GENERAL and INDUSTRY NEWS

Section Editor: John O'Neill, ** Iverhurst Close, Bexleyheath, DA6 8HY (or e-mail via lotsed@tesco.net)

TfL, London Buses and The Mayor
TfL is introducing changes to the LSP (London Service Permit) conditions. Applications for new LSPs for operation after 1/1/2008 and available to the general public must be with accessible vehicles. Renewals of existing LSPs must also comply by 1/1/2010, and all LSPs – whenever they had been granted – will have to comply from 1/1/2013. Meanwhile, from 1/7/08 all LSPs must meet at least Euro-3 engine emissions.
Further to TLB520 and the reports on the UK Bus Awards, specifically on the awards for the top London bus drivers, perhaps a little more on the background. The ‘London bus driver’ awards are sponsored by the Luke Rees-Pulley Charitable Trust, in memory of Luke, who was a bus enthusiast and a driver at Putney Garage. He died tragically at an early age and the Trust was set up by his family. He was a popular driver and was noted for his high driving and customer service standards. The winners of the prize are the individuals who best represent the ideal – a professional driver who is friendly, helpful, conscientious, mindful of passengers’ comfort and wellbeing.
The recent reopening of the LT Museum has highlighted another aspect of the Trust. At each of the road and rail vehicles on exhibition, there are display screens giving their history and background information. These screens are sponsored by the Luke Rees-Pulley Charitable Trust (registration number 1113154) in order to “advance the education of the public about passenger transport.”

Operator and Corporate News
On 20th December, Arriva and Tellings- Golden Miller announced that Arriva had reached agreement with T-GM to purchase for £10.3 million the entire Tellings-Golden Miller Group, subject to agreement of the shareholders (who were recommended to agree). Presuming that this would be successful, the deal is expected to go through by mid-January. This brings Arriva back to Colchester and bits of west Surrey but also – in a new departure for their UK business – into airport airside work. The businesses acquired include T-GM Coaches in south-west London and its National Express contracts based at Portsmouth, Cambridge and Newcastle; Wiltax Buses in west Surrey; Link Line at Harlesden; Burton’s at Haverhill in Suffolk, which includes the Network Colchester operation; Classic Coaches at Newcastle and OFJ at Heathrow. The latter was only consolidated into the T-GM group as recently as 15th October 2007 and includes OFJ Connections on aircrew and airside passenger transport at Heathrow, plus OFJ Ground Services which is an airport maintenance operation as well as providing engineering support to T-GM’s locally-based bus and coach fleet.
Stagecoach issued results for the six months ended 31st October 2007 in mid-December. Changes in accounting procedures, particularly in relation to joint ventures and disposals, have made comparisons with the corresponding six months in 2006 difficult. The previous period included London for part of the time whilst the joint venture with Virgin Trains is now separated out from the Rail Division results. Profits after exceptional costs therefore show a slight drop in 2007 at £93.5 million (2006 : £101.5 million). More than half of the group's profits (£52.5 million) came from the UK Bus Division. Performance in North America showed a slight increase in operating profit from £16.7 million to £16.9 million.
A bold move by FirstGroup is to ban all their staff from using mobile phones or even the so-called ‘hands-free’ equipment while driving. The ban applies to all staff, including bus and rail drivers, at all times when on duty.
Threatened strikes by drivers at East London Bus Group for late November and at First London for early December were all called off at the very last minute.

Other General News
Wrightbus announced a new double-deck model late in December. It will be available in both conventional diesel and hybrid forms and is aimed at the London market. The bus is to be constructed to a lighter overall weight and with a new radiator to improve engine cooling and noise levels. The diesel version would have a 7-litre Cummins and the hybrid a 2.4-litre Ford engine. Wrightbus has been excluded from London double-deck orders for the last two years because of TfL's dislike of the Volvo B7TL and B9TL's noise levels. Although badged as a Wright product some chassis modules will be supplied by VDL. The new model, as yet unnamed except for the Gemini suffix, would be 10.3m and will comply with TfL requirements, including central plug doors, seat layout H41/24D with standing capacity to take that up to 85 to 90 passengers. As with the Enviro400 it will have seats over the nearside front wheelarch which helps to increase the lower deck seating capacity to 24. A single door version will be available for use outside London. One feature of the bus will be the possibility of re-powering a diesel version as a hybrid at a later stage. Publicity ‘computer generated’ images show the design as not very different from the existing Eclipse/Pulsar Gemini with the trademark semi-circular windscreen but the lower front dash design is similar to the StreetCar.
Incidentally the first hybrid StreetCars are currently being built for use in Las Vegas. Wrightbus have said that the model will probably be built in hybrid form in future and maybe even as a trolleybus for the proposed West Yorkshire system.
In early December the Government announced plans for the Thames Gateway region. The Government is planning to spend £9billion in regenerating a 40-mile-long zone along the River Thames in East London. There have been criticisms of the lack of transport investment ahead of house construction. There has however been some investment including the Kent Fastrack scheme and Crossrail will also serve some of the area. About £100 million will be made available for 13 local transport schemes. The government is also to fund the East London transit system, linking Dagenham Dock with Barking. There is also a public consultation currently going on for a similar transit scheme south of the river linking North Greenwich with Thamesmead and Abbey Wood. Both of these schemes would feature bus only roads similar to the Fastrack network.

The London Borough of Barnet has announced that the low rail bridges at Aerodrome Road, Colindale are being replaced, and the road widened and lowered to allow operation by buses, including double-deckers. We await news of any route change proposals to support this suggestion. A consultation document has been issued by the London Borough of Waltham Forest about plans for Walthamstow Town Centre. Included in the plans are proposals to rebuild the bus station there. This is despite a new bus station being built on the site just four years ago.
And now some of our occasional bus stop items: In TLB518 p5 we recorded the appearance of green painted bus stop poles in Totteridge, which matched the local council’s lamp-post colour and were more in keeping with the rural nature of the area. On the opposite side of London around the beginning of December the bus stops on route R5 outside the Greater London boundary (i.e. in the Knockholt and Knockholt pound area) were replaced with London Buses flags, although on green tubular poles. In this area most stops were National type flags on old ex-LT Country concrete posts. For the first time those stops which also serve route 402 carry timetables for that route, previously there was nothing at all to show that the 402 called at these stops. Another bus stop oddity concerns the stop at Whipps Cross Hospital, Main Entrance in the Leytonstone direction. It has recently been moved a short way and a new stop sign has been erected. At the bottom of the flag it says "Headstop". All normal buses nowadays of course have front entrances and thus all stops are headstops, and in any case rear entrance buses have never ever used this stop.

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