TfL’s Green Bond, so more New Routemasters?

Taking a look at the 1^st July TFL’s Commissioner’s report, I can reveal that TFL has issued a £400 million ‘Green Bond’ fund on 17^th April 2015.

From the 1st July 2015 Commissioners report

Green Bond

On 17 April we successfully issued a £400m Green Bond for 10 years following a series of meetings with investors. The proceeds of the Green Bond will be allocated to projects from five different programmes with various environmental benefits, such as reduced carbon emissions, improved air quality, noise mitigation and others. The project categories include capacity improvements and station upgrades on Rail and Underground, New Routemaster buses

Alexander Dennis and BYD build electric buses for London Buses routes 507 & 521

The front design looks familiar....

Go Ahead London buys 51 all-electric single deck buses manufactured by Alexander Dennis and BYD at a cost of £19 million.

Press release from BYD and Alexander Dennis

BYD and ADL partner to supply Go-Ahead London with capital's first, pure electric bus fleet

Bus operator Uno operates London Buses Route 383

Since Uno operate bus services that go across the Greater London Boundary in North London, they need a ‘London Service Permit’ which is needed in order to operate routes in North London.

New Trains for London Overground

Sorry I haven’t posted for a short while. I have found some news though about the new rolling stock trains for the London Overground services. This is a follow up to my previous article.

From Global Rail News

Bombardier has released the first image of the new Aventra train it is building for London Overground.

Transport for London (TfL) awarded Bombardier a £260 million contract for 45 new four-car EMUs to replace the Class 315 and Class 317 trains TfL inherited when it took over some of the West Anglia Main Line services out of Liverpool Street.

The contract included a 35-year maintenance agreement, taking

London Buses routes 507 & 521 to be fully served with electric buses. (at last!)

Yes, more of these are coming.

TFL have issued a new press release about the Red Arrow bus routes 507 & 521, announcing that they're to have electric buses from the autumn next year.

Here is the press release:

Transport for London (TfL) has today (Wednesday 15 July) announced that two further bus routes, the 507 and 521, will operate entirely with electric buses from autumn next year, lowering carbon emissions and helping to improve London's air quality.

Reading Buses to trial the New Routemaster

Just another New Routemaster article...

Reading Buses is to trial two New Routemaster buses for their purple route 17 which goes from Tilehurst to Earley.

Local newspaper 'Get Reading' reports:

One of Reading's purple buses will be replaced with a London bus as part of a two-week trial.

Tube Strike on Wednesday 8th July evening by RMT, ASLEF, Unite & TSSA

I have just received news that London Underground workers who are members of the Unions RMT, ASLEF, Unite & TSSA will be going on strike on the evening of Wednesday 8^th July, and throughout the day on Thursday 9^th July.

TFL have posted the following on their website:

RMT, Unite and TSSA members are planning 24-hour strike action on the Tube from 18:30 on Wednesday 8 July. ASLEF drivers are also planning 24-hour strike action on the Tube from 21:30 on Wednesday 8 July. DLR, London Overground and TfL Rail staff are not on strike.

Update about the hybrid buses for London

This is a follow up to one of my previous articles  in which I briefly touched on the hybrid buses.

I have looked at London Bus Routes service changes again and they have updated the list which shows there will be more new hybrid buses for various routes in London.

Update for the electric buses for London for routes 16, 69, 312 507 & 521

On 4^th July 2015, LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society) updated their news page regarding the electric buses for London.

They said:

Specs for the new BYD Double Deck Electric Bus compared to the New Routemaster

Design of the eBus is taken from the specification file.

This is another 'follow up' to my previous article. The previous article became very popular due to the images of the real double deck electric bus that I found.

BYD has unveiled the specifications for their double deck electric bus. In the table below you can see the comparison to the New Routemaster, which is hybrid diesel electric.