More Night Tube and New Night Overground

[snoggle]

The media are reporting that the Mayor will announce later the introduction of more Night Tube lines and also the Night Overground from 2017. No comments yet on the actual extent of the extended service provision as I suspect the press releases are embargoed until the Mayor has spoken.

It might also be the case that the Night Bus changes from September emerge but don't hold your breath.

EDIT - BBC article

Sub Surface lines from 2021 (only 6 years to the resignalling then!), DLR from 2021 and Overground (lines not specified) from 2017.

[sid]

The Overground will only be between Highbury & Islington and New Cross Gate but very useful none the less particularly for the Shoreditch area.

[T.R.]

I suppose H&I-New Cross is because that's not Network Rail's jurisdiction?

Will it be the full SSL network or is it a limited service?

[snowman]

The bit of the news article of buses is a bit strange :

Quote : Transport for London confirmed it is ordering 200 more new Routemaster buses this year, followed by 800 new buses each year from 2016 onwards. Unquote

Another 200 orders in 2015 will take it upto 1008 routemasters

TfL ordering 800 buses in 2016 (and subsequent years), this is a major change from the Operators ordering them.

I wonder if someone has screwed up, and it is a repeat of LT609-808 order, and do they mean TfL itself will do the ordering. On the other hand if TfL were to place an order for 800 per year for say 3 or 4 years, they ought to get a much better discount than any individual Operator could, which could save a fortune. It would be a brave bus builder that turns down an order for about 3000 buses.

[Deleted]

People on the BBC London news getting a bit excited for something nearly 6 years away in some cases.

[snoggle]

Feb 20, 2015 20:16:53 GMT snowman said:

The bit of the news article of buses is a bit strange :

Quote : Transport for London confirmed it is ordering 200 more new Routemaster buses this year, followed by 800 new buses each year from 2016 onwards. Unquote

Another 200 orders in 2015 will take it upto 1008 routemasters

TfL ordering 800 buses in 2016 (and subsequent years), this is a major change from the Operators ordering them.

I wonder if someone has screwed up, and it is a repeat of LT609-808 order, and do they mean TfL itself will do the ordering. On the other hand if TfL were to place an order for 800 per year for say 3 or 4 years, they ought to get a much better discount than any individual Operator could, which could save a fortune. It would be a brave bus builder that turns down an order for about 3000 buses.

I think this has all got horribly mangled. I don't believe yet another 200 NB4Ls has been ordered. A Board Paper would be needed and there isn't time to do it and get through the procurement and manufacturing process before April 2016. There is absolutely no point whatsoever in tying the hands of the next Mayor with bus orders that could be cancelled at the drop of a hat.

I also think the "800 buses a year" is just a mix of the normal churn via the tendering process plus some selected replacement of diesels with hybrids plus the envisaged network expansion coming on stream. It is simply not feasible for 800 NB4Ls to be coming through given the next Mayor may well have very different policies and would simply tear up any NB4L order. I don't believe the Mayor can tie his successor with something like bus orders which are relatively low value and short lived assets. Also it only takes a few months to make buses anyway. It's not like you're building Crossrail which takes over 10 years. Clearly new trains or big construction projects for tube lines or housing are a different thing and can't be turned off at short notice.

This stupid "Long Term Economic Balls Up for London" is a half baked wish list crossed with a load of already announced initiatives. I fail to see the point of saying the DLR will run all night in 2021 - that is two Mayoral terms hence and almost certainly after the next Government's term. I don't see how such an announcement has any substance whatsoever given it can be easily reversed. It is just an aspiration as is the Night Sub Surface tube service.