New Routemaster refurbishment reaches 735 buses
A refurbishment programme of London’s near-1000 strong fleet of New Routemaster buses has now almost reached the three quarter mark at 735 buses.
The number was contained in a report from Transport for London’s Commissioner Andy Lord before the Transport for London Board last week.
A current total of 735 buses is up from 700 reached in June of this year.
Buses were built between 2012 and 2017 and not without controversy, with a second member of staff ditched in favour of normal boarding at the front. Temperatures in summer would often reach very high levels.
Unlike most buses which are purchased or leased by bus companies such as Stagecoach providing tendered routes, New Routemasters are owned directly by TfL.
Relatively few ever made it onto routes serving south east London though some did arrive on Superloop route SL3 between Thamesmead and Bromley. Only for around a year mind before replacement with new electrics.
The refurbishment programme includes external resprays and internal deep cleaning along with new seat coverings.
Electric buses
On the subject of electric buses the rapid increase in London continues with the same report noting that at the end of last month there were more than 2,500 zero-emission vehicles in the TfL fleet.
The result of that more than a quarter of the entire bus fleet is now zero-emission.
A total of 9,000 buses operate across London with the remainder meeting or exceeding Euro VI emission standards.
In the Commissioner’s Report
I remember being on the Boris bus on a hot summer’s day before opening windows were retro-fitted. I sat downstairs and watched the people who had headed upstairs, come down in less than no time. I also recall the “captain” that was there to assist passengers getting on and off the open deck. Unless I am wrong, they were only ever on routes 24 and 38.
Anonymous201486 your right the 24 and 38 were the first two bus routes to use the new routemasters with other central london routes being converted to the new routemasters as more buses wete built and delivered.
.
I just missed the deadline to submit my design for the Routemaster replacement when the competition was run (grr). The design they chose was deeply flawed, and is continuing to cost ridiculous amounts due to significant design errors. The rear door (that was never really intended to be used on an open platform basis due to the jobsworth safety stranglers) was an expensive gimmick, etc., and the ventilation flaws are a schoolboy error, etc. zzzz. How many times were the original Routemasters refurbished like this over their long service lives?