Transport news roundup for February 2020 – Electric buses for Los Angeles & stylish biogas buses for Bristol

This is a selection of various transport news which occured during the month of February 2020.

First of all, my prediction turned out to be correct in a article I wrote back in November 2019 when Tower Transit won routes 23 and C3; I expected them to use Optare Metrodecker EVs for their new route contracts.

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.

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.

Route X26 awarded back to Metrobus with double deck buses

In this article, I have an exciting news update from LOTS from the recent London Bus tender awards:

Photos of Bendy Buses in London

Taking a trip down memory lane to the decade of the 2000’s, twelve London Bus routes operated with articulated buses. The type of articulated bus was the Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro G artic.

The photographs are taken from Wikimedia Commons.

London Buses route 12

Go Ahead London Central MAL91 BX54UDZ

By oyxman - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2141681

Operated from 06th November 2004 till 05th November 2011

The tale of the 'open boarding buses' (Bendy Bus and New Routemaster)

Same route, same destination, different bus types, different capacity

In this article I'm going to look at the differences between two open boarding buses such as the bendy bus and the New Routemaster.

Brief History of the Bendy Bus

Open Boarding buses officially started with articulated buses on 2^nd June 2002 on Red Arrow Routes 507 and 521. Shortly after, the first main routes to convert fully to articulated buses were routes 436 and 453, early in 2003.

The final route which was converted to articulated buses was route 29, back in early 2006, which makes it the twelfth route. 

Route 453 was the only route to have change operators from Stagecoach London to Go Ahead London with new Citaro buses whilst the remaining number of Stagecoach Citaros moved to Route 25 and various other routes.

As of 2008, there were approximately 416 Mercedes Benz Citario Artics operating on 12 London Bus routes with a total daytime Peak Vehicle Requirement of 356 bendy buses.