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Some news from London for your Monday afternoon. 

No change in the latest set of results which were announced this morning. 

Starting at Metroline where route 46 is to stay at Holloway using the existing electric buses and also retained is the N20 which will use existing hybrids. This is the night bus for the Barnet branch of the Northern line.

We then move to London United and the N5 which they've held using their allocation of hybrids at Edgware. 

Finally to Stagecoach London and they've held the D8 with new electric buses due;also held are the N550 and N551. The former is to stay at Lea Interchange,the other two Ash Grove where hybrids are to stay on them.

Start dates range from mid June to September of next year. Incidentally the night routes are on three year contracts,the electric routes seven year ones. 

Is this another YW scheduled new electric temporarily based at CV?

Quite likely yes. 

Which routes do Rugby operate within the Coventry area? And thus how many buses would be required to be electric?

Forgive my ignorance, but I only know the Rugby routes that operate in Birmingham!

86-the direct Rugby to Covnetry route plus the tenders in Birmingham.

Could CrossCountry order some Class 800's or any other Bimode Trains this could displace the Turbostars If they order 7 or 9 car trains to replace Voyager or Super Voyager trains so these Bimode's could run on Wires on the ECML then Diesel or Wires from Manchester to Coventry then Diesel and thus allow the 220's/221's to replace the 170's on those services and If they get 222's cus it's believed the two new open track operators on the WCML Wrexham and Shropshire and the other one want the 222's for there services plus apparently Grand Central might want some as well. If they do however receive 222's this could further boost capacity by providing more frequency on routes like Bournemouth to Manchester Or Reading/Bristol to Newcastle/Manchester or Birmingham to Leeds

I suspect the next people to run it will be advised to run longer trains-much longer trains. 

[Double-decker bus crash leaves 17 people injured]

Ouch!

Double-decker bus crash leaves 17 people injured


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmzezlyr2zo

The older one is 19246, the MMC 11526. I suspect the older one would be written off. 

Some news which was confirmed yesterday is that routes 18 and N18 have been held by London United. The new contract is due to start in November however the length and what type of buses has yet to be confirmed. However given the majority of the buses used on it are 67 reg Volvos and hybrid I wouldn't be surprised if they stay on for the immediate future. 

Mystic Mark called it-the existing Hybrids are staying on it for the next few years. 

Are all the SC depots in Warwickshire having battery chargers fitted? How is this work progressing?

Suspect plans are in place for them 

All the kit is now fitted, just the legalities over the supply to finish.

E269 is also going to YW today and should be in service next week

I see.Thanks for that;guessing their introduction isn't that far off then. 

Some news to report this afternoon.

All six routes have been retained by their current operators and mostly will keep their existing buses. 

Go Ahead London has retained the 219 at Merton however it will take existing electric buses from elsewhere, as yet unknown. They also retained the 230 at Northumberland Park however it's to get new electric buses displacing the current five year old examples. Also held was the 87 and N87 at Stockwell with existing buses.

Stagecoach London retains the 55,56 and N55 which is significant to Leyton given they're a significant amount of the work at that garage. Existing buses are to be used, although the current hybrids on the 56 are now 13 years old so newer examples are likely. 

Finally Arriva London has held the 432 at Norwood with existing buses once again to be used. 

Starting dates for these vary as is the way starting in March of next year and at intervals up to late June.

I couldn't agree more.  Hopefully, the creation of Great British Railways will result in a more co-ordinated approach when ordering new trains.  A new fleet of bi-mode units with at least 7 coaches for Cross Country services on the Edinburgh/Newcastle to Plymouth/Reading and Manchester to Bristol/Bournemouth services would be beneficial all round.  As well as providing the capacity needed on these services, they would also operate in electric mode over large parts of the routes (Edinburgh–York/Doncaster and Manchester-Birmingham/Coventry).  In addition, it would allow the Voyagers to be cascaded to increase capacity on other routes such as Cardiff to Nottingham, Birmingham to Stansted, Cardiff to Portsmouth etc.

The Cardiff to Portsmouth service isn't run by them, but by Great Western. The trains should be the equivalent of a 125, namely two first class coaches and the rest standard class. 

E258 is due to go to YW for service tomorrow.

Are they not far away from putting the extra chargers into use at YW or have they been commissioned for use now?

Do CrossCountry have Stock shortages, My dad caught the 18:43 I think it was from Wolverhampton to Stockport and stood the whole way On Wednesday as it was 4 cars he caught the 13:13/33 Train back from Stockport to Wolverhampton on Friday afternoon and again this was a 4 car. I swear last year they used to Double these trains up to make 8/9/10 Car trains

The sooner they're are asked to order more and longer trains the better. They're approaching 25 years old now.

2 new arrivals are 3586/7 CX58EVP/R from Arriva NE.

Believe these are more of the ex Manchester based examples that they had on the 263. 

If the mayor wants to introduce night buses, it is going to come at a huge cost to the taxpayer, as these services will have to be subsidised, and it makes little sense to throw money at operators to run buses around empty during the dead of night.

Not forgetting paying the drivers extra for working unsocial hours too. 

Onto the latest route tender news now. Metroline has won the 258 from London United and will be using existing diesel buses for the three years of its contract which starts in February. No idea which garage is to run it yet though it does pass the doors to Harrow Garage.

Confirmed to be running from Harrow Weald. 

Also of interest,the moving to Cricklewood of the 266 in early December will require the C11 to move to Holloway along with about 20 Enviro midis and this in turn will necessitate the reopening-in part-of their outstation at Kings Cross for part of the 30 and 274.