I’ve combined various ‘London Bus related’ news items in to this article.
First up we have the news that the London Mayor has announced 10 Low
Emission Bus Zones for London.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan,
today announced plans for 10 more Low
Emission Bus Zones deploying the greenest buses on the capital’s most
polluted routes to cut harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.
The buses are part of the
Mayor’s hard-hitting measures to tackle London’s filthy air – responsible for
the premature deaths of more than 9,000 Londoners every year – with major plans
set to be implemented in 2017 to tackle the dirtiest vehicles.
The new routes include Edmonton,
Stratford and Haringey, bringing the total number of Low Emission Zones planned
to 12, including the previously announced zones in Putney High Street and
Brixton.
The Mayor has targeted air
quality hotspots where people are exposed to some of the highest levels of
nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution and where older
buses contribute significantly to road transport emissions.
Thousands of school children
will benefit from the introduction of the Low Emission Bus Zones, with 172
schools located within 100 metres of the new zones. In addition, the benefits of operating the greenest
buses will be felt more widely across the capital as the buses operate the full
length of their routes.
The new greener buses, which
will be a combination of hybrid and clean buses that meet Euro VI standards,
are part of an improvement programme to 3,000 buses outside central London.
The zones are expected to reduce
NOx emissions from buses along the routes by around 84 per cent and will fulfil
the Mayor’s manifesto commitment to introduce Low Emission Bus Zones by
2020.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan,
said: “Tackling London’s filthy air is one of my main priorities and I am
delighted to be delivering on that commitment by introducing these new Low
Emission Bus Zones. Removing the oldest, dirtiest buses from our streets and
delivering Low Emission Bus Zones will make a big contribution to tackling
transport pollution.
"Safeguarding the health of
Londoners is vital and I’m doing everything in my power both to transform
London’s bus fleet and to target areas with the worst pollution.
“I want other cities around the
world to work with me on demanding cleaner bus technology and I urge our
government to take their responsibility seriously and introduce a national
diesel scrappage scheme to deliver the step change we need on the dirtiest
diesel vehicles.”
Leon Daniels, TfL’s Managing
Director of Surface Transport, said: “These Zones will not only help improve
health and air quality in the local areas, but will also help make those areas
more pleasant places to be and encourage greater numbers of people to walk or
cycle. By using bus priority measures we will also make bus journeys quicker
and more reliable for our customers.”
The locations of the 12 Low Emission Bus Zones are:
·
Putney High Street – from Putney Station to Putney Bridge Road
·
Brixton to Streatham – from Brixton Hill via Stockwell Road and
Streatham High Road to Streatham Place
·
A12 Eastern Avenue – from Blake Hall Road via High Road Leyton
and Homerton High Street to Marsh Hill
·
Lewisham to Catford – from Bromley Road via Rushey Green to
Lewisham High Street
·
Stratford – from Abbey Lane via Mile End Road to Woodgrange Road
·
Haringey – from High Road to Green Lanes
·
Camberwell to New Cross – from Blackheath Road via Camberwell Green
and Peckham High Street to Wood’s Green
·
Wandsworth to St John’s Hill – from Lavender Hill to Wandsworth Road
·
Edgware Road (Kilburn to Maida Vale) – from Cricklewood Broadway via Kilburn
High Road to Shoot-Up Hill
·
Edmonton to Seven Sisters – from Amhurst Park via Green Lanes and
Seven Sisters Road to The Broadway
·
Uxbridge Road to Shepherds Bush – from Ealing Broadway via Hanger Lane to
Uxbridge Road, The Broadway
·
Chiswick High Road to Kensington – via Hammersmith Broadway and Kensington
High Street to Studland Street.
The Putney High Street zone will
be delivered in March 2017 and the
route between Brixton and Streatham is set for October 2017.The Putney route
will involve the exclusive use of only hybrid electric buses or those with
top-of-the-range engines and exhaust systems that meet or exceed the highest
(Euro VI) emissions standards. The other
new 10 new routes will be delivered by 2020.
The Low Emission Bus Zones will
utilise a number of ‘Bus Priority
Schemes’ that ensure buses have priority over other traffic and are able to
keep moving, cutting idling emissions and speed up journey times for
passengers. The TfL Business Plan,
published at the end of last year, includes
a £50m fund to be invested in bus priority schemes, helping attract more
people back on to the bus network, and tackling pollution and road congestion.
Councillor Julian Bell,
leader of Ealing Council, said: “Air quality is a huge issue for Londoners,
which has a real impact on people’s health. I’m sure we’re all sick of putting
up with pollution from traffic so I’m delighted that these low emission bus
corridors are being extended across the capital, including Uxbridge Road, one
of west London's busiest and most polluted routes. I know residents in Ealing,
particularly cyclists and pedestrians, will be as pleased as I am to see some
real action on this important issue.”
Councillor Tim Coleridge,
the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Cabinet Member for Transport,
said: “We have been asking the Mayor and TfL to clean up the bus fleet in the
Royal Borough, and this announcement is excellent news for Kensington. I look
forward to seeing a real reduction in emission levels soon.”
Councillor Heather Acton,
Westminster City Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainability and Parking, said:
“We welcome TfL’s announcement for a green bus corridor along Edgware Road.
This contributes to the many steps needed to combat poor air quality in London
and complements Westminster’s own ambitious plans to reduce emissions in the
borough. Edgware Road borders the Low Emission Neighbourhood in Marylebone, where
we are trialling innovative steps to help towards a greener city and this is a
valuable addition.”
Tompion Platt, Head of
Policy at Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, said: “It’s
encouraging to see the Mayor taking action to improve air quality on some of
London’s busiest high streets, where thousands of people walking are exposed to
dangerous fumes every day. These measures, combined with those encouraging more
people to swap their car for walking and cycling to their high streets, will
help improve the health of everyone living, working and shopping in London.”
Areeba Hamid, clean air
campaigner, Greenpeace, said: “These are welcome initiatives that show the
Mayor is serious about his intentions to clean up our air, and protect Londoners
from the harmful effects of air pollution. We’re hoping national government
will take a leaf out of London’s book and provide plans and resources so other
cities can also tackle air pollution to protect everyone’s health."
Low Emission Bus Zones are one
of a number of measures the Mayor has asked TfL to take to reduce emissions
from the capital’s bus fleet, including the phasing out of diesel only buses
and a commitment to purchase only hybrid
or zero emission double deck buses from 2018.
This means London Bus operators have to purchase the latest hybrid
buses for their route contracts.
Looking at the press releases page, an article about ‘wages’ for
London Bus drivers caught my eye!
This press release was published on 21st December 2016.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan,
is today taking the first step towards fulfilling his election manifesto
promise to provide a new fairer deal for
London’s 25,000 bus drivers.
For many years, the pay of bus
drivers has been set in isolation by the
private bus companies which operate
routes on TfL’s behalf.
This has led to large variations
in pay between drivers employed by different
companies, despite their similar level of skill, experience, and the
demands of the job.
Transport for London (TfL) has
been working with the bus companies and trade union representatives, and today
the Mayor is announcing the introduction of a fairer system for bus drivers’ pay, including a new starter minimum wage of £23,000 for drivers working across all of
London’s bus companies.
£23,000 represents the average starting salary of a bus driver today. However, there are variations locally and some drivers are paid less than this. The
new professional driver wage will prevent a race to the bottom where
competition for bus routes leads to pay for new starters reducing over time.
Where employers currently pay less,
the Mayor is encouraging them to work with trade union representatives to
address any pay differences before 1st
April 2017.
In addition to new guarantees
around drivers’ wages, the Mayor is remedying
the unfair situation where drivers who have moved to another bus operator have found that their past experience
and record has not been reflected in the
pay offered.
The new proposals include:
A new 'minimum professional
London bus driver wage' will be introduced to apply to all new TfL contracts awarded to bus companies from April next year.
Bus companies will be required to pay drivers at least £23,000 per
annum reflecting the challenging
nature of the bus driver role, which now includes a greater focus on customer
service. TfL will apply this from all
new contracts awarded from 1 April 2017 next year, and rising with
inflation thereafter.
A ‘License for London’ will be introduced
no later than April, allowing drivers to move between companies, taking
with them their qualifications and driving record, without having to go on a lower new starter rate. This will form an
enhanced reference for their new employers and enable employers to bring
drivers into relevant local pay
structures reflecting their experience.
The Mayor also expects TFL,
Unite representatives, and the operators to continue working towards
introducing a London-wide pay structure for minimum levels of pay based on
three and plus five years’ experience. Because of the wide range of pay levels
and arrangements across London this will
take longer to implement.
TfL will also work with Unite
representatives and the bus companies to better support the progression of
London’s bus drivers through to management and other industry positions,
including addressing historic under-representation of minority groups. TfL will
work with Unite representatives and the operators to develop an equality and
diversity programme to build a working environment that fully represents the
diversity of London bus workers at every level in every company.
There will also be continued
work to address a range of other issues such as inadequate provision of toilet
facilities and regular late finishes to shifts.
This shows that TFL have been tightly regulating London Bus operators;
the PTE’s (Public Transport Executive) around England still have no powers to regulate bus
services but they can subsidise bus routes in their area.
Lastly, here’s an update from
LOTS:
1) At Go-Ahead London, all buses
of London Central, Blue Triangle, Docklands Buses and Metrobus are now
operating on the London General Operators Licence. Re-assignment of the London Buses contracts
remains outstanding. From last Monday,
the all-BYD electric bus LJ16EZS has been used on route 360. Also in the past week, there have been quite a
few more LTs into service on route 21.
As to electric buses, all of SEe
3-51 have now entered service, with just SEe 1 and 2 to come. In turn, MEC
appearances on 507 and 521 are now much fewer.
2) A mini bus war broke out
between Harlow and Epping last week.
There had been suggestions that Trustybus may have had to reduce their operations
from Tuesday 17th. On this assumption, EOS began a route 500 between the two
towns from that day and were charging cheaper fares. However, Trustybus
continued to operate a full service after all and the head-to-head competition
lasted just two days (17th and 18th) with Trustybus accepting any EOS route 500
tickets that may have been bought.
As always. I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Google Plus
which is @CLondoner92
