Route 11 to start operating with New Bus for London
· Routes 9 & 390 will also convert to iconic new buses before end of year
· New buses significantly cut emissions and improve air quality
· Manufacture boosts economy across UK
New Bus for London vehicles will become an increasingly familiar sight for passengers on route 11 from Saturday (21 September), as the route becomes the second in the capital to convert to this iconic, green mode of public transport.
Route 11, which is operated by Go Ahead, runs from Liverpool Street Station to Fulham Broadway, via Bank, Mansion House, St Paul’s, Ludgate Circus, Fleet Street, Aldwych, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, Victoria, Sloane Square and Chelsea. When the route has fully converted, 25 New Bus for London vehicles will be in passenger service during peak periods.
The buses will be introduced on route 11 over several days, from 21 September, and will be responsible for carrying the 23,000 people who travel on the route each day.
It follows the first bus route to be converted to operate entirely with New Bus for London vehicles – the 24 – which runs between Hampstead Heath and Pimlico.
The New Bus for London is the greenest diesel electric hybrid bus in the world. In tests a prototype bus was found to emit a quarter of the NOx (Oxides of Nitrogen) and harmful ‘PM’ particles of a fleet average hybrid bus and 20 per cent less CO2. When all 600 New Bus for London vehicles are in service in 2016 they will reduce CO2 emissions in the capital by around 20,600 tonnes a year.
The buses are manufactured by the family-owned Wrightbus company in Northern Ireland. The order for the 600 New Bus for London vehicles has resulted in the opening of a new chassis plant in Antrim and the safeguarding of 220 jobs, including 18 apprenticeships and the creation of 50 new jobs.
As well as the manufacture of the chassis and superstructure in Northern Ireland, a number of components for the new bus are made by companies from around the UK; including engines from Darlington, seats from Telford, seat moquette from Huddersfield, wheelchair ramps from Hoddesdon (Hertfordshire), destination blinds from Middleton near Manchester and flooring from Liskeard (Cornwall). All of these companies have received a boost as a result of the new bus project.