Before I say anything about the Electric Buses, I would like to say a happy birthday to London Buses On The Go. It's been an eventful year and I'd like to thank all of our viewers to help me get this far with blogging.
Anyway, Electric Buses. Back in 2012, it was announced that Go-Ahead would be ordering two electric vehicles for use on routes 507/521. They have only been in service on route 507 although I have seen EB2 not in service on High Holborn, on the 521 route. I have pictures of these buses later in this post. The buses tend to run on weekdays and in peak hours although lately EB2 has been staying up until 00:00 on route 507. These buses have been built by the Chinese company Build Your Dreams (BYD for short). They are based at Waterloo garage where charging facilities have been installed. TFL managing director Leon Daniels said that with a PVR of 50 buses for the 507/521 and an off-peak requirement for half this number, the former Red Arrow routes are the obvious safe first step for these vehicles. The shortest duty for these buses lasts 2 hours, with the longest being 17 hours.
The BYD's are 12m long and like the Mercedes Citaro Diesels that normally work the routes are of a half-standee layout with just 21 seats mostly situated towards the rear of the vehicle. They have a constant whine when moving and it is quieter than a regular Citaro, although not as quiet as the silent trolleybus. After the BYDs, TFL will introduce four 10.6m Optare MetroCity electric single-deckers in the next few months. They will be based at London United's Hounslow (AV) garage to test the opportunity for partial recharging during the day-time.
I will be off to get the MetroCities, but for now here are the BYD buses:
First we have some garage photos on the 19th December 2013.
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| The rear of EB1, in the garage. You can get a glimpse of the charging facilities in this picture. |
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| The front... |
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| Whole view in the garage. |
Here are the pictures of EB1 in service. I ran from Waterloo Garage to York Road racing this bus. I made it! I was very glad, because I got home later than expected anyway. These were taken on the 20th December 2013.
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| Front end. Note the small front window. |
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| Wheelchair area. |
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| Limited seating room in front area. |
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| Here are the seats!! |
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| Yes, I know. |
Finally, on 16th January 2014 here is EB2 on High Holborn not in service.
Thanks for reading and looking at the pictures in this post!!!
