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Looks like another visit to Crawley is due!

Metrobus now have their on-site liquid hydrogen station live at last (https://www.metrobus.co.uk/hydrogen), which has allowed them to roll out the second batch of 34 vehicles (23 10.9m GB Kites and 11 'decker Hydroliners). Most of these are now in service, but not all yet.

A further 43 (again, mix of 'deckers and single-decks) will follow from ZEBRA2 funding for West Sussex services.

The 86 is generally hourly, slightly more frequent at peak times, and the peak vehicle requirement (PVR) is probably 4. That said, bustimes shows that 6 buses in all have run on the 86 today.

On Sundays 2 buses are required on the 86, and the service interworks with a Rugby town service (1 to Hillmorton).  The Sunday 85A requires 1 bus.

The Rugby cross-town service that will become electric (4, Brownsover - Cawston  Grange) has a PVR of around 6 buses - and bustimes shows 6 buses in all have run on the 4 today - if I have counted correctly 🤞.

It's understood that the four Yutong E12s for the 86 at Rugby are 73053-56, the four that have gone on loan to Kilmarnock in the meantime (as that depot has a large electric fleet already and chargers in place). Comments from people up there suggest they are due back in "January", so presumably the chargers at Rugby should be in place by then.

Interestingly they have disappeared from the trackers/Bustimes entirely.

My first hunch is that they have gone into the NewPower programme (First are repowering 32 StreetDecks to EV, remember), but otherwise I'd expect them to go to Bristol/West of England if not.

Marvellous, thanks!

Tony

thanks as ever for your most-useful updates. Looks like a minor issue with the new First fleetchanges - they are not (yet) showing, despite the main page saying period 8, but when I click through it's still period 7 as the latest.

Also, why is stagecoach listed on the Leicester buses website as having 22 electric vehicles? They aren't based here and there's literally 2 routes which are out of the city boundary?
Makes you laugh. Happy to pay stagecoach for the electric buses. But won't pay for a few digital bus stops around Glenfield (on route 13, which is a mainlines bus!).

They will be from the Coventry "Electric Bus City" project, converting the 48 group (Coventry - Nuneaton - Atherstone/Leicester), so the funding is from Central Government that was awarded to the wider project (which sees all buses into Coventry go zero-emission by 2025, and NXWM's large batch of BYD/ADL 'deckers entering service at the moment are the first part of). That they reach Leicester is something of a side benefit!

This order was reported on other groups some time ago.

Arriva - finally - appear to be investing again, with electric bus orders to come too in time (Leicester, Stevenage, Milton Keynes). Northumbria has now put 19 ADL E400 MMC in service, and the first of 14 ADL E200 MMC also (BLOTW records 14, the first five are already out).

Interestingly two more ADL E400 MMC in the same registration sequence to the Northumbria examples are recorded without an operator on BLOTW, but they are a different chassis designation which might suggest they aren't for Arriva.

The bid itself (https://www.tfwm.org.uk/media/31il4swm/zebra-standard-wmca-fbc-final-for-publish.pdf) confirms 100 hydrogen 'deckers and 24 articulated hydrogen buses (for Sprint, of course). The latter are interesting - I can't imagine there are many manufacturers to choose from, and my first thought suggests Van Hool ExquiCities.

Presumably, these will replace the current Citaro fleet at Stansted (almost one-for-one, it seems)?

Winston

thanks as ever for the additional info - presumably the StreetLites for Heathrow will be another batch to continue the slow upgrade of the Heathrow Hoppa vehicles?

Buses Mag this month reports that eight StreetDecks are due "for Preston".

As these reports can sometimes be mixed up, it's likely worth checking - presumably these are in addition to the batch that have gone to Bolton?

69527-31 & 69537-39 are at Oldham.

Thanks Nathan, bang goes that theory, then!

What is clear is that the Bolton sale has triggered an enormous set of cascades across the group, so I doubt we're done quite yet.

The Bolton one's have gone to FSY @ Sheffield

Winston

only six have gone to South Yorkshire - 69521-26 - which means that as yet, 69527-31, as well as 69537-39 (recently painted into Olympia, after working for some time in their as-acquired Eclipse purple) are unaccounted for. Those eight could well be the ones expected in Leicester (which would make sense).

The BYD/ADL 'decker order for NXWM has been confirmed officially by ADL today in their latest press release.

https://www.alexander-dennis.com/media/news/2019/july/byd-adl-tops-100-electric-double-deck-sales-in-uk-with-enviro400ev/

I notice that four B9TLs were sold to Ensign (and quickly snapped up by Yellow Buses Bournemouth).

What's caused the loss of these from the fleet? With the amount of elderly 'deckers still at Preston, I'm surprised these have gone.