Latest Update: 23 November 2023

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 davestewart297@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.

LOTS Meetings and Events

We now meet at The Gallery at Alan Baxter, 77 Cowcross Street, Farringdon. It is already used by several other societies (including TLURS) so may be familiar to some of you. It is three minutes walk from Farringdon Station (Met/Circle/H&C lines, Elizabeth line and Thameslink).

We shall start and end earlier than at Conway Hall as the venue is locked by 9pm. Therefore doors will open at 6pm, meetings start at 6.30pm and finish at 8pm, then Q&As and sales stand but all out by 9pm.

Booked dates in 2024 are 19 February, 13 May, 24 June (AGM), 30 September and 18 November.

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)

TLB 712 was posted Tuesday 14th November. The closing date for reports for TLB 712 is 29 November and is due for posting on Tuesday 12 December.

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 the order the best attention. An updated Sales List was included with May 2023 TLB705. 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:

Sales list – A new edition was attached with TLB705 and will be found on the sales page of this website.

NEW 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.

** It will be available for the first time from the LOTS Stand at the Aldenham Transport Spectacular at Allum Manor & Hall, Borehamwood on Saturday 4 November, 10am to 4pm **

LOTS London Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2023 (£8.00).

SUP 45A London Bus Garages, allocations and routes - September 2023. £5.50

This is a new SUP from LOTS listing all garages operating TfL routes from A to X. Each has a based fleetlist and a list of routes, types allocated and basic M-F PVR figures.

SUP24J Service Vehicles current fleet April 2023 £5.00.

NEW London Bus Magazine No. 205, Autumn 2023. Main articles are Thamesmead Half a Century On, Part 2 by Malc McDonald and Sunday services, a review of Sunday only route variations by Watton. (£6)

London Bus Magazine No 204, Summer 2023. Main articles are: Thamesmead half a century on Part 1 by Malc McDonald and Roving around the airfields by Graham Burnell. (£6)

London Bus Magazine No 203, Spring 2023. Principle articles are: LT Service vehicles in the 21st Century (Tom Young); Fifty Years of LBM, a personal perspective (Tony Wilson); Modern destination blinds (Bob Williamson). (£6)

From Mike Harris, the latest Greater London bus maps:

New editions of the Greater London Bus Map dated 29 April 2023 are now available for (£2) and a Night Bus Map for 29 April 2023 (£4) From each edition of the series an amount of the price is donated to a charity. In this case it is to the Architectural Heritage Fund. Copies are available from www.shop.busmap.co.uk and from the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

See the Publications page for details of LOTS publications or the Sales Bulletin on the Sales page 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.

LOTS Info Service:
Andrew Robertson, Curry Farm, Halstead Lane, Knockholt, Sevenoaks,TN14 7EP.
Or e-mail lots.info@btinternet.com.

Vacancies:

None

Non-members may wish to look at a sample issue of TLB.
Hopefully this will whet your appetite for joining LOTS!

Latest news

Thursday 23 November

The new SL1 (North Finchley & Walthamstow Central) is now due to start on Sat09Dec, in tandem with frequency reductions on the 34. Both are from AD Garage. The 329 moves from AD to WN.

Tuesday 7 November

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

Route	Current Operator	New Operator	PVR	Vehicles
328	Metroline	Metroline	19	Existing hybrid double deck
481	London United	Metroline	6	Existing hybrid double deck
C1	London United	London United	13	Existing electric single deck

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

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

Route	Contract Start Date	Contract End Date
328	29th June 2024	25th June 2027
481	11th May 2024	7th May 2027
C1	29th June 2024	27th June 2031

Friday 20 October

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

Route	Current Operator	New Operator	PVR	Vehicles
50	Arriva London South	Arriva London South	15	New electric double deck
194	Arriva London South	Arriva London South	14	New electric double deck
250/N250	Arriva London South	Arriva London South	*22	New electric double deck
255	Arriva London South	Arriva London South	9	New electric single deck
289	Arriva London South	Arriva London South	15	New electric double deck
410	Arriva London South	Arriva London South	18	Existing diesel single deck
663	Metrobus	Arriva London South	1	New electric double deck
689	Arriva London South	Arriva London South	1	New electric double deck
SL2	n/a – new route	Arriva London North	16	Existing hybrid double deck
SL3	n/a – new route	Stagecoach Selkent	15	Double deck – details TBC

* Fleet PVR: 23rd bus crosslinked from route 689 in PM peak.

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

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

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

Route	Contract Start Date	Contract End Date
50	24th August 2024	22nd August 2031
194	24th August 2024	22nd August 2031
250/N250	24th August 2024	22nd August 2031
255	24th August 2024	22nd August 2031
289	31st August 2024	29th August 2031
410	24th August 2024	23rd August 2030
663	31st August 2024	22nd August 2031
689	13th April 2024	22nd August 2031
SL2	to be confirmed	27th February 2026
SL3	to be confirmed	17th January 2025

For earlier news read LOTS TLB

Coming Events
(LSS) = LOTS Sales Stand booked to attend

These are publicised as a service to the readership; LOTS has neither any involvement nor responsibility for any event noted. Many events have admission fees, I have included them where they have advised, you should check with organisers or websites before attending if costs worry you. We usually confine this listing to events with an expected London bus interest or within easy reach of London. Full national event lists can be found in the April issue each year of ‘Buses’ magazine and at

https://www.classicbuses.co.uk/++Events-diary.html

All events are subject to any Covid-19 restrictions at the time. Events that seem likely to go ahead are below, although you should check before travelling. LSS= LOTS Sales Stand should attend).