The New Bus For London finally enters service on Route 38!
Monday, January 27th 2012 saw the first of 8 new vehicles enter service with London bus operations. The 8 brand new vehicles are a New Style of the Routemaster. The new Routemaster (nicknamed the 'Borismaster') is a bus which is bringing the antique and modern all into one. Today saw the worlds eyes on this single one 11.3m bus as it sprints its way up and down from Hackney Central to Victoria. It seemed to be a happy day for fellow enthusiasts hunting down LT2 although the bus was over 2 hours off schedule. I'd say the wait at Victoria was worth it.
In 2008, Boris Johnson (current mayor of London) planned to axe all artics off of London's roads and bring in a new type of Routemaster. And so he did. His plan proved to be very successful. Along the walk up to the 27th February 2012. It was announced that Arriva would be the first operator to gain these routemaster (announced in January 2011). Once that was announced, most enthusiasts automatically guessed that the NB4Ls will go onto Route 38 seeing as it is Arriva London's Flagship Route. The guess deemed to be a prophet really.
NB4L features contain:
-White destination blinds to make the bus seem more "authentic"
-3 doors with a rear open platform until 10PM
-A weight of UW11800 KGS which I am surprised about
-seating capacity of 87
-a Cummins ISB4.5EV with a 185HP
-two stairwells
-unique seating, and the NB4L generic moquette
Anyway, today seemed to be a wondeful day (regardless of the weather and it breaking down twice). Personally, I wouldn't mind more of these NB4L's to hit the road. Cheers to TfL...apart from all 8 of these costing the price of 98 hybrid buses.
Things I would like to reassure you on:
-This bus is not an express bus over the route 38, it will stop at all stops.
-It will run from Monday to Friday and the open rear door platform will remain opened until 10PM
-You are allowed to board the bus throughout any three doors
-The new NB4L's are/will be ran from Ash Grove Garage in South Hackney
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| LT2/LT61AHT seen at Hackney Central- Route 38 |
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| Everyone being ushered out of the road to make way for LT2 |
-White destination blinds to make the bus seem more "authentic"
-3 doors with a rear open platform until 10PM
-A weight of UW11800 KGS which I am surprised about
-seating capacity of 87
-a Cummins ISB4.5EV with a 185HP
-two stairwells
-unique seating, and the NB4L generic moquette
 |
| Generic Moquette on LT2 |
 |
| Nearside of LT2 |
Things I would like to reassure you on:
-This bus is not an express bus over the route 38, it will stop at all stops.
-It will run from Monday to Friday and the open rear door platform will remain opened until 10PM
-You are allowed to board the bus throughout any three doors
-The new NB4L's are/will be ran from Ash Grove Garage in South Hackney
 |
| LT2/LT61BHT parked up at Victoria on its half an hour break-Route 38 |
Great Post.....
ReplyDeleteHowever, I am completely baffled at the fact that you can enter through any of the three doors when the whole point of axing the artics was to cut fare evasion. Its quite strange and in that sense, even more expensive....
Tfl doesn't seem to learn. It's a free bus again route 38
DeleteThey are great busses anyway!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThey are a complete waste of money.
ReplyDeleteI agree. But at least it's a difference from the typical E400h and b5l gemini 2 hybrids.
DeleteYou can't know yet whether it's a 'waste of money'!
DeleteApplying the development costs to just the first 8 built is nonsense - you might just as well say that (in another field) the €11 billion development costs of the huge A380 aircraft should have been recovered from the first eight they built - whereas they take a longer view. If you use your approach, we'd never have had the Spitfire, the Jumbo jet or the Routemaster.
I think the NB4L's a brilliant design, and will be well worth it if it's only half as successful as the Routemaster. And don't be so miserable!
The Borismaster looks brillant in the white destination blinds, despite it costing 98 Hybrid buses and maybe they should not have oyster card readers in the middle of the bus.
ReplyDeleteWill they have white destination blinds on all London routes?
No, they wont mate. As this bus is a "Routemaster" and its representing the features of the Routemaster. It is more likely to contain white blinds on future deliveries of NB4L's other the the first 8 which are in the process of being delivered
Deletefor a 11.3m bus its a complete travesty that it only seats 87 people. They should get rid of one staircase and one door. They might as well just got more WEG2's!
ReplyDeletei cant wait to see more borrismasters about
ReplyDeleteA bus service in London that is absolutely new, great news. Thanks to this blog I found out about this information.
ReplyDelete