London Bus Tender Awards for June 2020 and Rear Door Modification for New Routemaster Buses

The new London Bus tender awards have been announced and only three routes will be getting new electric buses; they are routes 184, 484 and 616.

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

Route	Current Operator	New Operator	PVR	Vehicles
162	Metrobus	Metrobus	11	Existing diesel single deck
184	Arriva London North	London General	20	New electric single deck*
229	Arriva London North	Arriva London North	20	Existing diesel double deck
367	Abellio London	Abellio London	10	Existing diesel single deck
469	Arriva London North	London Central	9	Existing diesel single deck
484	Abellio London	London Central	11	New electric single deck
492	Arriva London North	Arriva London North	TBC	Existing diesel double deck
616	London General	HCT Group	2	New electric double deck**
B12	Arriva London North	London Central	7	Existing diesel single deck

* One vehicle is an existing hybrid double deck.

** Operationally exchanged with 2 existing hybrids from route 20.

All the diesel & hybrid vehicles detailed above will meet Euro VI emissions standards.

The above contracts will commence on the following dates:

· 23rd January 2021: Routes 229, 469, 492 & B12

· 6th February 2021: Routes 184 & 616

· 20th March 2021: Routes 162, 367 & 484

In addition, it is confirmed that Route 200, the award of which to London General was announced on 23rd April 2020 for commencement on 20th February 2021, will now be operated by new electric double deck vehicles.

In all cases, new electric vehicles may enter service later than these dates owing to infrastructure and/ or vehicle delivery timescales.

Rear door modifications for New Routemaster buses

Half of the three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemaster buses are expected to have their rear doors modified.

On page 53 of the Supplementary Agenda and Papers (PDF), in the Emergency Budget section of the document, you can see the rear door modification listed for the New Routemaster buses as part of the Surface Capital Programme.

I believe New Routemaster buses from LT516 and below will have new doors because the inward opening was used to enable the open platform operation (with conductor,) which only served six routes (9, 10, 11, 24, 38 & 390) up until September 2016. The New Routemaster builds from LT517 and above have the outward sliding door, which is similar to the middle doors.

The entire New Routemaster project cost £346 million for 1,000 vehicles. This was not without controversy. You can read more about the NRMs in my previous articles:

The real reason why TfL and the Mayor ended the New Routemaster rollout in favour of legacy vehicles containing NRM design cues

10 year anniversary of the New Routemaster design – How it has improved bus designs over the years

Route 106 now served with Enviro400EV City buses

We have recently seen the launch of the Alexander Dennis-BYD Enviro400EV City on London Bus route 106. Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the contracted start was postponed until the 6^th June with agreements made between Arriva London (previous operator), Go-Ahead London and TfL.

Route 106 serves from Whitechapel to Finsbury Park via Hackney; the service is operated by Go-Ahead London from Northumberland Park (NP) garage.

Upcoming routes to be served using Enviro400EV City buses are routes 173, 174, 230, 319, 357 and 673.

As said in my previous articles, The Enviro400 City takes its external styling from the New Routemaster bus.

Route 23 is due to convert to double-deck Optare Metrodecker EVs and they are expected to enter service on the 25^th July 2020. The service is operated by Tower Transit from Westbourne Park (X) garage.

Unfortunately, there’s still no update on the double-deck hydrogen’s manufactured by Wrightbus and Ryse Hydrogen; they are expected to operate on London bus routes 7, N7 and 245. I believe the project is delayed again due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

I invite you to follow me on Twitter by searching for @CLondoner92 or by clicking on the direct link to my Twitter page here.

Image attribution

By Martin49 from London, England - The modified rear door of Arriva London New Routemaster LT 534 (LTZ 1534), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59119785