It’s been over a month since TfL announced the new London Bus Tender awards. Here are the recent tender awards which will include new double-deck electric buses for routes 119 and 264.
LBSL intends to enter into new contracts for the following routes with the operators listed below:
|
Route |
Current Operator |
New Operator |
PVR |
Vehicles |
|
116 |
London United |
London United |
7 |
Existing hybrid double deck |
|
119 |
Metrobus |
Metrobus |
14 |
New electric & existing hybrid double deck* |
|
198 |
Arriva London |
Arriva London |
12 |
Existing hybrid double deck |
|
245 |
Metroline |
Metroline |
17 |
Existing hybrid & hydrogen double deck** |
|
264 (24h) |
Arriva London |
Metrobus |
11 |
New electric double deck |
|
662 |
London United |
London United |
1 |
Existing hybrid double deck |
|
665 |
London United |
London United |
1 |
Existing diesel single deck |
|
671 |
London United |
Abellio |
1 |
Existing hybrid double deck |
|
A10 |
Metroline |
Metroline |
4 |
Existing diesel single deck |
* 12 electric + 3 hybrid (TVR 15).
** 13 hybrid + 6 hydrogen (TVR 19).
All the diesel & hybrid vehicles detailed above will meet Euro VI emissions standards. New electric vehicles may enter service after the contract start date dependent on, infrastructure and/ or vehicle delivery timescales.
The above contracts will commence on the following dates:
- 25th June 2022: Route 245.
- 30th July 2022: Routes 662, 665 & 671.
- 27th August 2022: Routes 116, 119, 198, 264 & A10.
Go-Ahead London which owns Metrobus operations now have an increasing choice of different makes and models of double-deck electric buses to use for their newly awarded contracts.
The current make and models of double-deck electric buses for the London market are:
Switch Mobility Metrodecker EV
Wright Streetdeck Electroliner BEV
Currently the BYD-ADL Enviro400EV City and Switch Mobility Metrodecker EV are the only double-deck electric buses in London. I expect to see Wright Electroliner BEV, Volvo BZL and Equipmake Jewel E buses being used in London in the near future.
Launch of the new double-deck electric bus
In Hong Kong, the bus company Bravo Transport (parent company of Citybus and New World First Bus) have announced the arrival of the first double-deck electric bus. The vehicle is manufactured by Wisdom (Fuijian) Motor Company Limited; the bus is undergoing tests in preparation of the official launch in to service. You can read the press release by Bravo Transport posted on my Twitter here.
Upcoming TfL board meeting for 20 October 2021
TfL has launched a new sub-website to host documents (agenda & minutes) of TfL Board, committee and panel meetings, which includes the dates of future meetings.
You can view the Board papers for the Wednesday 20 October 2021 Board meeting here.
To wrap up the article, I’ve highlighted some updates for the London Underground, DLR, Trams and Buses from the Commissioner’s Report for the 20 October 2021 TfL Board meeting.
Piccadilly line upgrade
I am excited to say that our train supplier Siemens has started the manufacture of the first new Piccadilly line trains, and work has progressed on additional tracks at South Harrow Sidings to provide train berthing for the stage two construction works at Northfields depot.
Prospective suppliers have now replied to our invitation to tender for the design and build of the high-voltage power framework. We are reviewing the tenders and will select a preferred bidder by the end of October. We will award the contract in January.
Importantly, we have set a baseline on the programme’s carbon footprint. We will be identifying the top carbon risks and opportunities, and monitoring the effect on this baseline. This will support both our own and the Mayor’s ambition for a zerocarbon railway by 2030
New DLR fleet
We are replacing the oldest trains on the DLR network, with the new trains set to increase capacity on the DLR and enable
housing growth in east London. Our rolling stock programme is creating 43 trains, 33 of which are replacements and 10 to expand the fleet. This programme also includes: an expanded depot at Beckton to stable and service the new fleet; traction power capacity work; signalling changes to the automatic train operation system; and enhanced customer information systems.
Rolling stock manufacturing is under way for our new fleet, with the initial run of 20 car bodies, trains 1 to 4, now in production. The first train’s cars are complete and available to start static testing, which is due to be completed in December 2021.
At Beckton, work on the northern sidings has started and work on the substation started onsite and is expected to finish in November. Meanwhile, signalling software development for the new trains continues to progress to programme, with the first software releases due in March 2022.
London Trams
Installation and commissioning work have progressed for both the wayside and ontram upgrades to tram communication equipment, Vecom. This will then enable a Correct-Side Door Enable system on the Bombardier CR4000 trams, which mitigates instances of the wrong-side door opening. The next milestone is the completion of the equipment installation works along the tramway in November.
The third phase of the Reeves Corner embedded track renewal was completed during a 16-day part-closure of the tramway from 16 August to 1 September, along with highway resurfacing works in Croydon town centre and further repair works to the Addiscombe Road Bridge.
We have a programme to replace the life expiring Bombardier CR4000 trams, which are experiencing declining reliability. The programme has been assessing the potential impact of the recent Sandilands inquest in relation to expected recommendations and has been feeding this into the current tram market study to understand safety innovations available for modern fleets. The market study, plus assessments of the current depot and infrastructure, will be completed in autumn ahead of starting the formal market engagement exercise in Quarter 4, which covers December 2021 to March 2022.
Bus service changes
A programme to reduce the frequency of bus services is being implemented as a reflection of the reduced use of the bus network in central and inner London over previous years. These reductions are mainly of one to two buses per hour per route, but there have been more substantial reductions on routes 507 and 521, which act as feeders to and from the National Rail services at London Bridge, Victoria and Waterloo main line stations due to reductions in demand, which have been further exacerbated by the pandemic. We are also looking at more substantial structural alterations to bus routes in inner and central London, with any such changes being subject to full stakeholder and public consultation and an Equality Impact Assessment.
The extension of route 324 to Centennial Business Park in Elstree was implemented on 28 August. This provides new links to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore and gives a new direct link to Stanmore station on the Jubilee line.
As part of the City of Westminster’s project to create a major new public space on the Strand, bus services were re-routed in the area with two-way operation introduced on Aldwych. Also, in preparation for the Oxford Circus transformation project, route 113 has been diverted to terminate at Marble Arch instead of Oxford Circus, with route 159 curtailed at Oxford Circus instead of running to Marble Arch.
In August, we launched a campaign to inform bus customers of these changes, encouraging them to plan ahead using the TfL Go app for real-time information. We will run these messages before, during and after all the planned changes, which are due to be completed by November. The campaign will run alongside the Hopper fare campaign over the same period of time.
We will communicate with customers depending on the scale and impact of the service changes and will run a mix of local press, poster and digital display adverts, and emails. Our stakeholder team will engage with local councils and our press office is prepared with responses for journalists on the proposed changes and times of travel. We are continuing to monitor loadings.
Zero-emission buses
All new buses entering the London fleet will now be zero emission to help us decarbonise public transport and further enhance air quality much faster than planned, building on our recent achievement of making the entire bus fleet compliant with Euro VI emission standards – the same as the ULEZ.
This step-change was announced by the Mayor at the Zero-Emission Bus Summit at City Hall on September 17 and puts us on the path of eliminating diesel, along with its tailpipe gases and particulate matter, from our buses by 2034 – three years earlier than planned. This will also contribute to the wider plans the Government has to cut CO2 emission in the UK by 68 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2030.
London has more than 550 zero-emission buses in its fleet, which is helping us reduce our reliance on conventional diesel, cut harmful emissions and reduce CO2 in the capital. We are aiming for 10 per cent of our 9,000-strong fleet to be zero emission by the end of 2022 although the shortage of materials and workers in the manufacturing sector world-wide may put this at risk as well as disrupt power upgrades at bus garages across London. The fleet includes 20 double-deck zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cell buses operating on route 7 from East Acton to Oxford Circus, launched by the Mayor on 23 June, supported by a bespoke refuelling station at Perivale in Ealing. This is technology we have harnessed in London before to help us reduce bus fleet emissions and, like pure electric buses, emits nothing except water vapour. We plan to continue adding zero-emission buses as quickly and affordably as we can so that we can make the entire fleet zero emission by 2034, with options for bringing this forward to 2030 if funding for vehicles and infrastructure can be provided by the Government.
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