Which TfL bus routes will go electric and when?

[Railcar]

The TfL bus route (154) at the end of my road is now using all-electric double-decker buses. And what a joy it is to ride them! Smooth and quiet, with a curious 'ding-ding' when the Stop button is pressed.

By contrast, the fleet of single-deckers used on the 410 route (Wallington Shotfield to Crystal Palace) have noisy diesel engines that shake the bus, especially when it is stationary. The interior panels are coming loose, so they vibrate and rattle. On a single-decker, one is never far from the engine compartment, or from the road wheels which catch all the potholes on South London's Roads, which adds to the discomfort..

Inevitably (hopefully), all the TfL fleets will use electric buses. I've searched the TfL website for an 'electrification' timetable. Any ideas?

 

[JonathanH]

Inevitably (hopefully), all the TfL fleets will use electric buses. I've searched the TfL website for an 'electrification' timetable. Any ideas?

London Bus Routes maintains a list of upcoming changes.

Service changes

The 410 simply rolled over the existing fleet of single deckers at the most recent renewal.

410
Contract retained by Arriva London with 18 existing single deckers. (6 years) (231023)
24 Aug 24

 

[MasterSpenny]

The TfL bus route (154) at the end of my road is now using all-electric double-decker buses. And what a joy it is to ride them! Smooth and quiet, with a curious 'ding-ding' when the Stop button is pressed.

By contrast, the fleet of single-deckers used on the 410 route (Wallington Shotfield to Crystal Palace) have noisy diesel engines that shake the bus, especially when it is stationary. The interior panels are coming loose, so they vibrate and rattle. On a single-decker, one is never far from the engine compartment, or from the road wheels which catch all the potholes on South London's Roads, which adds to the discomfort..

Inevitably (hopefully), all the TfL fleets will use electric buses. I've searched the TfL website for an 'electrification' timetable. Any ideas?

All routes are on a contract where specific buses are stated. The following list shows what routes use diesel, electric, hybrid, New Routemasters and hydrogen single/double deckers.

(All of the below is what I see physically, and I won’t do it all in just this post to save space)

Routes 1 - 20
1 - Hybrid Double Deckers
2 - Hybrid Double Deckers
3 - New Routemasters
4 - Hybrid Double Deckers
5 - Mix of conventional hybrids and New Routemasters
6 - Hybrid Double Decker
7 - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Double Decker
8 - New Routemasters
9 - New Routemasters
11 - New Routemasters
12 - New Routemasters
13 - Hybrid Double Deckers
14 - Hybrid Double Deckers
15 - New Routemasters
16 - New Routemasters
17 - Mix of electric double deckers and New Routemasters
18 - Hybrid Double Deckers
19 - New Routemasters
20 - Hybrid Double Deckers

 

[stuu]

The TfL bus route (154) at the end of my road is now using all-electric double-decker buses. And what a joy it is to ride them! Smooth and quiet, with a curious 'ding-ding' when the Stop button is pressed.

By contrast, the fleet of single-deckers used on the 410 route (Wallington Shotfield to Crystal Palace) have noisy diesel engines that shake the bus, especially when it is stationary. The interior panels are coming loose, so they vibrate and rattle. On a single-decker, one is never far from the engine compartment, or from the road wheels which catch all the potholes on South London's Roads, which adds to the discomfort..

Inevitably (hopefully), all the TfL fleets will use electric buses. I've searched the TfL website for an 'electrification' timetable. Any ideas?

2034 is the current plan, but they want to bring it forward if the government can be persuaded to help out

 

[Edvid]

Hypothetically speaking, if the government did give TfL extra cash the biggest chunk would be used to get UKPN to prioritise bus garages where installing new DNO connections / substations is concerned.

Inevitably (hopefully), all the TfL fleets will use electric buses. I've searched the TfL website for an 'electrification' timetable. Any ideas?

All new bus registrations since 1 October 2020 have been, and will be for battery / fuel cell electric vehicles. By my reckoning there are still not far off 7500 (out of about 8650) buses to swap out, depending on the timing of new contracts and as they reach 14/15 years in service.

At present, electric buses listed on the Operational Details LBR page are as follows:

* DD 10.9m/Enviro400EV City 2D
* D8UR [9.7/10.2/10.8m]/Enviro200MMC EV 2D
* D9UR 12m/Enviro200 MMC EV 2D
* Streetdeck Electroliner 10.5m
* Streetdeck FCEV
* MetroDecker EV 10.5m 2D
* MetroCity EV [8.7/9.6/10.6m]
* e.City Gold 10.7m
* K8SR 10.2m

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Hypothetically speaking, if the government did give TfL extra cash the biggest chunk would be used to get UKPN to prioritise bus garages where installing new DNO connections / substations is concerned.

All new bus registrations since 1 October 2020 have been, and will be for battery / fuel cell electric vehicles. By my reckoning there are still not far off 7500 (out of about 8650) buses to swap out, depending on the timing of new contracts and as they reach 14/15 years in service.

At present, electric buses listed on the Operational Details LBR page are as follows:

* DD 10.9m/Enviro400EV City 2D
* D8UR [9.7/10.2/10.8m]/Enviro200MMC EV 2D
* D9UR 12m/Enviro200 MMC EV 2D
* Streetdeck Electroliner 10.5m
* Streetdeck FCEV
* MetroDecker EV 10.5m 2D
* MetroCity EV [8.7/9.6/10.6m]
* e.City Gold 10.7m
* K8SR 10.2m

Am I correct in thinking the K8SRs are only used on school routes?

 

[MasterSpenny]

Routes 21 - 40
21 - New Routemasters
22 - Hybrid Double Deckers
23 - Electric Double Deckers
24 - New Routemasters
25 - Hybrid Double Deckers
26 - Hybrid Double Deckers
27 - New Routemasters
28 - Electric Double Deckers
29 - Hybrid Double Deckers
30 - Hybrid Double Deckers
31 - Hybrid Double Deckers
32 - New Routemasters
33 - Diesel Single Deckers
34 - Hybrid Double Deckers
35 - Hybrid Double Deckers
36 - Hybrid Double Deckers
37 - Hybrid Double Deckers
38 - New Routemasters
39 - Diesel Single Deckers
40 - Electric Double Deckers

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 31 Oct 2023 ==

Am I correct in thinking the K8SRs are only used on school routes?

Yes. They are at Uno and operate on the 699

 

[londonbridge]

The 154 has been electric for a while now. I was on one last week heading for Croydon, the ibus verbal announcements were fine and announcing the stops correctly but the display screen said we were on a 213 to Kingston!…..I believe the 213 joined the electric fleet more recently.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

The 154 has been electric for a while now. I was on one last week heading for Croydon, the ibus verbal announcements were fine and announcing the stops correctly but the display screen said we were on a 213 to Kingston!…..I believe the 213 joined the electric fleet more recently.

Funnily enough, I've experienced the same issue on the 93 towards Putney Bridge. The announcements were working but the screen said "213 to Kingston". It threw me off the first time!

 

[londonbridge]

But at least you were in the general area, whereas I was going in completely the opposite direction to what the screen said.

 

[talldave]

My trip on a 450 was confused by the bus reading out the stop a mile or so back. I can understand how a system dependent on GPS may fail to get sufficient signal and fail to operate at all, but to sequentially announce stops, in sequence, but from earlier in the journey seems totally illogical and easily avoidable.