It seems that the
modern bus scene in London can change by the hour! New vehicles are being introduced and
operators sometimes change the routes they serve due to the tendering process. All of this is highly regulated, but
considering the size of the London area it seems that these changes are taking
place every day! The independent
transport videos cameras have been out and about in the capital
recording some of these changes for you to enjoy. This is the first of an occasional series of
DVD programmes recording the contemporary bus scene in London. This first edition was filmed on two
occasions in April 2016, and to add some nostalgia we also visited the Spring
Gathering event at the London Bus Museum, Brooklands in Surrey on the 17th
April. There are some twenty different
locations, many in the City of London, visited in this programme. These include, Waterloo Road, Waterloo
Bridge, Strand, Aldwych, St Paul’s, Cannon Street, The Bank, King William
Street, London Bridge, Tooley Street, Tower Bridge Road, Bishopsgate, Moorgate
and London Bridge Station. We take a
ride on HA16 (LK65 BYS), a new ADL
Enviro400H City on service 78 towards Shoreditch. This bus is operated by Arriva. A further ride is on
board MEC50 (BT09 GPJ), a Mercedes-Benz
Citaro 0530 on service 521. This bus
is carrying the original ‘Red Arrow’ livery to commemorate the
introduction of the first Red Arrow
route back in 1966. For this occasion it
has been renumbered MBA50 in recognition of the AEC single deckers used on the routes. Further filming locations are Piccadilly
Circus, Regent Street, Oxford Circus, Oxford Street and Marble Arch, with a
brief visit to Victoria to record green liveried New Routemaster LT2 (LTZ
1002) arriving on service 38. As you
will see on this programme there are many types of buses running in London, too
many to list here - gone are the days of standard RTs and RMs! However, some of the highlights of this programme
to look out for are, EI1 (YP15 NLM) one of two Irizar i2e Electric 12.0m single deckers seen on the 521, and the VDL SB200 Wrightbus Pulsar 2 Hydrogen Fuel Cell single deckers on the RV1
service. The all-new ADL Enviro400H City double deckers
operated by Arriva on the 78 service
and the ADL Enviro400 MMCs operated
by Stagecoach, are also
featured. We also capture MHV2 (BU16
OYM) a Go-Ahead operated Volvo B5TL with Egyptian built MCV EvoSeti body on driver familiarisation
in Bishopsgate. Also look out for the new
Volvo B5TLs with Wrightbus Gemini 3 bodies sporting the ‘Streetdeck’ front, operated by RATP
owned London United on the 94
service.
To conclude our
programme we make a brief visit to the London Bus Museum at Brooklands to see
some of the visitors to their Spring Gathering.
Apart from the superb line-ups of both red and green RTs we also see
RLH61 (MXX 261) now returned from Canada, displays of early Routemasters as
well as brand new London buses similar to what you have seen running around in
the capital. We hope you enjoy this
update and we look forward to bringing you further editions in the future.