Class 717’s for Great Northern, Enviro400H City buses for Route 20 and London Bus Tender awards

The Class 717’s have finally entered service on National Rail’s Great Northern routes serving the Moorgate branch.

Extract from Govia

For the first time in 40 years, passengers are riding on new trains in the tunnels to London Moorgate, as Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) begins to replace mainland Britain’s oldest electric rail fleet.

In a £240 million investment, 150 new carriages are being introduced between now and late summer, to replace trains that first entered service in 1976.

2019 Green Bus Fund and London Bus tender awards

The UK government have announced £48 million of funding for transport authorities and bus companies to purchase ultra low emission buses.

From Gov UK

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.

New Routemasters set to move from Route 88 to 87

First of all, late as it, I would like to wish all of my readers a very Happy New and once again, I do apologise for the lack of articles for January.

As part of the consultation changes for London bus routes C2 and 88, the entire route C2 will be withdrawn and route 88 will be re-routed to cover the old route C2.

From TfL consultations

Following our consultation, we have identified the appropriate steps to address the key concerns raised during the consultation.

Merry Christmas to my readership

A very Merry Christmas to all of you.

First of all, I have to apologise for the lack of new articles on this site over the last few months - this is due to personal circumstances.

This year has been an interesting one in the transport scene as we saw the opening of the new London Bridge railway station in January ; The last ever New Routemaster bus (LT1000) appearing on Route 267 in February; The announcement for new double deck electric buses for London Bus routes 43 and 134 which is expected to launch in 2019; The Volvo B5LHC with Wright SRM bodywork appearing on route 37 in August; And in September, there was a launch for the new Glider Bus Rapid Transit service for Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Enviro400H City buses to serve London Bus route 20 and the new Enviro400XLB

In the New Year, Route 20 which serves from Debden to Walthamstow via Woodford Green will be served with Enviro400H City buses manufactured by Alexander Dennis.

The new buses will be operated by CT Plus under a new contract which is expected to start on 23^rd March 2019. Then in May 2019, the zero emission Enviro400EV City is expected to serve route 43, operated by Metroline.

London Bus Route 10 to be withdrawn - New Routemasters to serve route 27

On 24^th November, there will be major changes to the bus services in Central London.

I’ve noticed that route 10 will be withdrawn and the New Routemasters will be serving route 27.

Solar panelled buses for Hong Kong, New buses for Berlin – Transport news roundup for October 2018

Hey there readers

I know it’s been a while since I posted an article on my website – that’s because I decided to wait and make a ‘roundup’ article of selected transport news.

So let’s start with an update on Crossrail:

Open Top Electric Bus and London Bus tender awards

The Original Tour has recently unveiled their open top electric bus for their Central London sightseeing services.

Excerpts from The Original Tour news

11th October 2018, London – Early-rising tourists were given a sightseeing surprise this morning when The Original Tour unveiled London’s first ever 100% electric hop-on hop-off open-top bus outside Westminster Abbey, offering city-trippers a carbon-free carbon copy of the firm’s famous tours in a move welcomed by London’s Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy.

Consultation to amend Central London bus routes

TfL has opened up a consultation to review and amend the Central London bus routes.

From the TfL consultation:

We are proposing to make changes to 33 bus routes, including alterations to night services and the introduction of a new route. These routes run across London, but the majority of changes take place in inner and central London.