Transport for London celebrates 1,000 electric buses in service

TfL have announced that 1,000 zero emission buses are now in operation in the capital.

The latest electric bus usually plies its bus on the 204 and is part of a goal to have a fully electric fleet by 2034.

Since 2016, electric bus routes have increased from five to 54 with the amount of buses growing from 30 to 1,000 buses.

London’s fleet is the highest in west Europe according to TfL.

Some routes however are not solely zero emissions and instead share a mix of electric and older buses, such as the 180 between North Greenwich station and Erith.

However major south east London centres such as Woolwich and Bexleyheath havn’t seen a great deal of electric buses on the whole, with many buses being clunky old things especially the further out you head.

Much of the area missed out on being designated as a “Low Emission Bus Zone” as far back as 2017.

Arriva’s often seem to be more than a decade old.

An excellent site collates electric routes and there’s much scrolling down before we reach one serving Greenwich or Bexley boroughs in the form of the 132.

Spend time at North Greenwich bus station or General Gordon Square in Woolwich and it’s not too impressive in terms of zero emission buses.

That list above sort of backs up my feelings recently of a lot of travelling in parts of London. There’s a hell of a lot of 10+ year old buses still going comprising a high total of buses in Bexleyheath, Woolwich, Eltham and Greenwich town centres compared to places like Canning Town, Stratford and central London.

The 199 is due to become electric but generally town centres like Woolwich and Bexleyheath don’t look like seeing many more routes soon.

Still, 1,000 is a good total in just a few years. Some more soon in SE London?