Block put on IT bus deal
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LONDON Transport plan to tend £20 million on 660 single id double deck buses was put cold storage by the Greater ondon Council's transport munittee on Monday.
Instead LT has been given le go-ahead to buy only 50 eyland Nationals, worth £1.2 And it has been told to )me up with more informaon if the rest of its mammoth rder is ever to be taken off the The decision does not help eyland in its desperate search r orders for B15 buses, writes 'M's passenger editor Martin Vatkins.
A report to the committee aid that an early order for 15s from LT "may well be ecessary to prevent the Thole project from collapse." LT wanted to buy 450 eckers, and if the B15 project DIded the order would be for /Ietropolitans.
The committee agreed to now LT to continue negotiaions with Leyland and Mero-Cammell over the future lecker order.
The total 660 order, which ncludes 210 Nationals, is ieeded before 1979, London 'Transport claim, so that it can )hase out the entire fleet of kEC Swifts.
But the committee was con;erned about the problem of lisposing of 700 Swifts on top of the 250 buses that LT are already trying to sell.
LT seems satisfied that the immediate purchase of 50 Nationals can help it over its present overhaul problems, but it regards the order only as a stop-gap.
The transport committee has asked LT to present its future vehicle purchasing policy and give the pros and cons of different vehicles.
The committee seems reluctant to spend much money on buses in view of the uncertain future of bus grant.
It asked LT to consider cheaper makes of double decker, but the Executive stuck to its guns, saying that only the B15 or the Metropolitan would be suitable.
If the whole LT plan for 660 buses for delivery between 1977-79 is agreed, the 1977 base budget for expenditure eligible for transport supplementary grant would have to be increased by £2.4 million.