Society news

This page gives up-to-date major news items to supplement our monthly newsletter, •The London Bus• (TLB). Items noted here will be incorporated in the next issue of TLB in greater detail. Reports more than a month old and already reported in TLB are deleted. Each issue of TLB is typically 40 pages containing references to around 300 routes and 1000 vehicles, together with the business and political news, the publicity output of the companies, forthcoming exhibitions and rallies, and much more. To get the full picture, why not join now? Go to the Membership Page for details.

If you need to contact us with anything to do with membership, subscriptions to TLB or LBM and queries over postal sales, email lotsmemsec@gmail.com and it will be passed to the correct person. Reports for TLB/LBM or queries to other society officers can go via the TLB Editor lotstlbeditor@gmail.com and it will be passed to the correct person.

For queries about Postal Sales, please email lotspostalsales@gmail.com. This E mail address may also be used for ordering from Postal Sales if wishing to pay by direct debit bank transfer - for details see Page 1 of the Sales Bulletin.

Meetings

We meet at The Gallery at Alan Baxter, 77 Cowcross Street, Farringdon. A three minute walk from Farringdon Station (Met/Circle/H&C lines, Elizabeth line and Thameslink). Exit from Farringdon station (Met side), turn east and go up Cowcross Street until you reach the Leon restaurant. Opposite there is a passageway, cross the cobbled courtyard to the far right corner and go down the stairs to the basement meeting room known as 'The Gallery'. We would advise that you do not drive to the venue, parking space is rare and charges apply for 24 hours. There are several coffee shops and a Wetherspoons on Farringdon Road.

Doors open at 6pm, meetings start at 6.30pm and finish at 8pm, then Q&As and sales stand but all out by 9pm when the venue is locked.

Next meeting:
9 February: "Confessions of a Bus Spotter." A presentation by Kim Rennie looking back over 50 years.

The London Bus (TLB)

New and recent LOTS publications

For queries about Postal Sales, please email lotspostalsales@gmail.com. This email address may also be used for ordering from Postal Sales if wishing to pay by direct debit bank transfer - for details see Page 1 of the Sales list.

Please address your orders to LOTS Postal Sales, Lombard Business Park, 8 Lombard Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 3TZ. Orders are processed weekly. Make sure that the 'Postal Sales' name is included prominently, so we can give your order our best attention. You can use the Sales List printed off from this website this list to order, or a letter is perfectly acceptable. In either case, please don’t staple cheques to the form.

NEW London Bus Review 2024 – Greater London & Beyond (£18.50).
This title has been confirmed as being delivered from the printers and is now available for purchase.

London Bus Magazine No 213, Autumn 2025)  (£6.00).
Including articles on London Transport Blind Design and Merlins in Ulster.

SUP-45C London Bus Garages Allocation and Routes (£6.50).
List of all London bus garages with route and bus allocations as at 1 September 2025. 60 pages with 8 colour photos.

SUP-46A London Transport Trolleybuses - Allocations and Disposals 1948-1962 (free digital download). Allocation histories and disposals for all LT trolleybuses. 102 pages.

SUP-47A London’s Advert Buses 1969-2024 (£8.00).
All known all-over advert buses in the London area (not London Country). Over 1000 buses and over 4000 adverts listed, with dates. 76 pages, 18 colour photos.
View sample pages.

SUP-48A Country Area Bus Route Directory - Part 1: North and East (£7.50).
SUP-49A Country Area Bus Route Directory - Part 2: South and West (£7.50).
SUPs 48A and 49A together list all bus routes in our 'country' area, showing the main points served, the operator/s, days/times of operation and basic frequencies. There is also an overview of each of the operators covered. Correct to 1st September. A5, 52 pages (part 1) or 60 pages (part 2), each 8 colour photos.

See the Publications page for details of LOTS publications or the Sales Bulletin on the Sales page for our current stocklist.

Vacancies

LOTS requires a new sub-editor (or perhaps two) to cover the Current Vehicle News section in TLB. Please e-mail lotstlbeditor@gmail.com if you think you may be interested in helping out.

Non-members may wish to look at a sample issue of TLB.
Hopefully this will whet your appetite for joining LOTS!

Industry and general news

Major news items to supplement our monthly newsletter:

Some late TfL route news that did not make it into the December TLB is that new night route N118 will start on 16th January, while new Superloop route SL11 (replacing the day element of route 472) will start on 24th January, with the night element renumbered to N472.

Thursday 18 December

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

New electric vehicles may enter service after the contract start date, dependent on infrastructure and/ or vehicle delivery timescales.

The hybrid vehicles detailed above will meet Euro VI emissions standards. 

The start and end dates for the above contracts are detailed in the following table:

1. Uno took over route 292 (from Metroline) on 6th December. New electric buses were specified but, to start with, the route has seen a pair of ex-demonstrator BYD B11E02s, 3 or 4 5-year old BYD/ADL E400EVs loaned from Stagecoach London, some of the diesel E400s recently acquired from First Bus London plus various existing fleet double-deckers.

2. Arriva has started taking delivery of the large batch of BYD B11E02s for Croydon routes (ED79-145), and the first few have already been put in service, mainly on route 466.

3. Arriva has also taken their first EZ-class Volvo BZL/MCV double-deckers. 72 are on order for Tottenham routes 41, 243 and 341.

4. Metroline has started putting the batch of WDE-class StreetDeck Electroliners ordered for Potters Bar route 263 (WDE3211-3232) into service. They are working the 263 but also on the 317.

5. Go-Ahead London has been receiving Wrightbus GB Kite Electroliners single-deckers ordered for route 444 (SEL40-53), although none are in use yet. However, one-off SEL54 ordered for a PVR increase on Merton route 219 entered service on 8th December.

6. Go-Ahead London now has 40 DEL-class StreetDeck Electroliners in service at Bexleyheath, which should complete the allocations to routes 99, 269 and 401. Buses DEL60-99 were ordered for these routes, but in reality other buses numbered between DEL30 and DEL133 are those used.

7. Following the fire on Metrobus Hydroliner 6069 in Crawley on 2nd December, all of the operator's hydrogen buses were withdrawn from service as a precaution. Various provincial buses have been drafted in to provide cover, and these will be detailed in the January TLB.

8. Route 283 (East Acton and Hammersmith) was withdrawn on 13th December, replaced by a re-routing of route 72. There are no further TfL route changes planned for the last two weekends of the year.

9. Carousel Buses will be operating services in Buckinghamshire on Christmas Day for the first time. They will also run a service on TfL 111 between Heathrow Airport and Hounslow.

10. FirstGroup has completed the acquisition of Tootbus' UK operations with its depots in Wandsworth and Keynsham.

Coming events

8 February 2026
70th anniversary of RM1 entering service. Roadrun for RMs and invited vehicles from the Ace Café via Golder's Green over Route 2 to Crystal Palace.

A national event list can be found here.