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.

We are pleased to share photos of the ‘ie tram’ bus in production at Irizar’s factory in northern Spain. These sleek, zero-emission electric vehicles will operate on Route 358 (Crystal Palace to Orpington) as part Go-Ahead London’s ongoing commitment to sustainable transport. pic.twitter.com/VW39CFWlFh

— Go-Ahead London (@Go_Ahead_London) July 26, 2022

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.

Three weeks to go until @EuroBusExpo and we can't wait to launch our second-generation hydrogen bus, the Enviro400FCEV with a range of up to 300 miles. Join us at @thenec on 1-3 November as we lead the charge for a zero-emission future!#LeadingtheZEvolution pic.twitter.com/LtPLY0R7dr

— Alexander Dennis (@ADLbus) October 11, 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.

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