AYO EDUKATIF

This is good news for those of you who use the Shenfield Branch which is operated by  Abellio Greater Anglia.  The media claims that Abellio Greater Anglia is the  ‘ most hated ’  operator, however, users will pleased to hear that TFL is taking over the Shenfield Branch and also the Romford to Upminster service. This is a follow up to my  previous article published  on 15 th  February 2015 in which I first made the readers aware of the planned takeover by TFL of  Abellio Greater Anglia. Below is TFL's  press release  for the TFL rail service which is coming shortly on 31 st  May 2015. “ The Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) today announced new fares for key commuter rail services out of Liverpool Street when they join the TfL network at the end of May. It will mean 80 per cent of pay as you go fares on those routes will be lower with the remainder unchanged. Some fares will fall by as much as 40 per cent. On  Sunday 31 ...

TFL is 'consulting' to the public because they want to introduce more night bus services to make more connections in line with their ‘ Night Tube ’ service. From TFL's Consultation Night Bus services in London have increased beyond recognition in the last 30 years. This reflects and supports changes to London’s vibrant night time economy. The current comprehensive Night Bus network means that most of zones 1 and 2 are within walking distance of a Night Bus route, and London’s suburban Night Bus service is also amongst the most comprehensive in the world. There is every indication that night time travel in London will continue to grow. From  September 2015 , we will be running a  Friday and Saturday Night Tube service on the Jubilee, Victoria and most of the Piccadilly, Central and Northern lines . This means that many of our customers will now have a choice between Night Tube  or Night Bus. Our analysis indicates that customers who take the tube instead of the bus for all...

News has come in that  London Buses  Route 173 has been re-awarded to  Arriva London  with New Double Deck buses. The Peak Vehicle Requirement (PVR) will increase from 12 buses to 15 buses. Currently, the route uses the  Enviro200  Single Deck Buses and they will be upgraded to Double Deck buses by October 2015. The exact start date is  17 th  October 2015,  which is the start date of the new contract for Arriva London. Route 173 starts from Little Heath (King George Hospital)and goes to Beckton Bus Station (for Docklands Light Railway) via Chadwell Heath, Becontree Heath, Dagenham and Rippleside; it operates from Barking (DX) Garage. In other news, coming from  London Omnibus Traction Society  (LOTS) on Tender renewals... The following TfL contracts have been announced today: Tranche 494 ·           174  re-awarded to Stagecoach East London with existing diesel double deck, PVR 21, ...

TFL have recently published their press release regarding Route 73's conversion to New Routemaster vehicles on 15 th  May 2015. Route 73 to be served by New Routemaster buses: TfL has announced that the next bus route to be served entirely by New Routemaster buses will be route 73. A phased conversion of the route, which is operated by Arriva and runs between Victoria and Stoke Newington, via Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch, Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road, Euston, King's Cross St Pancras, Angel and Essex Road is now underway. The route, and the N73 route, will be running entirely with New Routemaster buses from July. During peaks hours, 53 of these state of the art buses will be in passenger service to carry the 35,000 people who travel on the route each week day. Route 73 will operate with the rear platform closed when the bus is moving, with large numbers of passengers able to quickly board and alight using all three sets of doors and two staircases at bus stops. To date t...

The original plan for the  ‘ New Bus for London ’  (yes their original name) rollout was to have 600 vehicles deployed by April 2016, but the the  Surface Transport Panel has revealed on their  ‘ 2015/16 Surface Plan and Update on Performance Targets ’  paper that their target for 600 New Routemasters has been moved forward to 31 st October 2015. What is also interesting is that their 2015/2016 budget is  £ 110 million for the New Routemaster vehicle purchase which includes the extra 200 vehicles. The completion date for the total of 800 New Routemasters is by March 2016. The Estimated Final Cost for the New Routemaster project is  £ 286 Million. I will emphasise again that the project is nearly  £ 300 million! The original cost for the project, with the fleet of 600 buses was  £ 224 million. The order for the extra 200 buses, which brings the total to 800, started in October 2014. The reason why they want to order them is because TFL board m...

London Bus operator  Tower Transit , a subsidiary company of  Transit Systems  from Australia won a contract to operate bus services in Singapore. They will be operating 28 bus routes in Singapore from a fleet of 380 buses under contract to  Land Transport Authority , a governing body from Singapore. Their operations will commence in the second quarter of 2016. From the LTA Press release: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded the contract for the first bus package to Tower Transit Group Limited. Starting from the second quarter of 2016, Tower Transit, a bus operator from the U.K.,  will operate the new Bulim Bus Depot and 26 bus services from the Jurong East, Bukit Batok and Clementi Bus Interchanges . Tower Transit will get an estimated total fee of  $556.0 million over the five-year contract period . Tower Transit was set up in 2013 by shareholders of Transit Systems, which has operated public bus networks in Australia since 1996. Tower Transit h...

I have decided to take my time and draw a table to compare the fares with the publicly owned and regulated bus services. The services are regulated and the operations contracted out to private bus operating companies. For example, London Buses contract their routes to bus operating companies and their transport authority, and Transport for London organise the fares. Another example is that of ‘ Liberty Bus ’ services, which are provided by the Jersey government but the  operations  are contracted to a company called  CT Plus . Most of the operators are owned by the local government, for example, Cardiff Bus is owned by Cardiff Council and Dublin Bus is owned by Transport for Ireland from the Irish Government. So here is the list of the adult fares for regulated bus services in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. 2015 bus fares for publicly owned/regulated bus service Publicly owned bus service Adult Fare single (Cash) Adult Fare (Smartcard) D...