̶L̶o̶n̶d̶o̶n̶ Liverpool City Region Bus Tender Awards: Stagecoach And Go-Ahead Win Franchised Bus Contracts

It has been announced that Transport for London, ahem, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority website that Stagecoach has won the contract to operate the franchised bus network in St Helens, and Go-Ahead has won the contract to operate the franchised bus network in the Wirral.

̶L̶o̶n̶d̶o̶n̶ Dublin Bus Tender Awards: Go-Ahead Ireland Wins Contract to Operate 65 PSO Bus Routes in the Outer Dublin Metropolitan Area

As we are in the final month of the year, December 2025, Transport for London (TfL), ahem, the National Transport Authority (NTA) in Ireland has announced that Go-Ahead Ireland has won a contract to operate 65 Public Service Obligation (PSO) bus routes across the Outer Dublin Metropolitan Area.

This is a brief follow-up to my previous article in September, when Go-Ahead Singapore won the contract from the Land Transport Authority to operate 27 bus routes in Singapore.

From The National Transport Authority 

̶L̶o̶n̶d̶o̶n̶ Singapore Bus Tender Awards: Go-Ahead Singapore Wins Tampines Bus Package Consisting of 27 Routes

In this recent London ahem Singapore Bus Tender Awards, announced by the Land Transport Authority (LTA), Go-Ahead Singapore has won the Tampines Bus Package, which consists of 27 routes.

Here’s the press release from Singapore’s Land Transport Authority:

London Bus Tender Awards: New Electric Buses for Routes 51, 162, 178, 244, 291, and B11, and Arriva Wins Route 248 with New Routemasters

Transport for London (TfL) has revealed the latest round of bus contract awards, highlighting continued progress towards a zero-emission fleet. Routes 51, 162, 178, 244, 291, and B11 are set to operate with electric buses, including a mix of new electric single and double-deck vehicles. Route 248 will continue to be operated with the existing three-door, two-staircase New Routemaster hybrid buses.

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

Go-Ahead Group Invests £500 Million With Wrightbus To Build 1,200 UK-Made Zero-Emission Buses - UK Transport Secretary Plans To Create A New UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel

Zero Emission Bus in Oxford - Photo by Go-Ahead Group

A bus operating company named Go-Ahead London has announced a £500 million investment for 1,200 new zero-emission buses manufactured by Wrightbus.

Fom UK Department for Transport

• £500 million investment announced to deliver 1,200 UK-made zero emission buses, ensuring greener and better journeys for passengers

• bus operator Go Ahead’s investment to benefit communities across the country, supporting hundreds of jobs and delivering growth

• Transport Secretary brings together industry to advance opportunities for investment in the UK ahead of investment summit

London Bus Tender Awards: Go-Ahead London Retains Routes 507 & 521 with Single Deck Electric Buses

This is a quick news update for London Buses.

The new tender awards have revealed that Go-Ahead London General retained their routes 507 & 521 contract with existing electric single-deck buses.

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

The UK government have announced plans today for an all-electric bus town

The government have said that local authorities can apply to become the UK's first all-electric bus town by funding bus companies to enable them to use zero-emission electric buses serving a specific town in Britain.

Extracts from UK government website

Local authorities can now apply to become the UK’s first all-electric bus town, setting the ‘gold-standard’ in environmentally friendly public transport, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced today (6 February 2020).

January 2020 Transport news roundup: New trains for Nexus Tyne and Wear Metro and the rise of electric buses for Europe!

First of all, due to the lack of articles during the last month, I’ve decided to feature most of this months transport news in one article.

Nexus has placed an order for new trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro in North East of England.

Extracts from Nexus

28 January 2020

Nexus today announced a chosen manufacturer for its contract to build new trains for the Tyne and Wear Metro, as part of a £362m investment which will transform performance and passenger experience, deliver huge energy savings and secure and create hundreds of jobs in the UK supply chain.

London bus tender awards for December 2019

 

The new tender awards have revealed one route is set to convert to use zero emission electric single deck buses.

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

London bus tender awards: New hybrids for route 212 and zero emission electric buses for route 444

TfL awards Go-Ahead London with new double deck hybrids and zero emission electric single deck buses for routes 212 and 444. Both of the bus routes serve Chingford Station.

New trains for Greater Anglia and Great Northern

Greater Anglia has announced they are testing their new Class 745 and 755 trains manufactured by Stadler Rail.

From Greater Anglia

Watch out for Greater Anglia’s brand new trains – which are being tested in daylight on more routes in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex from later this month.

Greater Anglia is replacing every single train with brand new state-of-the-art trains which will start to come into service in the middle of this year.

Some brief Transport News updates after my hiatus

Hello to all my readers

First of all, I do apologise for the lack of articles of late which has been due to personal circumstances that have prevented me from writing new articles. I should however be able to maintain my usual output from now on.

So let us have a look at some of the transport news from press releases of the transport authorities and companies.

New Enviro400 Hybrids for Go-Ahead London

Go Ahead-London are now using the new ultra-low emission Enviro400 MMC Hybrids using the ultra-capacitor energy storage to reduce life cycle costs.

From Alexander Dennis

Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) and BAE Systems have delivered the first 39 Enviro400H double-deck buses with Series-E hybrid technology to launch customer Go-Ahead London. Using ultra-capacitor energy storage to further reduce life cycle costs, this next generation hybrid bus has achieved Ultra Low Emission Bus certification with 37% lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional diesel buses.

More Enviro200 MMC’s for Go-Ahead Morebus

Brief bus news update:

Morebus invests £7.2 million for 41 Enviro200 MMC single deck buses.

From Alexander Dennis

Plymouth Citybus launches Contactless payment

As more and more bus companies in Britain are taking on ‘Contactless’ as a way to pay bus fares, Go-Ahead owned Plymouth Citybus has launched contactless payment for their services.

From Route-one

Go-Ahead owned Plymouth Citybus is the latest operator to start accepting contactless payment methods including bPay, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Visa and MasterCard.

London Bus tender awards for the start of November 2017

Routes N550 & N551 will be the next to convert to the E400H City buses

As we are now in November, TfL has announced the London Bus route tender awards for the start of the month.

From LOTS news:

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

Mass retains and one gain for Go Ahead London with the London Bus tender awards

Go Ahead London has succeeded in retaining the London bus routes for this month’s tender awards; they also won one route from Stagecoach Selkent which is route 386.

Go Ahead London owns the subsidiary companies of London General, London Central, Blue Triangle, Metrobus and Docklands Buses.

Go Ahead Group wins Dublin Bus contract but loses West Midlands Rail franchise

Go Ahead has won a contract from Ireland’s National Transport Authority (NTA) to operate 24 bus routes in Dublin but they lost the West Midlands rail franchise.

From National Transport Authority Ireland

Go-Ahead has been selected as the preferred bidder for the contract relating to the operation of 24 Public Service Obligation (PSO) bus routes in the Dublin metropolitan area. NTA has written to Go-Ahead to inform the company of the decision. Go-Ahead is expected to begin operating some of these routes by the end of November 2018 and all routes by February 2019.

Chief Executive of the National Transport Authority Anne Graham said:

UK debut for Euro 6 bendy buses and end of June 2017 transport news roundup

Just to wrap up the end of the month, here’s some transport news relayed from other sites.

First off, Gatwick and Bristol Airports are now operating the new Mercedes-Benz Citaro artic with Euro 6 engines.

From Route-One:

The UK’s first Euro 6 articulated buses are now running, thanks to orders from two airport operators.

Right-hand drive versions of the latest 18m Citaro G model are now in operation at Gatwick and Bristol airports. Internally, they have luggage racks, along with the trademark floor-to-ceiling ‘wardrobe’ on the rear nearside interior, housing the engine bay.

Council owned bus company “Thamesdown” sold to Go Ahead South Coast

Hot off the press:

Swindon Borough Council has sold the municipal bus company Thamesdown Transport to Go Ahead South Coast.

From Swindon 24

Thamesdown Transport Limited has been taken over by a major commercial bus operator after councillors agreed to sell the Council’s shares in the company.