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Post by busdryver on Jan 20, 2021 14:16:55 GMT
The fleet does appear to be in a bit of disarray, but the piece of the puzzle you are missing is that most buses are leased not owned, so even if you scrap them you have the monthly lease payment plus their value at the end. The most plausible explanation is that with additional buses in the fleet, they are all being worked through to ensure that when the number of spare buses reduces dramatically, they are all in a good state. From what I can see, there are many vehicles in the refurb line at the moment, so maybe 45108 will join them when the refurbished ones join back in to the fleet. Three or four weeks? I have been involved in leases in a former job, and what you say is correct about possible end of lease costs. However if they are leased, then monthly payments are probably being made for a number of unusable buses. There is a financial trade off between continuing to pay (every month) for dead buses, and settling any balance. I know the first 20 were subsided by a Green bus fund, so part of their cost was sunk decade ago. As 20 of them are now just over 10 years old probably don’t have much of a book value, or return value. Interestingly the 5 HDEs (and 2 early ADHs) were offloaded at a slightly younger age, As these weren’t unsubsidised buses either, I find it hard to believe that the financial position of trying to keep 100% of the fleet as active is more attractive than withdrawing 2 or 3 (not 5-7 as I originally suggested) to create a pool of spares isn’t viable. If none are withdrawn then money has to be spent anyway buying extra spare parts, some of which may be special orders so not cheap. Notwithstanding any thoughts above, every bus is needed during the summer, so there will simply not be anything that can replace them / this is why it looks like a concerted effort is happening to get them all up to speed so that when the new routes arrive, there are sufficient buses. Remember that if a bus is withdrawn from a TfL contract, an identically age and spec (or better) will need to be provided as well as a refurb - most of the early ADHs will have recently been refurbished as well, so that’s another cost to look atX
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Post by busdryver on Jan 20, 2021 14:13:58 GMT
Surely if the buses are not fit for use it would be up to the leasing company to cancel the lease or send replacements. Responsibility for maintenance and upkeep is with RATP not the lessor.
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Post by busdryver on Jan 20, 2021 8:33:57 GMT
The use of VH45108 (which should really be in the refurb queue prior to its move to Wandsworth) is due to dire state of the 60reg and 62reg ADH From what I can gather of the 49 buses 1 is withdrawn 3 are officially VOR but missing parts 10 are out of service requiring work So only 35 (less than 75%) are usable currently (and that assumes others don’t become defective) If I was the engineering manager I would be pushing for 5-7 withdrawals, so parts could be used to keep remainder of fleet operational, but I suppose with all the pending route gains that would leave a shortfall of hybrids (although in practical terms bigger shortfall currently), so might need to source replacements Be interesting so see what happens here, will money be spent getting parts to revive all dead ones, or will some be authorised to die The fleet does appear to be in a bit of disarray, but the piece of the puzzle you are missing is that most buses are leased not owned, so even if you scrap them you have the monthly lease payment plus their value at the end. The most plausible explanation is that with additional buses in the fleet, they are all being worked through to ensure that when the number of spare buses reduces dramatically, they are all in a good state. From what I can see, there are many vehicles in the refurb line at the moment, so maybe 45108 will join them when the refurbished ones join back in to the fleet. Three or four weeks?
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Post by busdryver on Jan 17, 2021 20:32:21 GMT
VH 45163 on thé E3 today, with FW garage codes. Is this a permanent transfer or a loan? I might be wrong here but I think they are to cover the large amount of ADHs that are VOR. VH45163/VH45164/VH45108/VH45124 perhaps all covering for the VOR ADHs? I think that is spot on - Lots of long term VOR by the looks of things!
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Post by busdryver on Jan 17, 2021 20:02:43 GMT
ADE40491 - SN13CHC ADE40492 - SN13CHD ADE40493 - SN13CHH ADE40494 - SN13CHK What route are these ADE's for? I believe they are destined for Epsom for now, so that the ADHs that are temporarily there can go to refurb before the ADH’s next assignment from later in the year...
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Post by busdryver on Jan 17, 2021 15:58:26 GMT
The MCL's on the 413 are going onto the 117 later this year. E200s to Sutton for 413 Is it known which E200's are going to be used on the 413 when Go-Ahead take it back, are they going to be from RATP's fleet or Go-Ahead's own fleet of SE's? I know there are a few spare DLE's that could transfer over from the loss of the 391. If the 80 goes double deck however then that will release 6 65 reg E200's for the 413 according to vjaska 's fleetlist, but two more buses will be required to meet the 413's PVR All of the 391 DLEs went on to the 110 and H22 - no spares there... No RATP E200s will move, just the WS and OM’s...
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Post by busdryver on Jan 15, 2021 20:15:27 GMT
It does appear that RATP have been ramping up their refurbishments ready for their new contracts later on in the year. This has resulted in a number of SPs being dragged all across London leading to some rather messy allocations. On top of this there seems to be a number of ADHs not in use (whether it’s for refurbishment or maintenance) meaning VH45108/163/164 have had to cover for them at V presumably being sent there instead of HH for refurbishment. So to summarise some of the moves: SP40026 - AV to FW SP40052-55 - FW to AV SP40071-74 - HH to FW SP40076-78 - AV to FW SP40087 - AV to SO SP40089-97 FW to SO What I find strange is that SP67-87 were allocated to the 183, but since the loss of the 139 these have been dispersed across the company in a somewhat random fashion (with the exception of SP87 which has been at AV for a few years now). To make up for the Gemini 2s being refurbished, FW sent over some of its SPs to SO. AV also sent over SPs that transferred from FW when the 19 reg VHs were allocated to the 65. FW (now short of vehicles due to VHs getting a spruce up) have now got London Sovereign SPs exclusively allocated to the 281, I’m guessing because they still have AV blinds, and SO now have London United vehicles. So what I’m wondering is if all of SP40041-97 will eventually end up at AV to oust the 10 reg Scanias, or if this is just a random mess because these vehicles are to be withdrawn once the electric vehicles arrive. I think that the apparent mess has been caused by the unexpected reduction in school work. This has resulted in a lot of vehicles becoming spare at AV and HH, which in turn have resulted in temporary loans to FW. What we don’t know is when the leases on each batch finish, and it may be this tidying (or messing) up of the fleet is leading the movements - the 2010 Scanias are all contracted to the H98 now, so I don’t see these moving again. There appear to be a lot of buses VOR at V, so these apparent temporary loans seem to be to cover them rather than anything more permanent, especially as VH45108 is in original condition and not refurbished yet - it looks like many of the other ex-139s are away somewhere being refurbished, so would expect the fleet to be quite fluid over the coming months.
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Post by busdryver on Jan 14, 2021 12:02:55 GMT
So the 28 is due to use 20/23 of the 13-reg VHs, will the 639/670 use the remaining 3 and also operate from Wandsworth? I notice the 'Upcoming Changes' thread listed them to be ran from Tolworth and using Gemini 3 from the 406/85 but I had thought it was already mentioned that 28/639/670 would all operate from Wandsworth using the 23 13-reg VHs. TVR of the 28 is 21 buses, and the other two are for the 639/670 - all to be operated by Wandsworth. 23 VHs ex-Route 139, which appear to be going through refurbishment at the moment
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Post by busdryver on Jan 14, 2021 11:39:17 GMT
But what an improvement over the old website - I am sure that there will no doubt be other minor mistakes, but in general it is a great improvement. Incidentally, most of the other mistakes highlighted appear to have been corrected. Either someone keeps an eye on this medium or they are reviewing things in any case as they go. Well there is no better critic's than us miserable lot. Is the 4 electric garage comment correct!? I only know of Fulwell and Harrow, but there may be other plans that involve another garage having some electric buses.
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Post by busdryver on Jan 14, 2021 11:17:31 GMT
Regarding the paragraph on Epsom garage, isn't EB RATP's only garage outside of London? TV, HH etc are all within Greater London rather than Surrey Yes... Another mistake! But what an improvement over the old website - I am sure that there will no doubt be other minor mistakes, but in general it is a great improvement. Incidentally, most of the other mistakes highlighted appear to have been corrected. Either someone keeps an eye on this medium or they are reviewing things in any case as they go.
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Post by busdryver on Jan 10, 2021 19:16:11 GMT
Oh is Holloway getting more charging points next year? Is it just to top up the existing infrastructure. Does HH still have a small number (a legacy from the 4 trial metrocities, before they moved to Arriva) It was AV, and the chargers went with the buses to Arriva.
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Post by busdryver on Jan 10, 2021 19:14:09 GMT
Does anyone know were WS 20274 is as its been missing for ages? Was a Wrightbus demonstrator - returned to Wrights a long while ago...
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Post by busdryver on Jan 10, 2021 18:43:41 GMT
It would add up to use the Citaros plus the 5 spare vehicles from the 283 for the 117. Also for all we know RATP were only bidding with new buses due to the Belmont extension. That’s what I understand will happen, albeit you only need two of the 283 buses to get to the TVR of 11...
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Post by busdryver on Jan 10, 2021 18:06:53 GMT
The 413 was out to tender anyways so RATP likely considered not worth bidding for out of TV when the route runs so close to Sutton Garage and that there is a chance the Citaros helped to win the 117 instead that runs closer to AV or HH. With potentially 10 year old buses allowed, Go ahesd could take it on with the 61 and 65 reg off the 80. But the Citaros are moving with the 413 to Go-Ahead as I understand so how does that help to win the 117? Has that been confirmed? I believe that they are not going with the Route.
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Post by busdryver on Jan 10, 2021 17:42:37 GMT
SP40089 AV —> SO, on Route 183
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