Latest Update:  23 June 2019

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. News updates will usually be weekly, by Sunday evening, but if major stories arise we will attempt to announce them sooner. 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 to 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 davestewart297@gmail.com and it will passed to the correct person.

Note that the TLB Editor has a new address: davestewart297@gmail.com.  

Forthcoming Conway Hall meetings

Doors  open  from 6pm. sales stand from 6.30pm, event begins at 7.30 and is finished by 10pm. There is no charge.  Visitors are welcome, especially from other societies or if you buy something or join as a new member. Meetings are held monthly (except January, July & August) 

Conway Hall is located at Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Nearest Underground station: Holborn (Central and Piccadilly Lines) Buses: 1, 8, 19, 38, 55, 59, 68, 91, 168, 171, 188, 243 & 521 stop nearby.

LOTS Meetings and Events

Society Meetings:   At Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1.   Doors open from 6pm. sales stand from 6.30pm, event begins at 7.30 and is finished by 10pm. There is no charge. Visitors are welcome, especially from other societies or if you buy something or join as a new member.   

The next meeting is on Monday 1 July:  Basically the ‘June meeting’ is a little late due to hall bookings. It is the grand LOTS Annual General Meeting. Note that it will be in the smaller Brockway Room NOT the Great Hall.  With experience from previous years, we shall not be sending out Reports and Accounts with TLB to save a lot of paper and printing.  If any member would like a copy of the Officers’ Reports, you can apply by e-mail to <  LOTSChairman@yahoo.co.uk   >  or by sending an SAE to the South Wimbledon address after 7th June. We hope that we can tie the Accounts availability to the same deadline to avoid two separate ‘application streams’.

Monday 22 July : Our annual free Bus Rides evening departing from Red Lion Square at 7.30 pm. After trips in past year to visit old garage sites in east and south London, this year we go north. No access to Conway Hall.
 
There is no meeting in August. Normal Monday meetings resume on 30 September, then 21 October, 25 November, 16 December.

The London Bus (TLB)

TLB658 was posted on Tuesday 18 June May.  The closing date for reports for TLB 659 is Wednesday 3 July and it is due for posting on Tuesday 16 July.

New and Recent LOTS publications:

Also note that on the ‘membership’  page of this website is a new membership form. When you are due for renewal you should receive one of these, or you can print the one on the website.  Note that at the bottom of  the form that there is a new way of renewing.  It can be paid directly to our bank account and then you must send the MemSec an email to let him know you have done it.

Please address your orders to LOTS Postal Sales, Unit G16 Lombard Business Park. 8 Lombard Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 3TZ. Make sure that the 'Postal Sales' name is included prominently, so we can give the order the best attention. An updated Sales List was included with TLB636. You can use this list to order, or a letter is perfectly acceptable, and so is the Sales List printed off from our website.  In each case, please don’t staple cheques to the form – they really won’t get lost by us but might be when the banks try to process them electronically!
          
LOTS’ latest publications, available now:

LOTS Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2019 (£7.00): Now enhanced with summaries of more operators that cannot fit in the main text and a return of London Dial-a-Ride but still pocket-sized A6.  It includes no fewer than 12,418 vehicles and is now available on sales stand and from Postal Sales.  **new**

LOTS Review 2018 (£12.00), the definitive account of last year, vehicles, routes and the politics of London and also record of changes in the country areas of the Home Counties.  **new**

TLB Extra – Vehicle news of 1953:  (£7.00) (80-pages illustrated).**new*

LOTS LBM187 London Bus Magazine Spring 2019:   (£5.00)  Main articles are A history of Green Line routes 706 & 707',  'On the Fringe' looking at bus services around the border of Central and Country buses prior to LCBS, and Buses and pubs in south London, plus the usual Around & About and letters features.

From Mike Harris, the latest London bus maps:

**NEW** Greater London Bus Map for 15 June 2019 (2) and a Night Bus Map for 15th June 2019 (£4)
From each edition of the series an amount of the price is donated to a charity.  In this case it is to the Firefighters Association.

Also, in the Historical series -
The 1976 Greater London Bus Map, 10th April 1976 - £4.00
The 1952 Greater London Bus Map, 6th July 1952 (Second Edition) - £4.00

TLB Extra – Vehicle news of 1948 to the 1980s:  (£6.50/£7 each year) (80-pages illustrated)
 
See the Publications Page for details of LOTS publications or the Sales Bulletin for our current stocklist.

Latest news 

Sunday 23 June

1) The new  Premium Tours services  (see TLB656 p12) in London using RMLs and ERMs have begun, first sighting on 21^st June.

2) Route 227, always a busy service but single-deck because of  the low bridge at Shortlands, changed operator on 22^nd from Stagecoach Selkent to Go-Ahead Metrobus and with a type change from Citaros to 11.5m StreetLites, the first in London of this length.  Route 51 switched garages from Orpington to Bexleyheath but with the same vehicle types.

3) Abellio has been swapping batches of LTs between Battersea and Walworth garages so as to get a particular batch ready for the change of operator of route 211 next Saturday 29^th from Abellio to London United.  

4) A correction to TLB658:  Arriva SC’s acquired Versas are 4182/3/4 (not 4162/3/4) but a garage allocation of these (and the acquired ex-London E200s) Is still awaited.

Saturday 15 June

1) The 15th June service changes in central London went ahead, with an estimated PVR reduction of about 40.   A late addition to the scheme (adding to TLB657 notes) was a frequency reduction on route 12 and the start of conversion to LTs of Arriva route 67.

2) Last weekend (8th June) Stagecoach London withdrew the last four of the Volvo B5LH/ Geminis (13001-032) at Plumstead and these will now depart the company.  The seven E40Ds (11075-081) went into service during the past week on route 372 from Rainham.  

3) Many more BDE-class BYD/ADL electrics have been delivered to Metroline and parked at Willesden Junction. Then on 13th June the first of the order for 31 Optare MetroDecker electrics - YJ19 HVA (no fleet number so far) - arrived at Potters Bar.

4) At Trustybus the first of its ex-London United  Scania Omnicity double-decks has been completed in the new red and blue colours with ‘Central Connect’ names.  At Brentwood,  Saturday 15th was the last day of Ensignbus on the 21/31/81 local routes, with NIBS taking over from Monday 17th.

For earlier reports refer to TLB or join LOTS!