrogen dioxide NO2 at all monitoring sites in central London had already reduced by more than a third (35 per cent) compared to the same period in 2017. Since 16 March 2020 there has been an additional reduction of 27 per cent.
Poor air quality stunts the growth of children’s lungs and worsens chronic illness, such as asthma, lung and heart disease. There is also emerging evidence linking air pollution with an increased vulnerability to the most severe impacts of COVID-19.
The report shows:
· There have been huge reductions in NO2, especially at roadside sites. Central London roadside locations have seen a fall in daily average NO2 of around 40 per cent. These reductions are in addition to those already delivered by the ULEZ.
· One of London’s busiest roads, Marylebone Road, has seen a reduction in daily average NO2 of 48 per cent and Oxford Street has seen a reduction of 47 per cent.
· Despite these improvements, London has had particulate pollution episodes during lockdown. This exposes that London’s poor air quality is not just the result of traffic pollution and further action is required on other sources, including domestic burning and agricultural emissions.
Evidence from the Breathe London air quality monitoring network will also be submitted to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which shows similar reductions in NO2 across the city. The Breathe London team have used Waze for Cities data to measure big reductions in congestion.
This is part of efforts by a number of world cities better to understand the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown measures on air quality. London is working closely with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group to share information and best practice.
City Hall has also today published new data showing dramatic improvements in London’s air quality across the capital since 2017.
The report reveals that the introduction of policies including the world’s first ULEZ have contributed to a reduction of 44 per cent in roadside NO2 in the central London ULEZ zone. In January there were 44,100 fewer polluting vehicles being driven in the central zone every day with 79 per cent of vehicles in the zone now meeting the ULEZ emissions standards – up from 39 per cent in February 2017.
Around half of London’s air pollution comes from road transport. Today’s evidence shows how our polluted air is often caused by the way we choose to move around the city. Nearly half of car trips made by Londoners before the coronavirus lockdown could be cycled in around ten minutes.
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