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 and Events

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).

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.

*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.

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.

London Bus Magazine No 212, Summer 2025)  (£6.00).
Including articles on colourful contracts and leisure bus services.

SUP-24K London Transport Service Vehicles (£6.00).
Updated to 7th March 2025, listing all the cars, vans and lorries used by TfL, LUL, LBSL and the bus companies.

SUP-39E TfL’s Bus Operators - Fleet Allocations and PVRs (£6.00).
Updated to 7th March 2025, this lists the fleets of all TfL bus operators (in fleetnumber order), followed by a list of all TfL routes showing the garages, types and PVRs.

SUP-45B London Bus Garages Allocation and Routes (£6.00).
List of all London bus garages with route and bus allocations as at August 2024. 60 pages with 8 colour photos. View sample pages.

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.

London Bus Review 2022 Greater London and Beyond (£17.00).
A4 glossy, 80 pages, 135 colour photographs with extensive captions. This is the ORIGINAL annual Review made with about 50 years’ experience.

LOTS London Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2025 (£9.00). The usual 128 pages packed with information and updated to 7th March 2025.

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:

Wednesday 30 July

1. The first of Arriva London's large order for BYD B11 electric double-deckers to be put into service was ED69 on route SL5 (TC) on 29th July. This starts the conversion of the only Superloop route to use single-deckers.

2. Stagecoach has taken Switch Metrocity electrics 67001-67012 off service due to technical issues. Their duties on route 339 (LI) are being covered by diesel E200s and electric Volvo/MCVs, the latter including some of the batch intended for route 314.

3. Following their use on Wimbledon tennis services, the six Go-Ahead DEL StreetDeck Electroliners at Merton (AL) have been put to use on route 200 and temporary route 700. The E-class Enviro 400s that had recently moved to AL have been taken off service.

4. All-red Stagecoach E400EV 80419 has been making regular appearances on Superloop route SL3 (TB), now that school route 638 has finished for the summer. Also still active on the SL3 are the last two LTs at Bromley (LT125 and LT129).

5. Metroline has converted route 268 (W) to electric operation using WSE GB Kites, while route C11 (HT) remains mainly diesel-operated.

6. Go-Coach E400 9001 has been repainted from 1970s LCBS green to 1980s KentishBus cream and maroon.

7. Go-Ahead has put one more SEL-class GB Kite into service, this time on route 355 (Q).

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

Route	Current Operator	New Operator	PVR	Vehicles
43 (24h)	Metroline	Metroline	26	Existing electric double deck
112	Metroline	Metroline	TBC	Existing diesel single deck
134 (24h)	Metroline	Metroline	20	Existing electric double deck
232	London General	London General	17	Existing diesel single deck
317	Metroline	Metroline	5	Existing electric double deck
452	London Transit	London Transit	TBC	Existing electric double deck
SL2	Arriva London North	Arriva London North	15	New electric double deck

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

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

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

Friday 18 July

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

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

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

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

Thursday 17 July

1. Arriva London route 196 (N) has started conversion to EE-class Enviro400EV electrics, with EE14 and EE15 the first out on 15th July.

2. Stagecoach London route 314 (TB) has started conversion to Volvo BZL/MCV electric single-deckers, using the batch 66045-66063.

3. Stagecoach London Enviro400EV 80419 (from the batch ordered for route 287 at Rainham) has been sent to Bromley (TB) and put into service on school route 638.

4. Metroline's WSE-class single-deckers have started making odd appearances on routes 234 (HT) and 268 (W).

5. Metroline route 98 (AC) has gained another three new WDEs (3115, 3117 and 3120, from the batch ordered for Brentford route E8). The 98 should eventually get new BYDs BDE3050-3073.

6. Temporary route 700 (AL) started on 14th July, serving the Phipps Bridge Estate until 12th September (while route 200 is on diversion). Just one bus is required, with new Go-Ahead London Electroliners DEL21 and DEL31 used so far.

Wednesday 9 July

1. The shuttle services for the Wimbledon Tennis are being operated by Go-Ahead London (as usual) using a mixture of brand-new DEL-class StreetDeck Electroliners and some elderly E-class Enviro 400s transferred in from BX.

2. Other Es from BX have been put into use on route 200 from Merton (AL), restoring the type to that garage. This is believed to be a temporary measure due to problems with the charging of the Me-class Optare Metrodeckers.

3. Metroline route 210 at Cricklewood (W) has started conversion to new BDE double-deckers (the all-BYD variant), with BDE3027-3030 in use plus BDE3016 transferred from Willesden Junction (WJ), where it has been replaced by BDE2985.

4. New ED-class BYDs for Arriva London are arriving, with those for Superloop routes SL1 (AD) and SL5 (TC) likely to be the first to be put into service. Also delivered are all of the EE-class E400EVs for route 196, most of which are in store at Dartford (DT) for now.

5. Transport UK started putting electric buses out on route 270 towards the end of June, although several from the batch 3116-3132 are being used temporarily at Battersea (QB) and Twickenham (TF).

6. Over the last few days there have been some issues with TfL's live bus datafeeds. LVF (and other sites) are not showing all buses working on some routes. For some reason, this seems to be mainly affecting routes operated by New Routemasters.

Coming events

These are publicised as a service to the readership. LOTS has neither any involvement nor responsibility for any event listed. Some events have admission fees. Please check before attending if costs are a concern. We usually confine this listing to events with an expected London bus interest or are within easy reach of London.
(LSS) = LOTS' Sales Stand expected to attend.

10 August
Tenterden Bus Rally and Running Day.

16 August
Imberbus.

23 August
Swanley 100 Event. Garage open day and bus rally at West Kingsdown with connecting bus service celebrating 100 years of Swanley (SJ) Garage. Initial details. (LSS)

31 August
Sudbury Bus Rally.

6 September
Open Day at Metrobus' Crawley Depot.

7 September
Epping - Ongar bus running day.

7 September
Bus Rally at New Romney.

1 November
Aldenham Transport Spectacular, Allum Hall, 2 Allum Lane, Elstree & Borehamwood, WD6 3PJ. Open 10.00 - 16.00hrs. Information: www.facebook.com/aldenhamtransportspectacular. (LSS)

A national event list can be found here.