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:

BYD D9UR Enviro200 MMC Electric Bus

Back in August 2015, I published an article about Go Ahead purchasing BYD eBuses with the Enviro200 MMC bodywork. I also wrote another one back in September 2016 when they were officially launched on the Red Arrow routes – they entered service though back in late August 2016.

The long wait is finally over, and I finally get to ride that lovely new electric bus with its very futuristic style Enviro200 MMC bodywork.

London Mayor launches the new electric buses on Red Arrow routes 507 & 521

So the launch now officially begins for the Alexander Dennis Envrio200 MMC BYD eBus to enter service on Red Arrow Routes 507 and 521.

From Greater London Authority

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Transport for London (TfL) have announced that the capital will own Europe’s largest fleet of electric buses, as they revealed the first two all-electric bus routes for central London.

The Mayor announced that routes 507 and 521 will exclusively run a 51-strong fleet of all-electric buses by the end of the year, as part of his ambitious campaign for a dramatic improvement in of air quality in the capital. Combined with 22 all-electric buses already running in outer London, it will take the capital’s entire fleet of electric buses up to 73 – the largest in Europe.

New Enviro200 MMC BYD eBuses enter service on Red Arrow routes 507 & 521

Credit to @Ritchhh for the image

This is a short news update.

According to London Vehicle Finder, the all new Enviro200 MMC BYD eBus (fleetcode SEe) has entered service on London Buses Red Arrow routes 507 and 521.

50 years of the Red Arrow bus service

MEC50 repainted to the classic Red Arrow livery.

Am I referring to the Red Arrow service by Trent Barton? No, but there is one in Central London which is still regulated by London Buses today, currently they are routes 507 and 521.

Here is a brief history of the Red Arrow bus service.

The Red Arrow service was first formed in 1966 as part of the Bus Reshaping Plan. Their purpose was to have long single deck buses with a reduction of seats to enable increased passenger standing capacity.

2 New Electric buses for London

Irizar and Go-Ahead, London’s biggest bus operator, have signed an agreement for two Irizar i2e electric buses to be put into operation in London from the end of July.

I am unable to copy the text from the press release from Irizar because the PDF file is from images instead of text, so you can view it here.

From Route One magazine:

By placing electric buses in the UK, Irizar not only shows its “capacity for adapting to the needs of markets and operators” but also “reaffirms its intention of positioning