London Bus Tender Awards: Retentions for First Bus and Stagecoach

In this round of London Bus Tender Awards, Transport for London (TfL) has announced that routes 116 and 117 has been retained by First Bus (London United), and school route 667 has been retained by Stagecoach London, both using existing vehicles.

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

Exploring TfL’s FOI Responses: Modifications to the New Routemaster Buses

Drawing of the New Routemaster

In this article, I will be going through a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests published on the Transport for London (TfL) website regarding modifications to the New Routemaster buses, including changes to doors and windows.

Request ID: FOI-1630-2425
Date published: 10 September 2024

London Bus Tender Awards: Metroline Retains Routes 260 & 302 With Existing Hybrid Double-Deck Buses

Transport for London (TfL) has announced the new London Bus Tender Awards, where routes 260 and 302 are retained by Metroline with existing hybrid double-deck buses.

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

London Bus Tender Awards: Stagecoach Retains Route 388 With Existing Hybrid Buses

Transport for London (TfL) has released the London Bus tender awards for the 11th April 2023.

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

TfL Publishes Average Dwell Times for New Routemasters (All-Door & Open Boarding) To Compare With Other Bus Types in London

It’s been a while since I posted an article on my website and some of my followers on Twitter may have seen my tweets linking to some interesting Freedom of Information requests that I found on the Transport for London (TfL) website.

The FOI requests worthy of an article are the ones concerning the average dwell times for New Routemasters in comparison to other buses on the London Bus network.

What are dwell times?

The definition from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Glossary states: “The period in which a vehicle or train discharges and takes on passengers at a stop, including opening and closing doors and time spent standing.”

Let’s take a look at the Freedom of Information releases published by TfL:

It’s been 10 years since the New Routemaster entered service – from a rear platform bus with conductor, to a three-door, two-staircase hybrid bus

Ten years ago, the Wrightbus New Routemaster (LT2) first entered public service on 27th February 2012, on Route 38.

The New Routemaster (previously named New Bus for London) is a three-door, two-staircase diesel-hybrid bus. It originally had an open platform design with conductor which lasted until September 2016 on routes 9, 10, 11, 24, 38 and 390.

This article features texts from Transport for London (TfL), the Greater London Authority (GLA), and Government and UK Parliament websites about the New Routemaster, including specifications.

Let’s take a look at the press release of the passenger service launch day of the New Routemaster which took place on 27th February 2012.

London Buses Tender Awards: Route 55 to Continue Using Hybrid New Routemasters - Routes 322 & 433 to Use Electric Single Deck Buses

Summary

• Existing hybrid New Routemasters (NRMs) will continue to operate with Stagecoach,
• Routes 322 and 433 will use single deck electric buses with Abellio,
• The rest of the tender awards reveal bus operators will use existing buses for their route contracts,
• BYD & Alexander Dennis jointly announce a new order of 195 electric buses by RATP Dev London.

The recent London Buses tender awards have revealed route 55 will continue to use three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemasters with Stagecoach London.

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

TfL Release Details of The New Routemaster Midlife Refurbishment Project

Summary
• The refurbishment plan will not include a retrofit of USB charging ports for passengers to charge their device.
• There are no current plans to convert NRMs to zero-emission battery electric vehicles.
• TfL said the refurbishment of the entire NRM fleet will take around five years.
• All New Routemasters are now front-door only boarding.

A Freedom of Information request made to Transport for London (TfL) has revealed details of the midlife refurbishment project of the three-door, two-staircase hybrid bus known as the New Routemaster. The NRM was designed by Heatherwick Studio and manufactured by Wrightbus.

London Bus Tender Awards for January 2020, three door buses for Singapore and ADL-BYD announce EV chassis factory for the UK

First of all, Happy New Year to my readers.

We have the first London Bus tender awards of this year. It has announced the three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemasters will prolong operation on route 313 as part of the new contract awarded to Arriva London.

Ireland’s National Transport Authority unveils eye-catching ADL’s Enviro400ER City buses as they order 180 more

More news from Ireland this month; the Republic of Ireland’s governing body National Transport Authority has unveiled the Enviro400ER City vehicles manufacturered by Alexander Dennis and announced an order of 180 more buses.

This follows on from last week when the Northern Irish Department for Infrastructure announced a £66 million order for 100 zero and 45 low emission buses manufactured by Wrightbus - you can read more in my previous article here.

The London Bus Tender awards, an update from Crossrail, the UK Government’s Coronavirus Transport support package & TfL to place staff on furlough

Here’s a brief transport update with regards to the Coronavirus pandemic.

First of all, the new London Bus Tender awards have finally been announced and it seems to be a huge ‘retains’ by various bus operators using existing hybrid double decks and Euro VI single deck buses.

TfL prepares to change New Routemasters to front-boarding only - Plus an update on negotiations with the Bamford Bus Company

We have some news regarding the three-door, two-staircase hybrid bus known as the New Routemaster (NRM).

This is a brief news update as TfL has unveiled plans in a press release to phase out open-boarding on routes serving New Routemaster buses.

From TfL press release

TfL to change New Routemaster boarding on all routes after successful pilot scheme on route 8 and N8

It has been revealed in a Freedom of Information request released by TfL that the aesthetic 3-door, 2-staircase hybrid bus known as the New Routemaster is undergoing changes to the boarding procedure, moving to front door entry only on all the routes served using these vehicles. 

London bus tender awards for mid November 2019 - New Electric double decks for routes 23, 319 & C3

TfL has announced the new London bus tender awards for mid-November 2019; it has revealed three routes will be served with double deck pure electric buses.

Thursday 14 November

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

Route 19 to convert to three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemaster buses

As more London bus routes are restructuring to save costs, the withdrawal of route 48 has enabled another conversion to New Routemaster (NRM) operation.

According to London Bus Routes service changes, route 19 is expected to partially convert to New Routemaster operation on 12th October 2019 as route 48 is withdrawn. Then on 25th April 2020 it is expected route 19 will be fully served with New Routemaster buses from route 67.

Wrightbus has gone in to administration!

I know I haven't been posting for a month, but I have to break this sad news.

Wrightbus, who notably manufactured 1,000 of the three door, two staircase hybrid New Routemaster buses, 6 Volvo B5LH with SRM bodywork and 2 Volvo B5LHC with SRM bodywork has gone in to administration due to cash flow problems which has affected thousands of jobs.

Why the Wrightbus SRM failed and Alexander Dennis’ Enviro400 City is gaining success

This is my essay about the failure of the Wrightbus SRM bodywork and the success of Alexander Dennis’ City bodywork. The purpose of this essay is not to discredit Wrightbus and their SRM design.

Wrightbus and Alexander Dennis developed and manufactured their own New Routemaster spin-offs as part of TfL's challenge to succeed the New Routemaster bus designed by Heatherwick Studios.

The SRM has only been sold in two drivelines which are the Volvo B5LH and B5LHC. Yet other bus operators (in London and elsewhere) haven’t shown much interest using the SRM for their services.

London bus tender awards for mid August 2019 and pure electric double-deck bus for Reading Buses

TfL has recently revealed the new London bus tender awards and Abellio have won nearly all the new contracts.

London bus tender awards for late July 2019

TfL has recently announced new contract awards for their London bus services.

One of the notable routes mentioned is the 25 which TfL awarded the new contract to Stagecoach London.

2019 London Buses fleet list and Big Red Book

Transport for London has released the bus fleet audit report and the London Bus fleet list on their website.

A brief mention from the London Bus Fleet Audit report: