London Buses.

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Today,route 473 started running its own EBD buses on the route won from Stagecoach London. I presume the Volvos displaced will be sent over the Thames to Bexleyheath ahead of their taking up the99,269 and 401 from Saturday. Also of note is the gradual introduction of ES buses on the 279 at Enfield in North London. Of possible interest is a suggestion that the Mercedes Citaros recently displaced from the 358 are heading to Wycombe-unconfirmed as yet. 

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Tender news released on Tuesday confirmed the status of three busy Outer London routes. All are three year contracts.

Go Ahead London has won the 318 from Arriva London, ending midibus operation at Tottenham. Possibly this will provide a new home for midibuses displaced from the G1 when Abellio take that on soon. This will begin with GA in November. 

The 324, which runs between Stanmore and Brent Cross,is retained by Metroline from Cricklewood and presumably some slightly newer buses will be found to run it. This starts in October.

Finally the H25 is retained by Abellio. This connects Hatton Cross to parts of Feltham and this latest contract starts also in November. 

Finally,not tender related, but the EBD buses due to take up residency on the 321 at New Cross are being used at Barking on their various schoolbus routes which I believe is temporary. 

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Two tender results from London were announced yesterday. 

Both routes are held by the current operators and with the current buses too meaning they will last in the Capital until 2028.

Abellio have held the 285, which is a 24hour service between Kingston and Heathrow Airport serving Teddington, Feltham and Hatton Cross from their Fulwell garage. This will begin in late June.

London United has held the 326 from Edgware and again will use existing buses to operate the service that began in the early 90s as part of a minor restructuring of the network in the Barnet area of North London. This is to begin its latest contract in late July. 

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One bit of tender news to announce today,and that is for the 138 in and around Bromley. Stagecoach London has taken it back after a long time,presumably from Bromley garage. It is a five year contract which starts next month,on the 15th to be exact. Go Ahead London are the losers of this route which only needs three buses. Stagecoach will source them from within the existing fleet.

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Tender news released on Tuesday confirmed the status of three busy Outer London routes. All are three year contracts.

Go Ahead London has won the 318 from Arriva London, ending midibus operation at Tottenham. Possibly this will provide a new home for midibuses displaced from the G1 when Abellio take that on soon. This will begin with GA in November.

The 324, which runs between Stanmore and Brent Cross,is retained by Metroline from Cricklewood and presumably some slightly newer buses will be found to run it. This starts in October.

Finally the H25 is retained by Abellio. This connects Hatton Cross to parts of Feltham and this latest contract starts also in November.

Finally,not tender related, but the EBD buses due to take up residency on the 321 at New Cross are being used at Barking on their various schoolbus routes which I believe is temporary.

It is widely expected that the Enviros now spare after the withdrawal of the 118 are now being used at Barking on the schoolbus routes to enable the EBD class to go to its intended home at New Cross. Indeed some of them are in use on the 321. 

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Some tender news to report,including a significant tender loss affecting Arriva London.

And that's where we start with the loss of the 144 at Wood Green-a route which,when combined with the 144a has been run since 1984 in part-1986 fully when Edmonton closed-has been won by Go Ahead at Northumberland Park using existing double deckers following the news of the retention of their route 106 with new buses. The 106 starts its new contract in June and the 144 in October,bopth for seven years.

Also retained,this time by London United,is the 105 and its night bus at Hounslow Heath. This mega busy service,which passes through Southall to get from Greenford to Heathrow,retains its hybrids for another five form the start of its next contarct which also begins in June. 

Not sure if this was mentioned before,however the rumour is that London United are looking at closing Park Royal later this year with word going round that routes 18 and N18 are going home to Westbourne Park and speculation about where the 220 and 224 are going being touted also. If this happens it won't be this side of the summer.  

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There would have been a lot of relieved faces among the senior managers of Stagecoach London in today's tender news. They've retained all four routes that were put up in their East London heartland, namely the 165,252,256 and 365 and all of them will get new electric buses. The new contracts are to start in September and will run for seven years.

Incidentally the 165 was retained last time with single deckers.

Route 365 is run from Romford at night because of restrictions on the use of Rainham 24 hours a day-all four routes are otherwise run from RM.