London Bus Tender Awards: Routes 148 & 415 to Continue Using New Routemasters and Route U5 to Convert to Double-Deck Electrics

The new tender awards have revealed routes 148 and 415 will continue to use three-door, two-staircase hybrid buses known as New Routemasters (NRMs) for their new contracts with RATP London United and Abellio.

LBSL intends to enter into a new contract for the following route with the operator listed below:

Route	Current Operator	New Operator	PVR	Vehicle Type
148	London United	London United	17	Existing New Routemaster
415	Abellio London	Abellio London	9	Existing New Routemaster
432	London General	Arriva London South	12	Existing Hybrid Double Decker
549	Stagecoach	Sullivan Buses	1	Existing Diesel Single Decker
U5	Abellio West London	Abellio West London	11	New Electric Double Decker*

* Certain Journeys will be operated by Euro VI Hybrid Double Deckers

The above contracts will commence on the following dates:

• 02 October 2021: Route 148
• 05 March 2022: Route 415
• 12 March 2022: Routes 549
• 19 March 2022: Routes U5
• 02 April 2022: Route 432

Route 148 operates from Shepherd’s Bush (S) garage; the bus operator’s (RATP London United) ambition is to transform their garage to serve routes exclusively using zero-emission electric buses.

In my opinion, I suggest RATP London United should make new orders for more of the BYD/ADL Enviro400EV City buses to use on route 148 alongside hybrid NRMs. I also suggest the same to Abellio for their route 415 contract; the spare NRMs can be used on other suitable routes alongside conventional hybrids.

I suggested in a previous article last year that Alexander Dennis and BYD should design and demonstrate a three-door, two-staircase variant of the Enviro400EV City to give TfL and bus operators an option to replace the New Routemasters once they finish their 14 year life in London. You can read more about the future of the New Routemaster in my previous article.

The tender award also revealed Abellio has retained route U5 with new double-deck electric buses. The make and model is unknown at the moment and I’m aware they will be using the Enviro400EV City for their new route 63 contract, which is expected to start on 13 November 2021.

To wrap the article up, I’ll show you an extract from LOTS Bus News dated 14 May 2021:

2) Metroline’s first hydrogen fuel cell bus entered service on Wednesday 12th May, WHD2725 on route 7.

About time, the long wait is over!

3) Otherwise the battery- electric buses continue to make their mark. For double-decks, the front runner is of course the BYD/ADL E400EV with the London (TfL) stock (including those on order) now having topped 400. There are 184 already in service (GAL 69, HCT 2, ML 37, RTP 29, SCH 47) and another 221 on order (AB 29, AL 22, GAL 18, RTP 127, SCH 25), totalling 405. Assuming that TfL route contracts are more-or-less met, these should arrive between June and December this year, those for RTP for route 65/281 (Fulwell) first off (by date order). The solitary competitor is the Optare (Switch Mobility) MetroDecker-EV but that has been let down by lengthy build and delivery delays. The 31 for Metroline took from 6/19 to 4/20 to be delivered, the 37 for Tower Transit started to come in 9/20 and there are (as of now) still 11 to come, while only the first two of the 17 for Go-Ahead came in late April this year.

4) Electric Single-decks are also coming from BYD/ADL with the E200EV. So far 219 are in use with GAL 155,ML 23, RTP 36, SCH 5, with another 68 on order from RTP. Optare was an earlier entrant in 2014/15 with the MetroCity-EV and 13 of them are still with Arriva at Croydon.

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Image attribution
By WiseTraveller - https://pixabay.com/en/london-bus-england-britain-landmark-1464575/ archive copy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49719450