Saturday 18 July 2020

Mid-July 2020 Tender awards: London Bus route 69 to be served with double deck electric buses

TfL have recently announced new London Bus tender awards for mid-July 2020.

LBSL intends to enter into new contracts for the following routes with the operators listed below:
Route Current Operator New Operator PVR Vehicles
28/N28 Tower Transit London Sovereign 19 Existing hybrid double deck
69 (24h) Tower Transit Docklands Buses 18 New electric double deck
315 London General Abellio London 4 Existing diesel single deck
463 Quality Line Quality Line 9 Existing diesel single deck
633 Quality Line Metrobus 2 Existing diesel double deck
639/670 London General London United 2 Existing hybrid double deck
687 Blue Triangle Blue Triangle 1 Existing diesel double deck

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

The above contracts will commence on the following dates:

· 3rd April 2021: Routes 463 & 633
· 1st May 2021: Routes 28/N28, 69, 315 & 687
· 5th June 2021: Route 639/670

The new electric vehicles for route 69 may enter service after the contract start date owing to infrastructure and/ or vehicle delivery timescales.

A quick note:

Bus operators London Sovereign, London United and Quality Line are owned by RATP-Dev London.

London General, Blue Triangle, Metrobus and Docklands Buses are owned by Go-Ahead London.

At the moment we have to wait and see if bus operator Go-Ahead London will choose to use the ADL/BYD Enviro400EV City or Optare Metrodecker EV as part of their new route 69 contract with double deck electric buses. Unfortunately we have to wait till 1st May 2021 for the new double deck electric buses to appear on route 69, which is the start date for the new route contract.
Route 69 operates from Walthamstow to Canning Town via Stratford.

It will be interesting to see where three of the Alexander Dennis Enviro400VE buses (Virtual Electric, fleet code DH) will end up once Tower Transit’s route 69 contract ends. I’ve noticed on London Vehicle Finder the Enviro400VEs haven’t been in service (on route 69) since 3rd April 2020.

You can view the video of Alexander Dennis Enviro400VE in action.

Video by City Transport Info


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

Share this page