Somewhat out of the blue FirstGroup have announced the sale of eight of their bus garages in the capital. First began a rationalisation of their bus operations last year, and further sales had been expected, but eight garages is more than many expected. The full press release is below. As part of FirstGroup’s stated strategy to reposition its UK Bus division to focus on those areas that offer the greatest potential for growth, it has today announced the sale of … Continued

One of the London Bus Network’s least known features (second, perhaps, only to the fact that there is actually no such a thing as a “compulsory stop”) has long been the existence of the “transfer ticket.” Transfer tickets were created to deal with the issue of the short termination of bus services. Should a bus terminate early, then the driver of the terminating service could print out a complete list of all Oyster PAYG and cash fares currently on the … Continued

TfL have released a press release confirming that Route 24 (Hampstead Heath – Pimlico) will be the first London bus route to be fully served by the New Bus for London. Although actual timings are yet to be clarified, it is intended that the route be fully converted by the end of summer 2013. It will not be the first time that a hybrid has graced the route, as the 24 was used to trial Enviro 400H hybrids back in … Continued

Transport news, like London buses, often seems to come in clumps. With the various recent announcements it would thus be easy to miss that TfL have published their draft Business Plan for the next decade. Due to the amount of information the Plan contains, several LR authors found themselves casting their eyes upon it, and thus we have decided to combine our efforts below. Setting the Scene Pedantic of Purley: Before we look at the details it probably makes sense … Continued

It is with great sadness that London Reconnections has learned of the death of Colin Curtis, at the age of 86. Colin was a key figure in the history of London Buses, and his book – “40 Years with London Transport” – and his lectures played a considerable part in developing this author’s understanding of the London Bus world. Rather than writing our own obituary, we feel it would be more appropriate to look to someone who knew Colin better. … Continued

With the Olympics and Paralympics over, September brings something of a return to normal for London’s Transport network. On the Underground, this means the unfortunate (but sadly necessary) return to weekend closures. In the corporate offices of TfL, however, it means it is time for a Board Meeting – along with the Commissioner’s Report and its accompanying appendices, which are always well worth digging into. This September’s Board Meeting was no different, with the Commissioner’s Report itself providing some interesting … Continued

It appears that TfL are currently looking to remove road-side ticket machines (RTMs) on the bus network, with a public consultation on this now online here. RTMs are largely a legacy of the pre-Oyster age, when their presence as a “Pay Before You Board” option helped speed up bus boarding in Central London and various high traffic areas outside of that. 420 RTMs apparently remain, from which a single cash fare can be purchased. The plan under consultation would see … Continued

With just two weeks to go until the start of the Olympics, London’s transport system is gearing up for what could be one of its most challenging six weeks: ferrying an extra one million passengers to and from Olympic and Paralympic venues, as well as having to cope with the usual daily commuters. Get ahead of the Games is a highly publicised website advising how to get around during the Games, and can be accessed here. Below are some key … Continued

It appears that the weekend just passed was the 100th anniversary of London Bus Route 38 – an anniversary we’re embarrassed to admit we hadn’t spotted was imminent. Luckily Diamond Geezer didn’t, and thus those interested in finding out a bit more about the celebrations on the route yesterday can do so on his site here. If any spotters attended the day’s events and took pictures, please do get in touch and we’ll include a selection here.