.120m plan for 660 bus order
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ider contract with Leyland, lowing London Transport's vn overhaul facilities to confitrate on double-deckers.
Double-deckers would be ied on all routes except here single-deckers were !.eded because of physical strictions along the roads.
The transport committee is -essing the main council for -gent decisions on both doue and single deck ordering )licy. The combined order is orth E20m.
If an order can be placed ith British Leyland before hristmas, the Leyland Nama's can be bought at a )od price with an assured 'mediate delivery of 120.
The transport committee's !commendations are based a lengthy report from LT, hich gives three alternative )urses of action.
(1) Order no new buses and [crease overhauls by 300 per (2) Order 450 new deckers to !place most of the Swifts and )me early Fleetlines. (3) Order 450 deckers and' 270 single-deck buses to replace all the Swifts and Nationals by Metro-Scania buses. The units of both double and single deck buses of this type could then be overhauled together at Aldenham works, Because of the insufferable problems of overhauling more than 600 buses a year, LT says that new buses must be bought over the next three years and it is sensible to replace the awful AEC Swifts, a large number of which are standing derelict in garages.
Routemasters, cheap to run and reliable, should be retained and overhauled for use on central area routes until the results of the Havering ticketing experiments show whether all central buses could become one-man operated.
The high cost (E8m to £15m per year) of operating doored buses (with two-man crews) in place of the existing Routemaster fleet, means it is worth going to some lengths to retain the RMs.