Messages

[Kingston Coal Yard]

Tony,

The location of the photograph of 2594 when it was with Westlink, is a bit vague - "Westlink garage":
http://www.wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/gonebatches/2436to2735/2594.html

The actual location is Kingston Coal Yard i.e. the overflow parking area for Westlink's Kingston garage which was on the opposite side of Cromwell Road. The Coal Yard is now the site of Kingston's Cromwell Road Bus Station which is currently closed for rebuilding.

Happy New Year

Ian Hardy

Tony,

444014 is at Winchester and not Waterloo:
http://www.wmbusphotos.com/Trains/class444/444014.html

Ian Hardy

Tony,

377316 is at Selhurst and not Slade Green:
http://www.wmbusphotos.com/Trains/class377/377316.html

Ian Hardy

Many thanks Tony

Tony,

On the front page it shows:
Click here for the latest First Group changes (up to period 11 (18/2/23)) updated 19/2/22 

However on the First Group page only the period 10 information is shown?

Many thanks

Ian

The reason for the departure of the Evosetis from Peckham and their route 63 was the result of their losing the route to Abellio London.

I know that the 63 has been lost but when Go Ahead have lost other routes recently e.g. 202, 270 & 405, the buses used on those routes have been kept in London for use on other TfL routes and older buses have then been got rid of. Also only 20 of the 34 buses ordered for the 63 have gone to Go North West.

The reason the NBFLs are cheaper than other buses is that TfL have bought the buses and as a public body can get finance cheaper than a commercial company can, because the bus operators have hefty interest payments on the finance for the vehicles they lease or buy. This was stated in a presentation to the London Omnibus Traction Society a few years ago by Leon Daniels who was TfL's Director of Surface Transport at the time.

TfL could have bought any bus type it wanted, but the Mayor of London decided that he wanted the contraption that turned out to be the Boris Bus instead of a more sensible type of vehicle.

Which is why after the reductions in PVRs on the original LT operated routes, the spare LTs have been moved onto other less high profile routes in the suburbs as it is cheaper for TfL to have the LTs in use and let the bus operators deal with their own vehicles, so Go-Ahead London have transferred some MCV bodied Volvo B5LHs to Go North West instead of keeping them in London.

Before the Commonwealth games

Tony, many thanks for the update.

However that does not give anyone much time to build something on the site to be ready for use at the Commonwealth Games in July 2022, which I thought was the whole reason why the garage had to move in the first place?

Tony,

Try the BR fares website https://www.brfares.com/, as it show all the possible fares available, strangely it does not show a £42.30 fare so it must be a combination of tickets, rather than a single fare.

Then you can workout whether the website being used to buy the ticket is giving you correct information.

N.B. not all the advance purchase fares maybe available as the allocation may have already been sold:
https://www.brfares.com/!fares?orig=RGL&dest=HFX

The first bus to visit the new Perry Barr garage was 2957 today
http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/gonebatches/2957.html

When is the new garage due to open?

Metroline's in London have also been taken off the road.

It is a good job that Metroline lost the 125 last weekend, so they had about 20 spare Volvo B5LHs to cover:-)

All double deck BYD/E400Citys

Many thanks

National Express alone have 130 BYD/Alexander Dennis buses on order. I believe the 'next year' is more due to upgrading the electricity supply than getting the buses themselves

Tony,

Out of the 130 buses ordered, what is the split between DD and SD?

With regards to "I believe the 'next year' is more due to upgrading the electricity supply than getting the buses themselves", RATP at Fulwell in South West London regained 3 routes (65, 281 & 371) with electric buses in July 2021, the buses have all been delivered but the power infrastructure is still not complete, so the odd electric buses that are being used are being charged up by a mobile diesel generator. The other electric buses are still in store in January 2022 having been so for a couple of months:-).

Tony,

68030 is not at Lewisham, it is at Leeds and also you have created a new month: Decemer :-)
http://www.wmbusphotos.com/Trains/class68/68030.html

I thought Bedford was controlled from Cambridge.

Bedford is part of Stagecoach East, it moved in August 2010 when the rest of the United Counties was merged with Stagecoach Midland Red South to create Stagecoach Midlands, that is apart from Banbury which was moved to become part of Stagecoach Oxford, which has just been merged with Stagecoach West.