Latest Update:  15 January 2022

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

There is no meeting in January. The next meeting is on Monday 21st February 2022 where Andy Corbett, Commercial Delivery Director of RATP will do a presentation about RATP DEV TRANSIT LONDON. Further meetings in 2022 will be in May, September and November.

Conway Hall is located at Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. We are in the Great Hall unless otherwise stated. Conway Hall authorities currently request that visitors are encouraged to wear face masks and that those feeling that they have Covid symptoms are asked not to attend.

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 7.30pm 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)

TLB 688 was posted on Tuesday 14 December. The closing date for reports for TLB 689 was 5 January and it is due for posting on Tuesday 18th January 2022. The closing date for reports for TLB 690 is 2 February.

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 London Bus Magazine 198 Winter 2021 (£5.00) Main features are Volvo Double Deckers in London by Malc McDonald,

Streatham Buses in the 1060s by Ian King and trolleybus route 667 Bank Holiday workings by Hugh Taylor.

LOTS London Bus Magazine LBM 197 Autumn 2021. Main items are 'The last years of step entrance buses Part 2 which

focuses on non-TfL and Country area operations and 'an imaginary journey by tram 90 years ago. (£5.00)

LOTS London Bus Magazine 196, Summer 2021. Main items are, Step entrance buses in and around London Part 1, a Woodford

walk about in 2020 and The Last Regular Routemaster operation.

LOTS London Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2021:   Updated to TLB681.   (£7.00).

TLB Extra 1956  The last of the series although there is a difference. 1956 was a fairly slack year for vehicle changes so this

book has been expanded from 60 to 80 pages to include a summary of all the updates to all the other issues 1948 to 1955 and

1957-1984. Fully illustrated in B&W but with original 1956 colour cover pictures. (£7.00).   

 LOTS Review 2020:  An A4-size 80-page book detailing all the London region events of last year, with over 100 colour pictures.  £13.00. 

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

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-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 15 January

1) A dozen of Abellio’s new E400EVs are now in available for use on route 63.  

2) The Optare  MetroCity-EV is at last in service on route PB1 at Potters Bar

Sunday 9 January

1) This weekend 8th  January saw route 235 pass frim Metroline to RATP.  There was a complex round of compensating transfers involving several garages (Harrow, Edgware, Hounslow, Fulwell) occurred so as to get enough DLEs at Hounslow Heath for the 235.

2) From next Saturday 15th  more frequency reductions on routes 15 and 72 – with plenty more to come in later weeks.  Also  route 733  will begin to cover the closure of part of the City branch of the Northern line.  Tower Transit VHs (now all back from loan to Stagecoach)  will ply between Moorgate and Oval.    

Sunday 2 January

1) TfL has confirmed the Government funding agreement due to expire on 11 December has been extended to 4 February. Transport Commissioner Andy Byford said "there is no UK recovery from the pandemic without a London recovery and there is no London recovery without a properly funded transport network in the Capital.

2) More new electric buses entering service include all of the RATP  BMEs on the H9/H10 and 398 at Harrow, the last of the Stagecoach E400EVs on the 180 and more Abellio E400EVs on the 63 – although in the case of the 63 their electrics were stood down over Christmas.  

Monday 20 December

1) The closure of Arriva’s Guildford Garage duly occurred on 17/18th December and the vehicles are being re-allocated.  Most Versas are due for Southend , E200s for Colchester and Citaros for High Wycombe with other garages (e.g. Ware) taking others. As you will know the routes are now mostly with Stagecoach South but Falcon and Safeguard have others. However, after just two days, from Monday 20th Stagecoach changed timetables with Saturday schedules on Mon-Fris adopted on several  routes. This was due to driver shortage.  Not only that from on 2nd January all their new routes will see frequency reductions, some quite severe.  They have put out a notice about the shortage, mentioning that few ex-Arriva drivers have come their way!

Saturday 11 December

1) TfL has issued an update indicating that the Government funding arrangements due to expire today, 11 December will continue until 17 December while discussions continue.

2) The new London Transit operation at Westbourne Park Garage from 11 December is known as ‘RATP Dev Transit London‘ with a new logo although it will be several days for the new names to be applied.

3) Stagecoach at Catford has all 15 of its  E400EVs allocation (14148-162) in service on routes 160/660 and in consequence 13 of the loaned VHs have returned to Tower Transit, albeit to store until needed again.  A few remain with Stagecoach (but working at Catford) until the Plumstead allocation of E400EVs can enter service. 

4) There still remains an issue over power supplies to RATP Harrow and Fulwell Garages. Fulwell has just three E400EVs on the 65 and four E200EVs on the 290 while Harrow has just one E400EV on the X140; in the past few days a few of the BME-class E200EVs have started to appear on the H9/H10.   

5) More E400EVs have been delivered to Abellio for route 63 with 18 of them so far stored. Furthermore the first of Go-Ahead’s batch (EP 1) for route 132 was delivered on 10 December. This batch will be the first to use a pantograph for charging and the infrastucture for this is now being installed at Bexleyheath Garage.

Sunday 5 December

1) The power supply at RATP Fulwell and Harrow remains “imminent” to allow full operation of BCEs and BEs.   However, Harrow has used its trainer (BCE47033) on route X140 and Fulwell three BEs on route 290. No doubt these have been charged using the mobile unit.  Meanwhile Stagecoach at Catford have used their E400EVs from  1st December on route 160. 

2) Twelve former Red Arrow 12-metre SEe buses at Go-Ahead have been refurbished  and upseated for use on route 360, displacing nine 10.8m versions off the 360 to Merton for route 413.   

3) Saturday 11 December (or Friday night 10th for night routes N13/N23/N97)  is the date when the operations at Westbourne Park Garage transfers from Tower Transit to London Transit, the latter being effectively managed alongside RATP.  All based vehicles will be renumbered into RATP sequences although this would take some time to complete!    A full list will be in December TLB and on LVF.  The numerics all change but class codes VH and WH stay the same. VN to VDW,  DNH to ADH, MV to VMH, OE to OME, DML to DE, WV to WLS.

4) Next Sunday 12  December is the annual Bromley Running Day.   4 x RFs on 227 Bromley & Crystal Palace and  1x RT and 1x RM on the old 94 Grove Park & Petts Wood Station west side.

Sunday 28 November

1) Still no sign of the entry into service of the increasing quantity (about 100) of RATP electric buses in store, all still awaiting a power supply.   Delivery of new E400EVs to Stagecoach and Abellio remain very slow and none are yet in service. 

Saturday 20 November

1) The long long wait for the electricity supply to be connected at RATP’s Harrow and Fulwell Garages should be over soon according  to the company.    It will take some time to transfer the  23xBE, a few BME  (all E200EV) and 42xBCE (E400EV) electric buses that have been stored at four garages.  They all have to be powered up using mobile charger units and drivers have to be found to move them.  You will need to check LVF for actual start days in service.  The BEs are for Fulwell routes 371 and 290, BMEs for H9/H10/398 at Harrow and the BCEs for X140, 65, 281 (but not yet for the 49).    

2) The transfer of Westbourne Park (X) Garage to the new London Transit licence is now set for 11th December.  The based fleet will have their Tower Transit fleet numbers changed to those of RATP although that will probably take some time to be applied.  December TLB – and LVF nearer the time - will have the full conversion lists.  

3) The Arriva StreetLite (4288) painted in the 1971  yellow and blue ‘Superbus’ livery finally appeared last Tuesday 16th Nov and is now being used on local town routes in Stevenage.  Arriva at Luton is still awaiting arrival of the 14 new Volvo B8RLE/ MCV buses which should replace existing types on the Busway. 

Saturday 13 November

1) 13th November saw several changes in London.  Routes 63/N63 transferred from Go-Ahead to Abellio.  Whilst waiting for the delivery of BYD/E400EVs, Enviro 400Hs are being used, having been moved from Battersea Garage  to Walworth. In turn route 345 from Battersea has reverted to older (2006-09) diesel E400s.  Abellio’s route 414 (now truncated back to Marble Arch) moved over to Tower Transit who are using DNH-class E400Hs.   At RATP, the 258 moved from Edgware to Park Royal (with ADE-class E400s)  and the 283 from Park Royal to Stamford Brook (with DLE-class E200s).

2) Further developments  from  12th Dec at Guildford when Arriva closes down will see Safeguard take the Sunday route 3 and also the Mon-Sat 18  - with an extension across town to Burpham and Merrow. This latter area currently served by Arriva routes 36/37 will also be covered (but not completely) by Stagecoach routes 1 and 6 so the 18 will cover parts otherwise  unserved.   Routes 436 and Mon-Sat 479 will go to Falcon after Hallmark (Diamond) cancelled their registrations for 436 (and 91 to be taken over by Stagecoach).  

3) The  new bus noted in TLB686 page 32 from Norfolk-based Equipmake with a Beulas body is to be trialled  by Go-Ahead London from February 2022;  it is a standard dual-door spec double-deck vehicle and has been christened the Equipmake Jewel-E.