5 years of the Enviro400 City!

It's been five years since bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) unveiled their eye-catching double deck variant, the Enviro400 City!

The body design of the Enviro400 City is based on the New Routemaster (NRM), designed by Heatherwick Studio and manufactured by Wrightbus. Thomas Heatherwick, the founder of Heatherwick Studio, praised the Enviro400 City as a "back-to-front compliment".

TfL confirms route 313 to be served using New Routemasters – Delays to electric bus rollout

I know it’s been a while since I posted a new article on my site but here’s a round-up of the latest London Bus news:

The Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) reduction of New Routemasters (NRM) on London Bus route 38 has led to the conversion of one route.

TfL to push forward their zero-emission bus fleet plan to 2030

I’ve been looking through the board papers on the TfL website, and at the recent papers which were published for the July 29 meeting. I discovered that there are plans to accelerate the zero-emission bus fleet plan, also known as MTS (Mayor Transport Strategy) to 2030 in order to achieve the ambition of making London Transport carbon neutral.

The extracts from the board papers:

Mid-July 2020 Tender awards: London Bus route 69 to be served with double deck electric buses

TfL have recently announced new London Bus tender awards for mid-July 2020.

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

TfL resume New Routemaster conversion to front door only boarding and the launch of Enviro400EV City for West Midlands

The fares for London buses have now been fully restored and TfL mentioned in their press release that they are finishing off converting the three-door, two-staircase hybrid New Routemasters to front-door only boarding.

London Bus Tender Awards for June 2020 and Rear Door Modification for New Routemaster Buses

The new London Bus tender awards have been announced and only three routes will be getting new electric buses; they are routes 184, 484 and 616.

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

Front door boarding reinstated on London Buses

Since the number of Coronavirus cases in the UK are falling and lockdown measures are easing, TfL have drawn up plans to reinstate front door boarding to increase revenue, whilst also imposing limits on the number of passengers using the bus.

Extracts from the TfL press release

Analysis by UCL (University College London) has found that safety improvements made to screens by TfL has made it possible to return to front-door boarding along with collaborative work with UNITE and bus operators

Covid19: TfL start to restore fare payments on London buses (including list of routes)

TfL has recently announced that they are restoring fare payments on London buses as part of the funding and financing package provided by the UK Government to keep London Transport services running.

From TfL Press release

Transport for London (TfL) announced today that it will begin the phased re-introduction of the requirement for passengers to touch in on buses with their contactless, Oyster or concessionary card, starting with routes served by single-door and New Routemaster buses.

From Saturday 23 May, customers on 85 routes, served by more than 1,200 of these buses, will need to touch in on the card reader by the doors as they board.

This is the first step to returning all of London's buses to being able to accept payments once further safety measures have been introduced to protect bus drivers.

The requirement to touch in will follow on more routes over the coming weeks, with announcements and signage in place on bus doors to inform passengers of the requirement.

10 year anniversary of the New Routemaster design – How it has improved bus designs over the years

It has been 10 years since TfL, the London Mayor (now currently Prime Minister) Boris Johnson and Heatherwick Studios unveiled the final design of the most controversial three-door, two-staircase hybrid bus known as the New Routemaster,back in 2010.

We take a look at the press release from TfL when they unveiled the final design of the New Routemaster on 17^th May 2010.

From TfL press release

The final design of the New Bus for London, based on the much-loved Routemaster, was today unveiled by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and London's Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy.

Pioneering design

The bus will use the latest green technology. It will be 15 per cent more fuel efficient than existing hybrid buses, and 40 per cent more efficient than conventional diesel double decks and much quieter on the streets.

Optare and Wrightbus unveil their Hydrogen Bus plan

As Britain and many areas around the world are still under lockdown and bus manufacturers have their production on hold (except for essential spare parts), Optare and Wrightbus have unveiled their plan to rollout a fleet of hydrogen buses for Britain and Ireland.