Latest Update:  27 February 2021

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. 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.

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.

LOTS meetings and events

Conway Hall meetings

Due to the continuing pandemic all LOTS meetings are CANCELLED until further notice

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, 188, 243 & 521 stop nearby. 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. In normal times, meetings are held monthly (except January, July & August).

The London Bus (TLB)

TLB677 was despatched on Tuesday 19 January. The closing date for TLB 678 was Wednesday 3 February and it is due for posting on Tuesday 16 February. The closing date for TLB 679 is Wednesday 3 March.

New and Recent LOTS publications:

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.

Please address your orders to LOTS Postal Sales, Unit G16 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 the order the best attention. An updated Sales List was included with TLB670. 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:

NEW LOTS SUP-39B TfL Bus Operators Fleet Allocations and PVRs (£4.50) 

NEW LOTS LBM194 Winter 2020/21 London Bus Magazine (£5) The main article is 'A return to Hammersmith please - a history of London bus routes 110 & 111 by Colin Stannard and Peter Bradley. Also, 'A modern London enthusiast' by Matthew Wharmby, mainly a photographic item covering the years 1983-1989 but including some photos of 1991. Plus 'Rail Air Links to Feltham Station' by Philip Wallis.

LOTS LBM193 London Bus Magazine Autumn 2020: (£5.00)  Main articles are 'In Memory of via points' by Colin Fradd with 57 pictures; reminiscences of bus, tram and trolleybus routes serving Clerkenwell in the early 1950s by Nigel Davis, plus 'All change at the London Bus Museum'.

LOTS London Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2020. The 32nd edition of our 128-page pocket size Fleetbook,  updated to June 2020. Orders can be taken by Postal Sales ( £7.00 post free to members, add +15% for postage to UK non-members  or +30% for all overseas orders.   

TLB EXTRA 1955 is now available, same prices as Fleetbook.  An updated full sales list can be printed out by going to the ‘Sales’ tab on this website. Extra 1954 and Extra 1953  (£7.00 each) also recent issues.

LOTS Review 2019 (£13.00) As ever, this is the original and definitive story of buses in London and the country areas during the last year, fully illustrated with informative captions.

LOTS SUP-39A: (£4.50)   This 56-page booklet encompasses the TfL operators’ fleet and garage allocations from SUP36 and a simplified PVR table from SUP37.  Some features are dropped from 36 (eg. Fleets of non-TfL operators – see Fleetbook and occasional features in TLB) while items like LSP operations from 37 are dropped. The PVR tables are now in route order. It also removes much of the duplication of vehicle type codes, garage codes, and which bit of each group runs what. Current at September 2019

LOTS SUP-24I: (£4.50)   The latest LT Service Vehicles Current fleet. Current at September 2019

TLB Extra – Vehicle news of 1948 to the 1980s:  (£6.50/£7 each year) (80-pages illustrated)

Sales List in TLB670:  Please note on page 2 that Capital Transport books attributed to Mick Webber are incorrect.  ‘London’s 70s Buses’ is by

Matt Wharmby and ‘London’s Country Buses’ is by Kevin McCormack.

From the Sales List, the following are now out of print:

LOTS  TLB Extra 1973.

Grey-Green and Contemporaries (1961 to Arriva years)

(SEC, John Allpress’s) The three Routes Handbooks for 2019 -  Brighton & Hove Buses; First Hampshire & Dorset and Stagecoach South

Recent items from other publishers: 

Young Routemasters (James Whiting) £16.95. A photograph and caption book covering each route conversion to Routemasters 1956 to 1965

London's Disused Railway Stations - Inner South East London (CT) £22

Wires above South East London (Robert Harley) £25

A London trolleybus reborn Q1 1812 (Dave Chick) £25

Vehicle History File - London DMS (Wooleybus) £22.50

Valliant Years (coaches in W & NW London) (£50)

London Country Vehicle Memories by Julian Bowden & Michael Dryhurst  £16.00 Bowden Publishing  (A4 format)

The London Feltham Tram The Evolution of a Classic Tramcar Design by Peter Waller £25.00 Pen & Sword Books

Croydon Tramlink A Definitive History by Gareth David £30.00 Pen & Sword Books

SEC’s 2020 Update to its 2019 Fleet List and Sussex Independents books, 32pp (£2.50).

Trolleybuses in East Central London. Published by Adam Gordon £30.00. 184 pages –details on ahgbooks.com website.

Wires above South East London.  (Robert Harley) £25.00 Heathfield Publishing (part of Capital Transport – more details on C/Ts website)

Regional Tramways: London Transport  (Waller) £25.00 Pen & Sword   (includes history, DLR and Croydon Tramlink)

From Mike Harris, the latest London bus maps:

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

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

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.

Latest news 

Saturday 27 February

1) Stagecoach London has repainted E400H No.12345 into a red&cream special livery and named ‘Selkent Ambassador’.  It is to commemorate 40 years since Plumstead (PD) Garage opened on 31 October 1981 when it replaced the old Plumstead (AM) and Abbey Wood (AW) Garages. It is the third to bear this livery and name after Olympian L136 in 1990 and E40D 10136 in 2014.   

2) The introduction of more electric buses in London continues to be bedevilled by lengthy delivery details. However, delivery has recently speeded up of Stagecoach E400EVs for Barking route 173 and they should enter service imminently, most likely on Monday 1^st March. (check LVF for actuals!).

3) As to the first 21-plate buses in our area,  Ensignbus has bought seven StreetDecks (Nos 161-167) from a cancelled Arriva Yorkshire order. Licensed from 1^st March with 21-plates, the intention is to have at least a couple out on the first day.   Talking of 21-plates, there are bound to be some soon on London buses with booked 70-plates that are still awaiting delivery.   

4) The retraction of Centrebus in Hertfordshire continues and, after already losing the 390 to Richmonds and H1/H3/H4 to Central Connect, from 12^th April routes 308/380, 333, 378/379, M1-5 will go to Central Connect, 18 to Richmonds, SB10 in Stevenage to A2B Buses and the Hatfield area shoppers routes (215etc) to Chiltern Automotive.  These signal the removal of Centrebus from the Hertford area.  

5) A reminder that the Greater London LEZ starts on Monday 1^st March, all buses and coaches (other than ‘historic exemptions’) must meet Euro=VI emissions standard.  Arriva route 477 (Bluewater & Orpington) being the very last to have its stock replaced. 

6)  Following the Government decision to re-open all schools from 8^th March, it is intended that at least most of the suspended 6** routes and ‘V’ route extras would be reinstated.

Sunday 21 February

1) After nearly two months, delivery to Tower Transit of Optare MetroDeckers has at last resumed,  Meanwhile, still no entry into service yet of Stagecoach E400EVs at Barking nor of the Metroline HFC StreetDecks. 

2) The  swaps of buses at Arriva Southern Counties are nearly completed.  E200(MMC)s have gone from Kent to Harlow, Citaros off the 724 from Harlow to Guildford for bus work and elderly E200s from Guildford to Kent – initially at Maidstone.   Also E200(MMCs) from Gillingham to Northfleet for route 477.  Stagecoach at Guildford has started to move E200(MMC)s in for route 715 to replace non-LEZ compliant Enviro300s.  

3) During the past week, Rotala’s Hallmark Connections has been re-named Diamond Bus, thus agreeing with the company’s other operations in the West Midlands and in the North West.  The two-tone blue livery of Diamond Bus has started to appear in the Stanwell-based fleet.  The London LEZ will mean that the large fleet of 2008-vintage E200s are non-compliant and they should be replaced by StreetLites. 

4) Drivers at RATP are due to  strike for varying periods in the coming week 21/22/23 February.

Saturday 13 February

1) As at this weekend, 50 TfL routes have had new Mon-Fri schedules for reduced running time and many more should follow in coming weeks with lots more non-schoolday schedules adopted too.  In the country areas every operator has made service cuts over recent months, some of them quite severe although some places are better serviced than others.   It is quite common for Saturday services to be reduced greatly and with some suspended altogether.    

2) New vehicle deliveries to London have been minimal with plenty outstanding.  As at today, Stagecoach Barking route173 remains to start conversion to E400EVs but Go-Ahead are now just two short of its 21 E200EVs for route 184.   Metroline now has just four of its StreetDeck FCEVs and they are now starting to appear out on training.

Monday 8th February

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

* Certain journeys will be operated by Euro VI hybrid double decks.

** One vehicle is double deck.

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

The above contracts will commence on the following dates:

8th January 2022: Route 235.

22nd January 2022: Route 696.

29th January 2022: Routes 125 & 234.

5th February 2022: Routes 298 & W9.

26th February 2022: Route 488.