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. 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. Reports for the TLB Editors and communications to Society Officers can be sent by e-mail to "lotsed@tesco.net". TLB covers the operations and vehicles of around 120 companies working local bus services in Greater London and the Home Counties in the region roughly bounded by the old London Transport country-bus operating area. Each issue 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.

Meetings are held monthly (except August) and usually commence at 19:30. Doors open 18:00 with sales stands available from 18:30. Meetings usually finish by 22:00. There is no charge.

Monday 22nd February: Alan G Osborne returns with part 2 of 'London and Beyond 30 years ago', part 1 of which was at the February 2009 meeting.

Monday 22nd March: Colin Stannard illustrates and talks of his long involvement in 'A life with London's Buses', or perhaps sub-titled 'From a tin trolleybus to Tramlink.'

Monday 26th April: Russell Young's fine presentation which had to be deferred from December 2009. 'Around and About in Colourful Britain' over the past couple of years.

Monday 24th May: Michael H C Baker, London Transport in the 1920s.

Later Meetings: Mondays 28June (AGM), 20Sep, 18Oct, 22Nov, 20Dec 2010. (19July for Summer Bus Rides).

Conway Hall is located at Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL.
Nearest Underground station: Holborn (Central and Piccadilly Lines)
Buses: 1, 8, 19, 25, 38, 55, 59, 68, 91, 98, 168, 171, 188, 242, 243 & 521 stop nearby.

The London Bus (TLB)
TLB 545 was posted on 19 January. The closing date for reports for TLB 546 was 5 February and it is due for posting on 16 February.

London Bus Magazine (LBM)
LBM 150, Winter 2009/10 is now available. The main articles are the story of route 150, 2009 A year for anniversaries, London's first minibus routes and fifty years of the M1 motorway as well as the usual Around & About, book reviews and letters pages.

Orders can be sent to LOTS Postal Sales at Unit N305 Westminster Business Square, 1-45 Durham Street, Vauxhall, London SE11 5JH.

From 28th August (all except 312 on 4th Sept). The night 119/250/264 continue as before:

4) Brighton & Hove has acquired four London General artics - MALs, 3, 7, 10 & 16 will become 101-104 with B&H. They are not expected to enter service before March.

1) CT Plus now has two ex London General Tridents (now HTP3/4) on the 388 replacing the two Metroline Tridents which have been returned (as TPL 237/8). All three of uno's ex-LG Tridents are now in uno pink and purple livery and usually to be found on route 601. Further steady deliveries to London in the past week with 'much of the same' but including the first of Metroline's B9TL/Wrights (VW 1034), the first of the batch ultimately for route 237.

2) At Arriva London, plenty more new Wright/DB300 integrals (from batch DW 263-279) have entered service at Clapton. These are replacing DLA371-388 there and some of the latter have already left. Initially at least, some of these have been used at Norwood to allow based VLAs to cover the temporary shortfall in delivery of E400s on route 133. The last few of the batch (T 84-117) have now been delivered and should all be in service during the coming week. The latter vehicles represent the last known outstanding order from London operators of the Trident/ Enviro400 at present.

1) Route 133 was duly taken up by Arriva from 23rd, using T-class AD Trident/E400s (batch to be T 84-117). However, about ten of the batch remain to be delivered so inevitably in the coming week, some other types (VLA and DLA) may appear for a while. For next weekend 30th, all of London United's Scanias (SP 136-164) have been delivered for their takeup of route 10. This will run from Stamford Brook (not Shepherd's Bush, an editorial aberration in TLB545, sorry!). The first 35 (of 50) of East London's Scanias are now in service at Leyton on routes 48 and 56.

2) Several of the 16 Volvo B9TL/Wright buses for Blue Triangle have started to be delivered although not needed until 20th February. They are in red but decorated on the sides with various pastel shades of pale orange/pink/brown in a series of overlapping loops.

3) Although it keeps being suggested that Countryliner's operating companies might be wound up, various measures that have been taken have ensured that operations have been maintained without a break.

1) This week all about the Polish-built Scania OmniCitys. Those that have been used on Metrobus route 119 since last September, finally moved to operate on their intended route the 64 from Monday 11th January, once clearances on the route had been achieved. A small handful of the 35 similar buses that were delivered in November/ December to East London at Leyton had gone into service on route 56 before Christmas, but in the past week lots more have followed with increasing numbers on route 48 as well as the 56. At London United, most (but not all) of the SPs for route 10 from 30th January have arrived in the UK. Meanwhile, the transfers of older SPs to route H91 has still not been completed.

1) Increasing numbers of Scania OmniCitys have now entered service at Leyton, so far only seen on route 56. The 9th January has seen East London take over route 323 from First with new E200s from West Ham, and the double-decking of London United route H91 using early SPs released from Shepherd's Bush. At Metrobus Crawley, more ex-London Scania OmniDekkas transferring in have resulted in just seven Volvo Olympians left in service there. In addition to Centrebus' new Scania/Solars on route C3, Carousel Buses at High Wycombe has added two new MAN/MCV buses to the A30/A40/740 route network.

2) Once again snow has disrupted bus services this week. The most significant disruption has been in country areas around London and many bus companies have been using their own websites to publish up to date information on service levels. Metrobus also has Facebook site and Southdown PSV has recently joined in. Both company's websites (and thus access to Facebook) can be accessed through the links page on our site.

Note that all other events are publicised as a service to the readership, on behalf of organisers; LOTS has no involvement or responsibility for any event noted. We usually confine ourselves to those events with an expected London bus interest or within easy access from the London area. All special operations that may be listed below are subject to vehicle availability on the day and passenger carriage may be at the discretion of the vehicle owners and crews.

Saturday 13th February: Transport Collectors Fair at the Hythe Centre, Thorpe Road, Staines. Open 1030-1530, served by buses 71 and 441. Vintage Bus 441C from Staines Rail Station (every 30mins 1010 to 1510, return from the Centre 1026-1456 then 1535). Also calls at Staines Bus Station stand 3 from 1017.

Saturday 27th February: NLTS Transport Enthusiasts' Bazaar at St Stephen's Church Hall, Park Avenue, Bush Hill Park, Enfield. Open 1100-1530 admission £2 (accompanied under 16s free), approx 40 stalls. The hall is just under one mile south of Enfield Town on bus routes 329 and W8.

Saturday 6th March: Bromley Transport Fair at St George's School, Tylney Road, Bickley (one mile east of Bromley Town Centre), open 1000-1500 admission £1.50, Just off bus routes 162/269 but a free bus service is apparently running to and from Bromley South Station.

Wednesday 17th March: NKVPG's slide and film evening at 8pm at Borough Green Village Hall in the High Street, 5 mins walk from Borough Green rail station and on the 308 bus route.

Sunday 11th April: Cobham Bus Museum's annual Open Day at Redhill Road plus the Spring Gathering at Wisley Airfield. This year's theme is Green Line's 80th anniversary.



	Latest update: 6 February 2010 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. Reports for the TLB Editors and communications to Society Officers can be sent by e-mail to "lotsed@tesco.net". TLB covers the operations and vehicles of around 120 companies working local bus services in Greater London and the Home Counties in the region roughly bounded by the old London Transport country-bus operating area. Each issue 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. Society news Forthcoming Conway Hall meetings Meetings are held monthly (except August) and usually commence at 19:30. Doors open 18:00 with sales stands available from 18:30. Meetings usually finish by 22:00. There is no charge. Monday 22nd February: Alan G Osborne returns with part 2 of 'London and Beyond 30 years ago', part 1 of which was at the February 2009 meeting. Monday 22nd March: Colin Stannard illustrates and talks of his long involvement in 'A life with London's Buses', or perhaps sub-titled 'From a tin trolleybus to Tramlink.' Monday 26th April: Russell Young's fine presentation which had to be deferred from December 2009. 'Around and About in Colourful Britain' over the past couple of years. Monday 24th May: Michael H C Baker, London Transport in the 1920s. Later Meetings: Mondays 28June (AGM), 20Sep, 18Oct, 22Nov, 20Dec 2010. (19July for Summer Bus Rides). Conway Hall is located at Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Nearest Underground station: Holborn (Central and Piccadilly Lines) Buses: 1, 8, 19, 25, 38, 55, 59, 68, 91, 98, 168, 171, 188, 242, 243 & 521 stop nearby. The London Bus (TLB) TLB 545 was posted on 19 January. The closing date for reports for TLB 546 was 5 February and it is due for posting on 16 February. London Bus Magazine (LBM) LBM 150, Winter 2009/10 is now available. The main articles are the story of route 150, 2009 A year for anniversaries, London's first minibus routes and fifty years of the M1 motorway as well as the usual Around & About, book reviews and letters pages. New sales items from LOTS Orders can be sent to LOTS Postal Sales at Unit N305 Westminster Business Square, 1-45 Durham Street, Vauxhall, London SE11 5JH. See the Sales Page for full list of sales items. Forthcoming events are shown after Latest News Advertisements None *Non-members may wish to look at a sample issue of TLB.* *Hopefully this will whet your appetite for joining LOTS!* Latest news Saturday 6 February 1) Latest TfL tender results announced on 5 February: From 28th August (all except 312 on 4th Sept). The night 119/250/264 continue as before: 50, 198, 250 retained by Arriva London South with 'new & existing' double-decks (pvrs 15, 12, 22), the proportion is expected to be 30 new + 19 existing. 119 retained by Metrobus with existing double-decks (pvr 16). 130 retained by Metrobus with existing single-decks (pvr 8). 194, 264 retained by Arriva London South with existing double-decks (pvrs 14, 13) 255 retained by Arriva London South with new single-decks (pvr 9). 312, 410 retained by Arriva London South with existing single-decks (pvrs 6, 19) From 2nd October: 131 retained by London United with existing double-decks (pvr 20). 411/641 from London United and awarded to Quality Line with new single-decks (pvr 7). 2) On 1st February, Hertfordshire CC's tender round was announced, to start from Sunday 28th March (or first following weekday or schoolday as appropriate). This is just a brief summary, fuller route or alteration details should be in March TLB. Other tender offers not mentioned below stay with the existing operators . 200/201/203/205/206/215/312 Uno to Sullivan. SB8/SB9 (Sundays), also 34 and 620 (both Mon-Sat evenings) Uno to Arriva. 5 and 354 (both Sats) Myalls to Centrebus. 391 Herberts to Cozy Coaches; 386 (schoolday jnys) Myalls to Olympian. 20 and 386 (the Non-Thurs and the Sat jnys) Richmonds to Myalls. H1/H3/H4, 308/380 Arriva to Centrebus. 320/323 - These Hoddesdon locals are withdrawn without replacement. 3) Arriva's E400s for Norwood are now all in stock although not quite all are in service, most of Arriva's DWs for Clapton are now running and those for Brixton route 59 are in course of delivery. First's VNs at NP are slowly starting to enter service on route 476 and follow-on orders for routes 58 and 259 should start to arrive in London shortly. Imminent deliveries over the next couple of weeks are due to cover the take-up of six routes in east London involved in changes of operator. These include 13xE200s for Arriva route 325, 10xE200s for East London route 488, 10xE200s for Docklands Buses route 300, 5xScania d/ds for East London route 215, 10xScania d/ds for CTPlus route 212 and 7xSolos for CT Plus route W12. Start date for the 488 is 27th February, the others on 6th March. 4) Brighton & Hove has acquired four London General artics - MALs, 3, 7, 10 & 16 will become 101-104 with B&H. They are not expected to enter service before March. Sunday 31 January 1) CT Plus now has two ex London General Tridents (now HTP3/4) on the 388 replacing the two Metroline Tridents which have been returned (as TPL 237/8). All three of uno's ex-LG Tridents are now in uno pink and purple livery and usually to be found on route 601. Further steady deliveries to London in the past week with 'much of the same' but including the first of Metroline's B9TL/Wrights (VW 1034), the first of the batch ultimately for route 237. 2) At Arriva London, plenty more new Wright/DB300 integrals (from batch DW 263-279) have entered service at Clapton. These are replacing DLA371-388 there and some of the latter have already left. Initially at least, some of these have been used at Norwood to allow based VLAs to cover the temporary shortfall in delivery of E400s on route 133. The last few of the batch (T 84-117) have now been delivered and should all be in service during the coming week. The latter vehicles represent the last known outstanding order from London operators of the Trident/ Enviro400 at present. Sunday 24 January 1) Route 133 was duly taken up by Arriva from 23rd, using T-class AD Trident/E400s (batch to be T 84-117). However, about ten of the batch remain to be delivered so inevitably in the coming week, some other types (VLA and DLA) may appear for a while. For next weekend 30th, all of London United's Scanias (SP 136-164) have been delivered for their takeup of route 10. This will run from Stamford Brook (not Shepherd's Bush, an editorial aberration in TLB545, sorry!). The first 35 (of 50) of East London's Scanias are now in service at Leyton on routes 48 and 56. 2) Several of the 16 Volvo B9TL/Wright buses for Blue Triangle have started to be delivered although not needed until 20th February. They are in red but decorated on the sides with various pastel shades of pale orange/pink/brown in a series of overlapping loops. 3) Although it keeps being suggested that Countryliner's operating companies might be wound up, various measures that have been taken have ensured that operations have been maintained without a break. Friday 22 January The following contract award was announced yesterday: Route 18 re-awarded to First with new double deckers replacing existing articulated buses. PVR increases from 32 to 48. Start date 13 November. Sunday 17 January 1) This week all about the Polish-built Scania OmniCitys. Those that have been used on Metrobus route 119 since last September, finally moved to operate on their intended route the 64 from Monday 11th January, once clearances on the route had been achieved. A small handful of the 35 similar buses that were delivered in November/ December to East London at Leyton had gone into service on route 56 before Christmas, but in the past week lots more have followed with increasing numbers on route 48 as well as the 56. At London United, most (but not all) of the SPs for route 10 from 30th January have arrived in the UK. Meanwhile, the transfers of older SPs to route H91 has still not been completed. Sunday 10 January 1) Increasing numbers of Scania OmniCitys have now entered service at Leyton, so far only seen on route 56. The 9th January has seen East London take over route 323 from First with new E200s from West Ham, and the double-decking of London United route H91 using early SPs released from Shepherd's Bush. At Metrobus Crawley, more ex-London Scania OmniDekkas transferring in have resulted in just seven Volvo Olympians left in service there. In addition to Centrebus' new Scania/Solars on route C3, Carousel Buses at High Wycombe has added two new MAN/MCV buses to the A30/A40/740 route network. 2) Once again snow has disrupted bus services this week. The most significant disruption has been in country areas around London and many bus companies have been using their own websites to publish up to date information on service levels. Metrobus also has Facebook site and Southdown PSV has recently joined in. Both company's websites (and thus access to Facebook) can be accessed through the links page on our site. *See TLB for earlier reports, or join LOTS!* Forthcoming events Note that all other events are publicised as a service to the readership, on behalf of organisers; LOTS has no involvement or responsibility for any event noted. We usually confine ourselves to those events with an expected London bus interest or within easy access from the London area. All special operations that may be listed below are subject to vehicle availability on the day and passenger carriage may be at the discretion of the vehicle owners and crews. Saturday 13th February: Transport Collectors Fair at the Hythe Centre, Thorpe Road, Staines. Open 1030-1530, served by buses 71 and 441. Vintage Bus 441C from Staines Rail Station (every 30mins 1010 to 1510, return from the Centre 1026-1456 then 1535). Also calls at Staines Bus Station stand 3 from 1017. Saturday 27th February: NLTS Transport Enthusiasts' Bazaar at St Stephen's Church Hall, Park Avenue, Bush Hill Park, Enfield. Open 1100-1530 admission £2 (accompanied under 16s free), approx 40 stalls. The hall is just under one mile south of Enfield Town on bus routes 329 and W8. Saturday 6th March: Bromley Transport Fair at St George's School, Tylney Road, Bickley (one mile east of Bromley Town Centre), open 1000-1500 admission £1.50, Just off bus routes 162/269 but a free bus service is apparently running to and from Bromley South Station. Wednesday 17th March: NKVPG's slide and film evening at 8pm at Borough Green Village Hall in the High Street, 5 mins walk from Borough Green rail station and on the 308 bus route. Sunday 11th April: Cobham Bus Museum's annual Open Day at Redhill Road plus the Spring Gathering at Wisley Airfield. This year's theme is Green Line's 80th anniversary. Sunday 25 April: East Grinstead running day Sunday 9 May: Slough running day Sunday 16 May: Sevenoaks running day Sunday 30 May: Aldershot & District running day, Farnham Sunday 6 June: Hertford & Stevenage running day Sunday 13 June: Brighton & Hove 75th Anniversary Sunday 27 June: (revised date) Uxbridge running day Sunday 4 July: North Weald bus rally Sunday 11 July: Gravesend running day Saturday 17 July: Green Line event. Sunday 15 August: Hemel Hempstead running day Sunday 5 September: Leatherhead running day Sunday 26 September: Showbus at Duxford Sunday 3 October: Amersham runnning day