New Routemaster

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Wrightbus
New Bus for London on line 38

New Bus for London on line 38

New Routemaster
Manufacturer Wrightbus
design type Double Decker - hybrid
Production period since 2011
axes 2
engine Siemens electric drive with 4.5-liter Cummins - diesel engine
length 11.232 m
width 2.52 m
height 4,384 m
Wheelbase 6,000 mm
Turning circle 23.14 m
Seats below 22, above 40
Standing room 12/20/25
Empty weight 12,460 / 12,320 / 12,220 kg

The New Routemaster (NRM) or New Bus for London (NB4L, commonly known first and Boris Master after the then London Mayor Boris Johnson , the articulated buses replaced the London traffic again by double-decker buses) is a biplane - bus with a diesel-electric hybrid drive , which has been in service for regular services in London for Transport for London (TfL) since 2012 . The self-supporting bus is manufactured at Wrightbus in Ballymena ( Northern Ireland ).

The design of the bus was developed by the Heatherwick Studio. It has three doors and two stairs to the upper deck, one above the right front wheel and one in the rear right to the stern platform, where the third door is. There is a card reader for the Oyster card at each door . There are 40 seats on the upper deck and up to 22 seats on the lower deck, depending on the equipment.

On February 20, 2012, the first Arriva London bus on route 38 from Victoria to Hackney started its service. In the meantime, 800 buses (as of 2016) are used on more than twenty lines by various transport companies in London's city traffic under the direction of TfL.

history

Stern platform with doors open

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, elected in May 2008, promised before the September 2007 election to reintroduce Routemaster-style city ​​buses . In 2007 there were the first drafts for a new version of the Routemaster, considered a London bus “icon”, with an open rear platform. After a tender, some mock-ups were created. The Wrightbus mock-up received the most approval; Wrightbus received the order to manufacture a prototype. This was presented in 2011. The first copies have been in service at Arriva London since spring 2012 . In the meantime, copies are also used by the companies Metroline , London United ( RATP Group ), Stagecoach London and GoAhead London .

Transport for London initially ordered 600 copies of this bus for use in London in order to make them available line by line to the transport companies identified through tenders for use on the inner city routes . Another 200 buses were ordered later. A total of 1000 buses of this type had been ordered by the beginning of 2016, a further 195 copies were re-ordered by March 2016, and 720 had been delivered by then.

Mayor Sadiq Khan decided at the end of 2016 that no more buses of this type would be ordered. The discontinuation of the purchase of this model, which originally cost £ 354,000 per bus for the first 600 buses ordered, which has been reduced to £ 325,000 for the next 200 buses, is expected to help keep London public transport prices locked in for up to four years To finance 2020. As early as July 2015, it became known that 300 bus conductors would lose their jobs, which resulted in a saving of 10 million British pounds, but would no longer allow them to jump on the bus while driving. The manufacturing company Wrightbus stated in 2016 that the production line of the bus would be closed at short notice if there were no new orders. The bus’s diesel-and-electricity propulsion technology is considered obsolete and Khan announced that a new generation of buses will be commissioned that will significantly improve the air quality in the city.

business

Open tailgate

When a conductor is on board, the door on the stern platform is open and you can get on and off at any time, even outside the bus stop . This is the case on some lines Monday through Friday between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. In the evenings and on weekends, the buses run with closed rear platform doors in one-man operation. The conductor is a companion and observer of the open stern platform as well as a service person for passengers - e.g. B. for people with reduced mobility - on board, he does not sell tickets.

Use in London

So far, the New Routemaster has only been used by transport companies in London. The conversion of the vehicle use takes place line by line according to the number of buses available. So far the following lines are served:

line from to operator Depot Use from required buses in  peak hours open rear door
8th Tottenham Court Road Station Bow Church Stagecoach London Bow (BW) June 28, 2014 30th No
9 Hammersmith Aldwych London United Busways Stamford Brook (V) October 26, 2013 22nd Yes
10 Hammersmith Kings Cross London United Busways Stamford Brook (V) April 26, 2014 23 Yes
11 Fulham Broadway Liverpool Street London General Stockwell (SW) 21st September 2013 25th Yes
12 Oxford Circus Dulwich Library London Central Camberwell (Q) March 28, 2015 36 No
15th Trafalgar Square Blackwall Stagecoach London Bow (BW) February 28, 2015 24 No
24 Hampstead Heath Pimlico Metroline Holloway (HT) June 22, 2013 27 Yes
38 Victoria Station Clapton Pond Arriva London Ash Grove (AE)
Clapton (CT)
May 10, 2014 59 yes (Essex Road to Victoria only)
55 Oxford Circus Leyton Bakers Arms Stagecoach London Leyton (T) February 28, 2015 34 No
73 Victoria Station Stoke Newington Arriva London Stamford Hill (SF) May 14, 2015 52 No
137 Oxford Circus Streatham Hill Arriva London Brixton (BN) 2nd December 2014 31 No
148 White City Camberwell Green London United Busways Shepherd's Bush (S) 15th February 2014 25th No
390 Archway Lancaster Gate Metroline Holloway (HT) December 7, 2013 22nd Yes
453 Marylebone Station Deptford Bridge Station London General Mandela Way (MW) October 18, 2014 35 No
N8 Oxford Circus Hainault Stagecoach London Bow (BW) June 28, 2014 19th No
N38 Victoria Station Walthamstow Central Station Arriva London Clapton (CT) May 10, 2014 26th No
N55 Oxford Circus Woodford Wells Stagecoach London Leyton (T) February 28, 2015 12 No
N73 Victoria Station Walthamstow Central Station Arriva London Stamford Hill (SF) May 14, 2015 13 No

Short Routemaster

Wrightbus offers on the chassis Volvo B5L with its own structure and a so-called Short Routemaster (SRM, short route master), which is in contrast to the New Routemaster 70 cm shorter (10.6 m) and do not have a rear platform with the third door and the second staircase disposes. The front is identical, the sides and the interior also correspond to the New Routemaster style, which simplifies the provision of spare parts for the transport companies that use the NRM. In contrast to the NRM, however, a Volvo 5-liter D5K diesel engine with 240 hp is housed in the longitudinal direction in the rear on the left-hand side, the cooling system was placed above it. The SRM is thus in competition with the other current hybrid double-decker buses such as Wrightbus Gemini or ADL Enviro 400 , which are procured in London. The first six SRMs have been ordered by RATP London for use from September 2016 with the London United bus operator on Line 13 from London Sovereign .

In addition to the (London) version with 10.6 m length and two doors for 66 seats, there is also a version with only one door (as is common with most bus operators outside London) and a version with 11.3 m length for up to 70 seats can be displayed. There is also a kit for dismantling the second door in the middle, which can create four additional seats after it has been used in London and sold to transport companies outside London.

literature

  • John Aldridge, Gavin Booth et al .: Boris's Bus The New Bus for London . Capital Transport, 2013, ISBN 978-1-85414-369-3 (English)

Web links

Commons : New Routemaster  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. https://tfl.gov.uk ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tfl.gov.uk
  2. James Whiting: Boris Johnson's Pledge . In: Boris's Bus The New Bus for London , Capital Transport, 2013, ISBN 978-1-85414-369-3
  3. www.metroline.co.uk , a subsidiary of Comfort Delgro
  4. Dirk Sombrutzki: Next Stop Piccadilly Circus · The bus traffic in London . In: Omnibus-Nachrichten , Issue 4–13, pp. 8–25, Verlag Dieter Hanke, Bonn 2013, ISSN  1432-3923
  5. Daniel Boffey, London's 'Boris bus' reaches end of road as Sadiq Khan halts purchases , in: The Guardian, December 31, 2016, accessed January 1, 2017
  6. Rüdiger Schreiber: Expected with great anticipation · Routemaster successor being tested . In: Omnibusspiegel , 33rd year, issue 11-5, pp. 24/25, Verlag Dieter Hanke, Bonn 2011, ISSN  0724-7664
  7. a b c d Route 8 and 38 now served by New Routemaster buses Transport for London, July 2, 2014
  8. a b Route 9 to be served by iconic New Bus for London from Saturday Transport for London, October 21, 2013
  9. a b Route 10 to operate New Routemasters from Saturday Transport for London, April 24, 2014
  10. Second Borismaster route named ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Bus & Coach Professional , June 4, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.busandcoach.com
  11. a b c Route 55 and 15 to be served by New Routemaster buses Transport for London, January 26, 2015
  12. Mayor announces first bus route to be fully served by iconic new bus for London fleet Transport for London, January 25, 2013
  13. ^ Commissioner's Report Transport for London, February 6, 2013
  14. a b Route 73 to be served by New Routemaster buses ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Transport for London, May 15, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / tfl.gov.uk
  15. ^ Route 137 to be served by New Routemaster buses Transport for London, December 1, 2014
  16. ^ Route 390 to be served by New Routemasters from Saturday Transport for London, December 5, 2013
  17. ^ A b New Routemaster buses on route 453 Transport for London, October 2, 2014
  18. Stuart Jones: Son of Routemaster . In: Buses & Coach Buyer , issue 1371 from March 25, 2016, AT Graphics, Peterborough 2016; Pp. 20–22 (English)