L1/Group News June 2013

L1/Heathrow Buses

The new L1/Group moquette is being rolled out across the fleet.

Heathrow North (HN)

VLE31 and SLE1 will be withdrawn later on this month and be sold on. Routes 207, 480, 483 and 607 will revert to full hybrid operation.

All TANs and DPNs are now available for sale, and are currently stored in HN.

The refurbishing of engines has now started with TE111 onwards.
This new modified engine will decrease the "high-rev" problem on these buses, and is being rolled out across the fleet.

TE1071 is on loan to Metroline to replace the VW(H) on loan.

MCN685 (MB62 BUS) is a new acquisition from London OmniBus. This bus will be re-liveried into 7series livery, refreshed and be a showbus.

New Tempo SRs are in delivery for the Surrey Local routes gained from Abellio. 
Existing E20H will be used on both Slough and Surrey Locals. Citaros ex-7series will be used on Slough Locals also, and new Tempo SRs will be used on Surrey Locals - which will be delivered in July (as ordered when the deal was done in January). In the meantime, existing buses will be used on the Surrey Locals from the Byfleet Garage.

Route N7 will be extended from Northolt to Harrow Bus Station via Northolt Park, South Harrow, Harrow-on-the-Hill with a PVR increase of 1
Route N69 will be extended via the 482 route to Heathrow Terminal 5, then extended to Heathrow Terminal 6, with a PVR increase of 4. This replaces 482N.
Route N117 will be extended to Heathrow North Garage.

Southall (SA)

All trials on the 456 are continuing, but will end in July 2013. All trial buses will then be withdrawn, except TE/DE/DEN/TEN, and return to owners. 
Route 456 will be converted to double deck operation fully with existing TEs after the trials.

TE72 is on loan to London United for evaluation.

As part of Route 392 full conversion to NBfL, LT112-164 will be allocated to 392 from Southall. Half the allocation of 392 will move to Southall. The cross-link with 695 will be not retained.

Route 335 Citaro Hybrids are due at HN in June 2013 - MC669-684. Route 335 will then be run partly from HN and partly from SA. These may appear on the 456 trial for June-July 2013.

Brentford Dockside (DI)

Route 483 has now returned to DI fully.

Route 338 is having DEs as a trial to see if longer buses are suitable for this route on a regular basis.

Route 23 will transfer from First's Westbourne Park to here, with existing buses:
Former First DN33776-DN33781/85 and DNH39111-39132 will transfer for the 23 on 22nd June.
They will be renumbered as follows:
DN33776-DN33781 -> TEN106-110
DN33785 -> TEN111 (Showbus, name being decided)
DNH39111-DNH39132 -> TE1162-1183

TEN106-110 will get an interior refresh only, and will stay on the 23 or 456 only. TEN111 and all TEs will eventually have a full interior and blindset refurbishment.

Wembley (WE)

Alperton Garage is sold to London Sovereign, and Route 245 will follow, except buses.

Existing buses that are normally used for the 187, 245 and 487 will be used in outer London - DE391-400, 494-504.

Fulwell (TF), Byfleet (BF), Slough (SH)

These garages will be transferred to L1/Heathrow Buses on 22nd June.

Routes 481 and H20 will be transferred to HN on 22nd June.
All routes except 1B at Slough and Byfleet will be transferred to Heathrow North.
Slough and Byfleet Garage will be used as a store, as Heathrow North will take up its work. DE391-400, 494-504 are assigned to be used on the Slough and Byfleet routes from HN. 
Byfleet routes will initially use existing buses at Byfleet until the new Tempo SRs are delivered to HN.

Existing Enviro 200H will be used for routes R68 and R70, transferred from HN (DE70-90). The current buses on the R68 and R70 will be retained by Abellio London.

L1/Romford Buses

The new L1/Group moquette is being rolled out across the fleet.

Upminster (UP)

Routes 265 and 575 will be taken over from Go-Ahead, and will use existing TEs already at the garage. Route 575 will be restructured to run Harlow-Romford at all times, with extensions to Southend.

Route 375 is extended to Epping Cock, and existing DEs will be used.

Upton Park (U)

New Bus for London LT99-111 have arrived for Routes 15 and 25. Route 25 will have an allocation of 5 and 15 will have this supplementing the current NBfLs. Route 15H has moved to SD in order to centralise Heritage Routemaster operation.

Lea Interchange (HO)

TE74 is transferred here from SA permanently. 
Route 86 will now have a part allocation at Lea Interchange - peak hours extras of 4 buses.

Stratford High Street (SD)

Routes 15, 25, 58, 104 and 438 have now transferred to this garage. 

Numerous TEs and TELs have moved from HO and U (mainly) to operate these routes. TEL1113-1142 is delivered for the 8 contract and extension of Route 25 to Victoria. They are currently in store in HN or in service on the 25.

As part of Route 15 full conversion to NBfL, LT165-195 will be allocated to this garage.

DB300H DW1184-1220 will be delivered in time for the new 205/N205 contract. Note - this is the first full batch of buses for one route which are not from ADL.

Also, the heritage Routemaster operation of TfL will be moved to SD. Routes 9H, 15H, 25H, 94H and 159H will operate from here.