Wednesday 12 October 2022

London Bus Tender Awards: Routes 57, 199, 450, E2 & E8 To Be Served Using New Electric Buses. Also, Yutong Unveils Their New Double-Deck Electric Bus

Another month and a new London Bus Tender awards have been announced by Transport for London (TfL), revealing more routes converting to new zero-emission electric buses.

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

Route

Current Operator

New Operator

PVR

Vehicles

26/N26

Stagecoach East London

Stagecoach East London

TBC

Existing hybrid double deck

53/N53

Stagecoach Selkent

Stagecoach Selkent

TBC

Existing hybrid double deck

57 (24h)

London General

London General

19

New electric/ existing hybrid double deck*

85 (24h)

London United

London United

12

Existing hybrid double deck

199/N199

Stagecoach Selkent

Stagecoach Selkent

12

New electric double deck**

203

London United

London United

7

Existing hybrid double deck

216

London United

London United

10

Existing diesel single deck

404

London United

Abellio London

3

Existing diesel single deck

450

Arriva London South

Metrobus

15

New electric single deck

626

Sullivan Buses

Metroline

4

Existing hybrid double deck

634

Metroline

Metroline

1

Existing hybrid double deck

643

Metroline

Uno

2

Existing hybrid double deck

E2

Metroline

Metroline

15

New electric double deck***

E8

Metroline

Metroline

15

New electric double deck***

* 13 electric + 8 hybrid (TVR 21).

** N199 partly operated by existing hybrids.

*** Vehicles will be operationally exchanged with existing hybrids from routes 245 and 263 until at least 2025.

All of 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 start and end dates for the above contracts are detailed in the following table:

Route

Contract Start Date

Contract End Date

26/N26

24th June 2023

21st June 2030

53/N53

22nd July 2023

19th July 2030

57

1st July 2023

28th June 2030

85

1st July 2023

28th June 2030

199/N199

16th September 2023

13th September 2030

203

2nd September 2023

30th August 2030

216

1st July 2023

28th June 2030

404

30th September 2023

27th September 2030

450

30th September 2023

27th September 2030

626

2nd September 2023

30th August 2030

634

2nd September 2023

30th August 2030

643

1st July 2023

28th June 2030

E2

27th May 2023

24th May 2030

E8

27th May 2023

24th May 2030

It’s interesting to see route 26 retained by Stagecoach London with existing hybrids, presumably the Enviro400H City by Alexander Dennis. I was expecting them to be awarded with new double-deck electric buses. Stagecoach took over HCT Plus London operations during late August 2022, then HCT Plus ceased trading on 23rd September 2022 as most of their bus operations outside of London were taken over by other bus operators.

Since Go-Ahead London Metrobus won route 450, I’d be interested to see if they will place another order of these Irizar ‘ie tram’ single-deck electric buses. The first batch for route 358 is expected to start by early next year.

How are the new electric buses financed?

TfL stated in a Freedom of Information request:

Request ID: FOI-1487-2223

Date published: 11 October 2022

All TfL bus route contracts are competitively tendered and awarded to a bus operator, who operates bus routes on TfL’s behalf. There are currently eight bus operating companies in London that operate TfL bus routes. Not all bus operators operate electric buses.

The cost for the procurement of new zero-emission buses, and relevant infrastructure, is the responsibility of the bus operator and these costs are included in the route tender bid. Once the route contract is awarded to the bus operator with the most cost effective route tender bid, TfL will pay an annual contract price to the bus operator for the operation of the route.

Through our competitive tendering process, over 840 electric buses are now in operation on various routes, across London, by various bus operators, leading to the development of London’s zero-emission bus fleet.

Pelican Bus and Coach have unveiled a new double-deck electric bus, manufactured by Yutong for the UK market.

From Route One

Pelican Bus and Coach will introduce a long-anticipated Yutong battery-electric double-decker bus to the UK in 2023, the dealership has confirmed.

A seed right-hand drive, 10.9m example has been constructed and is currently under test in China to simulate one million kilometres’ utilisation. That bus will be exclusively used for development purposes and it will not come to the UK, but once required testing markers are satisfied, Yutong will build a single-door demonstrator for Pelican.

While the product will be new in the UK, Head of Yutong Sales Ian Downie notes that Yutong has already placed battery-electric double-deckers into service in China and in right-hand drive, air-conditioned, three-axle form in Singapore. Learnings from those have influenced development of the UK vehicle. A rendering has been created indicating what the model will look like. It shares clear styling cues with the Singapore buses.

The UK double-decker will share the driveline of the Yutong E10 and E12 single-deckers that are already established in here, although it will come with 385kW/h of battery capacity. It will also have the same cab area.

Read More

I’d be interested to see if a dual-door variant of Yutong’s double-deck electric bus will be demonstrated for the London bus market.

The design of Yutong’s new double-deck electric bus is similar to the New Routemaster and the Enviro400 City by Alexander Dennis.

Alexander Dennis will be showcasing their Enviro400FCEV City (hydrogen fuel-cell bus) at the Euro Bus Expo in Birmingham’s NEC Arena, which is expected to take place between 1st and 3rd November 2022.

You might be interested to read why some of the double-deck buses look similar to the New Routemaster - you can check out my previous article, which I published back in January 2020.

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

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