Sunday 17 April 2016

Short NRM and window openings for NRM’s





More news on the New Routemaster bus, but first I'll update you with the news from LOTS (London Omnibus Traction Society) about the new hybrids for London.


1) Conversion of routes 59 and 68 to LT operation is now almost complete, the 68 gaining its last five buses recently to complete batch LT664-690.  Tower Transit now has the majority of its new VHs in use on the 328.  Many of Stagecoach’s new E40D/ E400MMCs are delivered and the first two have entered service in the past week from Barking on routes 62 and 145.   Most of Go-Ahead’s E40H/E400MMCs (EHJ class) and some of their B5LH/MCV MHV class have been delivered, these are due to take over route 35 and 40 on 30th April.

2) At London United, route 148 has the first group of LTs that are receiving opening windows and one or two are now in service. Other than the new VHs on route 94, just one or two buses in the normal fleet have gained their new fleet numbers, eg SP 49 at Hounslow is now SP 40049 and SLE 25 is SLE 40625.  The StreetLite demonstrator, now numbered WS 20225, that was delivered last December finally entered service on route K4 on 16th April.

The small number of LT’s for route 148 now have window openings; here is a photo of LT120 with window openings posted on Flickr.

I’ve found out that the shortened New Routemaster is being delivered to Holloway (HT) Garage. The fleet number for the bus is ST812 and yes, the letter is different to signify the shortened design of the NRM. Here are photos of ST812 at Heysham Docks taken on 16th April 2016.

They will appear on route 91 and will be mixed with long and short 3 door 2 staircase New Routemaster buses.

A quick update on the two door Volvo B5LH SRM (Son of Routemaster) as a photo emerges of the two door Routemaster being delivered. Once again, I should say that those buses are bought and paid for by the private bus operating company, compared to TFL buying the 3 door 2 staircase New Routemaster (LT and ST) buses then leasing them to private companies at the cost of £1 per bus per year.

I've also updated the table of new hybrid buses for London Bus service:

Route
Hybrid bus type
Operator
Date expected
1
Unknown
Go Ahead London
1st October 2016
14
Unknown
Go Ahead London
19th November 2016
21
Unknown
Go Ahead London
8th October 2016
26
Enviro400H City
CT Plus
25th June 2016
35
Enviro400H MMC
Go Ahead London
30th April 2016
40
Volvo B5LH MCV EvoSeti
Go Ahead London
30th April 2016
53
Enviro400H MMC
Stagecoach
23rd July 2016
63
Unknown
Go Ahead London
12th November 2016
72
Unknown
London United
3rd September 2016
74
Unknown
Go Ahead London
19th November 2016
85
Volvo B5LH Gemini 3
London United
2nd July 2016
91
New Routemaster
Metroline
April 2016
114
Volvo B5LH Gemini 3
Metroline
3rd September 2016
140
Volvo B5LH Gemini 3
Metroline
3rd September 2016
182
Volvo B5LH Gemini 3
Metroline
3rd September 2016
185
Unknown
Go Ahead London
1st October 2016
189
New Routemaster
Metroline
July 2016
211
New Routemaster
Abellio
June 2016
328
Volvo B5LH Gemini 3
Tower Transit
30th April 2016
363
Unknown
Go Ahead London
12th November 2016
430
Unknown
Go Ahead London
19th November 2016

Since the evolution of the New Routemaster bus design we can see that the Enviro400H City holds some of the design cues while the Volvo SRM takes the most. Hopefully those buses will have zero emission technology as opposed to being hybrids that still use diesel to charge the batteries.

I do hope we will see more zero emission buses entering service in London which will reduce pollution and harmful emissions which contribute to Climate Change. 'Zero emission' technology is the way forward for London as diesel-electric hybrid technology still pollutes our environment.

What is more important, a hybrid bus with 3 doors and 2 staircases called the New Routemaster, zero emission buses which are battery electric and/or hydrogen or more standard and stylish hybrid buses? Please let me know what you think in the comments section below.

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Previous articles on New Routemaster project:


Image attribution
By Darren Glanville from Acle, Norfolk, UK - New Routemaster, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35992868

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