1190 + Major Travel London Discussion = Off-Topic Goodness

[Liverpool Street]

Just want to say what an excellent shot of new upload of 1190. I recall that scene like it was yesterday. Argos Extra, Lynx on the 35, Corporation Street...

...10 years on near enough and the branding still isn't as good as back then!

If there could be one thing, and one thing only for things to back to, what would it be?

For me, I think it should've stuck as Travel West Midlands but maintained the 'toothpaste' livery. - of which were a natural progression of the TWM livery.

So, what about you? Corporation Street remained open? Old service numbers? None-DDA bus laws revoked? Etc

[Tony]

It is now 5 years since the London LEZ came into effect, First day was 4th August 2008. The day before I had the job of getting Lynx 1240 back to Birmingham from Croydon depot. Here it is in Park Lane, London
http://wmbusphotos.com/NXWM/gonebatches/1061-1316/1240.html

When I got it back to Miller Street they found Travel London had spent several thousand pounds on it removing all the rot and it survived in the WM training fleet for another 2 1/2 years

[Liverpool Street]

Great bit of history there Tony. Smartest Lynx on the whole site it seems! You can tell money has been spent on it - its still square!

- I'm a big fan of the windscreen. Seems like true character!

[Dylan4579]

Keep Corporation Street and toothpaste livery

[winston]

I'd have liked NX Group to have kept Travel London

[Dylan4579]

I'd have liked NX Group to have kept Travel London

We wouldn't have new buses though, just cascades

[winston]

I'd have liked NX Group to have kept Travel London

We wouldn't have new buses though, just cascades

Travel London wouldn't have needed 130 new buses per year for contract wins/contract renewals etc, Stagecoach doesn't cascade many its ex London buses in to its provincial fleets. The majority of the former Travel London fleet & subsequent purchases are now leased instead of purchased.

[John]

I'd have liked NX Group to have kept Travel London

We wouldn't have new buses though, just cascades

Travel London wouldn't have needed 130 new buses per year for contract wins/contract renewals etc, Stagecoach doesn't cascade many its ex London buses in to its provincial fleets. The majority of the former Travel London fleet & subsequent purchases are now leased instead of purchased.

How many buses did Travel London have when NX sold London Operations to Abellio?

[winston]

I'd have liked NX Group to have kept Travel London

We wouldn't have new buses though, just cascades

Travel London wouldn't have needed 130 new buses per year for contract wins/contract renewals etc, Stagecoach doesn't cascade many its ex London buses in to its provincial fleets. The majority of the former Travel London fleet & subsequent purchases are now leased instead of purchased.

How many buses did Travel London have when NX sold London Operations to Abellio?

Around 360 buses I believe for Tfl & Surrey routes

[Gareth]

I believe the stagecoach London fleet is all leased. One of the main reasons being that the rest of the UK don't have to have continual ex London cascades.
There was an article in BUSES magazine a while back about it.

[PM]

I would have liked NX to keep travel london as for abellio it is now a profitable operation and as has been said NX could have leased instead of making the mistake of buying, as NX made and First also made, depriving other regions of investment.

[winston]

I would have liked NX to keep travel london as for abellio it is now a profitable operation and as has been said NX could have leased instead of making the mistake of buying, as NX made and First also made, depriving other regions of investment.

Travel London was profitable when NX sold it, it made an operating profit of £3.9 Million to 31st Dec 2008, it was never going to make the profit margins that WMT/TWM came to expect. But the £32 million the sale raised hardly put a dent of NX Groups debt mountain at that time

http://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/media/corporatenews.aspx?newsyear=2009&newsitem=43

There was no reason why NX couldn't have gone down the leasing route to expand Travel London, or simply order buses specific to London as & when new tenders were won to ensure the West Midlands got its fair share of any new intake

[PM]

I would have liked NX to keep travel london as for abellio it is now a profitable operation and as has been said NX could have leased instead of making the mistake of buying, as NX made and First also made, depriving other regions of investment.

Travel London was profitable when NX sold it, it made an operating profit of £3.9 Million to 31st Dec 2008, it was never going to make the profit margins that WMT/TWM came to expect. But the £32 million the sale raised hardly put a dent of NX Groups debt mountain at that time

http://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/media/corporatenews.aspx?newsyear=2009&newsitem=43

Didn't realise that- I assumed it was still a loss maker as wasn't the operations TL was started from loss making? I remember thinking at the time it was quite a high sale price...

[winston]

I would have liked NX to keep travel london as for abellio it is now a profitable operation and as has been said NX could have leased instead of making the mistake of buying, as NX made and First also made, depriving other regions of investment.

Travel London was profitable when NX sold it, it made an operating profit of £3.9 Million to 31st Dec 2008, it was never going to make the profit margins that WMT/TWM came to expect. But the £32 million the sale raised hardly put a dent of NX Groups debt mountain at that time

http://www.nationalexpressgroup.com/media/corporatenews.aspx?newsyear=2009&newsitem=43

Didn't realise that- I assumed it was still a loss maker as wasn't the operations TL was started from loss making? I remember thinking at the time it was quite a high sale price...

I think some of the original Connex tenders were loss making which was re-branded Travel London, but then NX acquired the London Op's of TGM which I believe were profitable and later on Travel London as managed to retain existing Tfl contracts on more favorable terms

[Kiewii]

I believe the stagecoach London fleet is all leased. One of the main reasons being that the rest of the UK don't have to have continual ex London cascades.
There was an article in BUSES magazine a while back about it.

Well up here we've got 60 ex Stagecoach London Tridents and counting...