London order doubts
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LONDON BUSES has still to decide whether to place any bus orders for next year, but is keeping its options open.
Normally, it would be expected to order 260 double deckers as part of its one-person operation route conversion programme, hut its requirements are being diminished by London Regional Transport's tendering process which is allocating 50 per cent or more tendered routes to National Bus subsidiaries and independent operators.
All of the tendered routes are already one-person operated and substantial numbers of relatively modern vehicles are being rendered surplus as a result.
Leyland National 36-seat single-deckers, which London Buses is reluctant to sell to potential competitors. have been moved on to doubledeck routes.
Now London Buses, which is taking delivery of the first of 260 Leyland Olympians in
its 1986 programme, says it is still reviewing whether to go
ahead with a 1987 order pro gramme and has to decide what size that order might be. A break from the 260buses-a-year programme would be a setback for the Laird Group's ambitions of
raking over Leyland Bus and merging it into its MetroGammen Weyman operation as that organisation will regard a London order as important for its future survival.
London's public transport watchdog, the London Regional Passengers' Committee, has meantime found a generally favourable reaction from passengers using the tendered bus services.
According to LRPC chairman Dr Eric Midwinter: "It would appear that in many cases passengers now have a more reliable and, in some cases, more frequent service than they had before, and yet the cost of provision has gone
down. That must he a good thing for all of us.
He says members singled out the W9 route in North London for particular praise which has led to an increase in patronage. This service is operated by NBC subsidiary Eastern National.
However, Dr Midwinter qualified his praise by concluding: "We shall continue IO pay careful attention to all these services in the future and in particular the type of bus used — the one area about which we remain slightly uneasy because of the great importance which we attach to the ease of accessibility."