Year 2025

I write this in 2025 with baited breath.

"The definition of madness is repeating the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome."

So this is more so a recap of when contract changes or changes route or bus consultations happened. Anything extra is a plus.

With that out of the way, enjoy the read.

<   Year 2024 recap                Year 2026 unavailable   >

January

1st: A start to the year, the 101 begins it's conversion to BYD BD11s.

This is from last year but, Oxford Street pedestrianisation-related bus changes not to be revealed until 2026. As of 21 November 2025, plans have been revealed.

Meta (company of Facebook) has announced AI users generating content on Instagram and Facebook, these users having their own bios and profile pictures and can share content, confirming long-known conspiracy of Dead Internet Theory...

United States Department of Treasury and Telecom companies got hacked by China. So far, unclassified documents to worry about.

2nd: Judges using Virtual Reality headsets to recreate experiences of the defendant may start to become a larger phenomenon, such a thing actually happened.

Class action lawsuit against Honey, a browser extension that supposedly gives you discount codes upon your purchase, but many users including myself never seen such, instead the company stealthily reaped millions from anyone they sponsored, including large YouTubers.

More BYD BD11 buses for Metroline in store, but at RATP's Stamford Brook (V) in addition to some right by Park Royal (RP).

Renfe had to withdraw their Talgo Avril high-speed trains due to software-related difficulty operating in the year of 2025.

Some 358 Citaro C2s have moved to Carousel Buses, another Go-Ahead division.

3rd: RATP OME46036 caught fire.

4th: School routes 624 625 658 move from Bexleyheath (BX) to Morden Wharf (MG) ahead of daily routes 51 244 486 move in order to make space for incoming wins from Arriva at BX.

Route 108 moved from Morden Wharf (MG) to New Cross (NX) starting service there with far more ex-Red Arrow BYD Enviro200EVs than 108 has seen, enough to make a majority of 108's allocation with assistance from MECs that have moved in, prior to this a part allocation of two buses running from NX from the days of Irizar i2e EI1 and EI2 operating on the route when MG didn't (and still hasn't) electric infrastructure.

Also making a transfer is the 257, returning to Leyton (T) from Lea Interchange (LI) having stayed at the latter temporarily for a few months.

Someone made Doom playable on a Capcha... again.

6th: Route 279's electrification has begun.

Delivery of BYD BD11s for Arriva's Palmers Green (AD) Superloop SL1 underway.

7th: Grove Park Bus Station permanently closes, rebuilt into bus stands only, creating stand space for new route SL4. Route 136 and 181 will terminate and start at the stop prior/next, 136 temporarily goes to Mottingham Roundabout out of service to turn around. Route 181 curtailed to Downham, the 171 supposedly reverted to using Catford Bus Garage to stand since 171s currently use Downham to turn around, made difficult when there are 181s on stand... in reality 171s are still using Downham to turn around.

Consultation launches on West Midlands bus franchising. If successful, roll out begins in 2027.

Matthew Somerville's Live London Underground and Live London Bus maps have been taken down after two TfL email requests to do so. It is unfortunate, as I found the latter to be excellent, even pivotal whenever London Vehicle Founder was down temporarily.

9th: Wildfire in Los Angeles that forced over 10,000 people to be evacuated, some celebrities included. The amount of deaths and people evacuated has only increased as the fire went on for days. The Mayor of California significantly reducing funding for the Fire Department was a large factor in the Fire Department's high difficulty attempting to contain the wildfires. Foreign help from Canada and Mexico had to stop due to civilians flying drones, risking a Canadian pilot's life.

Transport UK LT164 has crashed.

10th: BBC reports an article 'could we be seeing the end of working from home?' whereby companies like Amazon and Metropolitan Police have semi-forced employees to work 3 days in the office... but can't be enforced due to lack of office space and legitimate reasons for employees; e.g flexible working plan.

A Go-Ahead SEe seen on a route test in Woolwich, hinting at a potential conversion of either 244 or 469. Perhaps none.

Another bus crash, this time in Lewisham, Go-Ahead EH191 rear ended another Go-Ahead E400 MMC hybrid.

11th: 51 244 486 624 658 move from Bexleyheath (BX) to Morden Wharf (MG) to make space for incoming 99 269 401 at Bexleyheath (BX)

First of two days where Fastrack services in Kent are free, in cooperation between Go-Ahead and Kent County Council.

141 323 329 retained on this date

12th: Second and last day of Fastrack free bus fare day.

13th: Weekend night service on 319 withdrawal consultation. It was suspended since the COVID pandemic.

440 temporarily cutback from Wembley to Stonebridge Park due to roadworks.

14th: BYD BD11s enter service on 473, several of them.

Middle of January

15th: Freedom of Information request regarding route 28; option 1 routes 18 and 28 to remain as-is, option 2 route 28 rerouted and extended via Harlesden to Craven Road, option 3 rerouted to Willesden Junction, option 4 cutback to Elgin Avenue. This is after the publicised capacity issues of route 18 where passengers are left behind in the Kensal Town area, especially when 18 has a hit to reliability. None of these have progressed which implies the Benefit to Net Cost wasn't the 2:1 they usually aim for.

Uno have acquired two more ex-RATP Enviro400s to their collection, ADE40437 (now 1496 1497) and ADE40472 (now 1497 1496).

16th: Go-Ahead SE236 had a fire whilst on route 470, seemingly no injuries, minor damage to the bus.

Fun fact: 132's pantograph-chargeable BYD Enviro400 EVs coded EP, have a smaller battery pack than the very identical non-pantograph charging Ee class. Relying on the pantograph to make the difference... unfortunately requires a part replacement so it is offline.

SpaceX Starship 7 explodes mid-flight, hours after Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched it's first successful flight into orbit. 

17th: River Road (RR) school routes converted to BYD BD11 buses not yet usable for their allocated routes as the school routes release usable buses to send to Bexleyheath (BX) tomorrow for 99 269 and 401.

Likewise, 316 has started it's comversion of electrics at Willesden Junction (WJ) with 10.8m Volvo BZLs coded VMSL.

18th: Route 347 withdrawn without replacement (capacity surplus provided by 346 from it's merger with 497).

Also, the awaited win of 99 269 401 has happened, all together again, together won by Arriva and together lost from Arriva. They all await new electric double deckers but in the meantime they sport existing diesel Enviro400s released from the electrifications of 101 and 320 (whom is using 333's buses).

Last 99: T310 at 01:25

Last 269: DW458 at 01:01

Last 401: T303 at 00:45

First 99: E125 at 04:35

First 269: WVL461 at 05:00

First 401: WVL425 at 05:41

The 312 and 433 had minor reroutes in Croydon, 312 towards Norwood Junction changed to use Croydon Flyover and Park Lane instead of St George's Walk and Park Street. The 433 changed to depart directly from Park Lane instead of using Park Street and St George's Walk.

Route 198 moved from Thornton Heath (TH) to Norwood (N) on this date.

273 422 B16 SL3 retained on this date

19th: The United States of America has banned TikTok... less than 24 hours later has also unbanned it. Some people in Canada, the UK and others have been affected miraculously.

20th: Broken bus wash for a while at Croydon (TC) and Thornton Heath (TH) which resulted in a relatively new Electroliner appearing dark with black stains on the bottom skirt of the bus, in addition to graffiti which has become part of Croydon culture lately.

21st: Enviro200 MMC coded 8347 has returned to it's original owner Abellio who are now Transport UK. The bus was bought back from Go-Coach in time for G1 takeover.

Stagecoach have refurbished B5LH Enviro400 MMC 13095 with a TfL interior, a new first.

An article on 323's temporary deconversion from electric buses to over 11-year old diesel buses turns out to be relatively strong worded and has caused debate due to it's connection with the Silvertown Tunnel Cycle Bus.

23rd: A few days since Elon Musk's controversial Nazi salute done at Trump's Inauguration, subreddits on Reddit are banning links that link to X(Twitter) as a result. Neo-Nazis have been reported to like Musk's salute. Reddit is allowing the bans subreddits are imposing.

24th: Various partial closures on London Underground for repairs, finishing on 26th.

25th: Arriva HV144 crashed on route 432.

Carousel Buses in the Go-Ahead group received all 15 surviving ex-358 MECs (3 burnt in arson fire at Orpington garage, MEC51 in an accident) from Go-Ahead London Metrobus now coded in the 80831-45.

27th: Huyton Travel purchased by Tower Transit, this is ahead of Liverpool bus franchising.

28th: Metroline's Kite Electroliners ordered for 153 have been registered, the 153 will start off using a shorter batch meant for 143 and C11.

Deepseek, a new startup has shot up to popularity becoming #1 in some app stores and became a worldwide phenomenon, instantly broke the US stock market - lowered stock prices of Nvidia (-14.8%! They lost $600 billion by market cap!) and OpenAI. Deepseek singlehandedly providing open-source AI tools and can be run on your local computer for free, OpenAI is ironically closed-sourced for $200 a month using their servers for similar performance to Deepseek.

29th: Trump has attempted deporting Colombian migrants using an US Air Force aircraft but was denied entry into Colombia. Colombia instead used their own military aircraft to take their fellow people home dignified and without handcuffs. A video has went around of people returned from US to Brazil in handcuffs. Other ethnicities being threatened with deportation too (thousands of Africans.)

30th: After many warnings of near misses with aircraft, a collision has happened in Washington D.C. - a military helicopter and an American Airlines airplane actively collided and it actually resulted in the deaths of everyone.

Trump plans to send 30 thousand migrants to Guantanamo Bay as temporary housing, before being deported to their home countries.

31st: Bakerloop consultation. Note the SL11 in the map is a renumber of 472, with stops removed.

Go-Ahead EBD21 seen in a Superloop wrap despite not ordered for one... it has the Bakerloop BL1 branding with Waterloo as a destination! It also carries Bakerloo Line moquette on the lower deck seats. It seems many have lobbied for Waterloo to be a destination for this Bakerloo Line bus service.

Tree pruning work complete along South Eden Park Road, allowing use of double deckers on route SL5.

Network Management Control Centre in TfL responsible for notifying bus drivers of road closures and diversions to do, has been renamed Surface Control Centre. This SCC already exists in relation to road and highway control, perhaps brining the NMCC closer to it's root SCC through better integration.

End of January

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February

1st: The 118 number has drawn it's last breath last night, awaken anew is the 45 number for 118's extension from Brixton to Camberwell Green. The exercise of getting rid of the larger number has been a tried and true method since the merger of 5 and 87 in 2006, resulting in one route between Barking and Becontree Heath instead of two. This upgraded 118 sees a Sunday frequency increase from every 20 into every 15, as well as an increase in early morning service. No changes to it's daytime frequency at every 12... the old 45 (Clapham Park to Elephant & Castle) was every 10 until this date, offering a better frequency albeit heavily paralleled by 35, whereby the only solace was 12 and 171's reduction on Walworth Road giving 45 an extra purpose as a corridor route that can soak up some capacity. The new 45 would have certainly made wonderful use of that every 10 frequency by having uniquely lone sections and a busy flow of people from Mitcham to Streatham as well as further to Brixton, even giving Streatham it's link to Camberwell (linking King's College Hospital is new!) back since Camberwell Station on what is now Thameslink was removed during World War I.

Here's some fun fact for you, the 118 spent more time serving via Clapham Park on it's way to Clapham Common, as well as 118 being older (circa 1936) compared to 45 (circa 1951, but a short iteration a while earlier). The 87 I alluded to earlier was also older than 5. The 118 number may perhaps been possible to retain, but the attempt of removing the 13 number in place of keeping the 82 number, is perhaps fresh in TfL's memory... it's only been seven years!

Control have given up on the final day, some buses 30 minutes late, some 20 or 15 minutes late.

Remember when 118 and N133 had duplicate journeys out of Morden, whereby the last 118s and first N133s started at the same time (this was addressed last year by removing the first two N133 journeys)?

Now we have a new problem where the gap between the last 45 and first N133 at Morden is seemingly 80 minutes!!

What amazing planning!

An unusual delay from the iBus department that allowed the extended 45 to display Elephant & Castle despite being curtailed to Camberwell Green! Thankfully they've not forgotten Morden... if you remember W12 restructure having no iBus changes which was certainly far from ideal on a completely restructured route.

Vehicle extras were drafted in from 207, using 15-reg MMCs bought for 415. The 207 in turn receiving spare refurbishment floats 61-reg freed from 381's seemingly permanent electrification which allowed E400MMCs in Battersea (QB) to be refurbished. Perhaps would have been easier to do a straight swap of 407 to return 407's ex-45 YY67-reg back to the 45, the 407 already allocated the oldest 61-reg hybrids in the fleet.

The 59 was diverted to Clapham Park to replace 45 at that terminus. Front blinds were fine but side destination wasn't changed by this date or shortly after. Clapham Park already on the front blinds of LTs as a 137 curtailment point.

Metroline win 153 for the first time, though it is not it's first time at Holloway (HT). Alas, the route gains new electrics again, this time it is Wright Kite Electroliners of 10.9m length coded WSEL... those have been registered but of course unable to quickly enter service, therefore the shorter 10.2m WSEs ordered for 143 and C11 have taken up service. The 153 is another example of an electric route (at Go-Ahead with Enviro200 EVs) renewed it's contract with another set of electric buses. Ignoring early contract terminations on routes like C3, the 153 is the first example of a full contract with a second batch of new electric buses. Albeit the technicality goes to route 360 whose contract started in mid-December 2024, whom also is due it's new electric buses.

Metroline have another win, 258, seemingly won at a rather hefty price but not as large of a gap of the second and only other bidder... RATP. This route and 18 were the last bids under RATP before the purchase intention by First was made public. The contract to Metroline was awarded with diesel buses, Metroline chose LK10-reg B9TLs, but it seems this is a temporary measure, as hybrid buses have been promised for the 258 later on.

The 299/389/399's long-term contract under Go-Ahead won from Sullivan Buses begins, though prior to this point as a result of Sullivans ceasing operations, it was on a short emergency contract of Negotiated Gross cost terms... unlike Tendered Quality Incentive gross cost contracts - difference here is bonus payment for good performance and before fixed term contracts a bonus 2 years were up for grabs.

Last 118: E146 at 02:05

Last 153: SEe74 at 22:49?

Last 258: ADE40404 at 00:20

First 153: WSE2934 at 04:50

First 258: VWH2045 at 05:09

Another plane crash, this time in Philadelphia, United States. This was a medication evacuation plane, a Learjet 55 (American-French business jet) nosedived into a residential area and combusted, wreckage showering over homes and cars. Plane was registered in Mexico. 6 Mexican people have died.

Go-Ahead EBD11 is the first BYD BD11 to enter service at New Cross (NX) on route 321

41 121 125 343 W4 W6 retained on this date

2nd: USA has announced 25% tariff on most Canadian goods as well as 10% tariff on energy. It will start in two days. Likewise Mexico will be hit with that 25% tariff too, whilst China will only havr a 10% tariff. Later in the day Canada and Mexico announced retaliatory tariffs on the USA's stuffs too!

The first refurbished 1992 tube stock enters service on Central Line proper, instead of the shuttle on the east loop.

3rd: Trump says he will hit Europe with tariffs, this caused the European stock market to fall.

The 640 starts it's life at Greenford (G) after it's move to make space for route 258 which will come to Harrow Weald (HD). Likewise the N98's Willesden (AC) allocation of 6 buses moved to join the 3 buses allocated at HD, therefore the N98 fully from HD and providing 9 buses of freed space during the nights.

4th: Long awaited tender for route 138, whose tender was delayed so much, has been awarded! The 61/261 were 33 tranches after 138's tranche 910. Stagecoach, the winner, has just 5 weeks to secure diesel buses.

Trump was meant to tariff Canada and Mexico but it was delayed... China retaliated with 15% import tax on US liquefied natural gas and coal with 10% tax on crude oil.

In Scandinavia, the worst shooting in Swedish history, at least 10 killed in adult education centre shooting in Orebro, Sweden.

5th: It turns out Metroline are storing new London electric buses at Taffs Wells in Wales, a garage under Adventure Travel which Metroline's parent company owns. The 4's Electroliners are one such example.

7th: Arriva's first Kite Electroliners, EKLs, enter service on 255.

A bus on 466 misjudged a turn and struck a bridge, causing delays to Southern and Thameslink services. The bridge and bus received minor damage.

8th: Mylondon article reveals TfL are looking into changing 154 to improve it's reliability. The options are:

- Increasing service frequencies to West Croydon

- Split the service in half at Wallington, passengers have to switch buses.

- Add more journeys where buses and drivers are available.

A saying of mine a friend liked: "Money talks, but Embarassment yells louder." Sums up TfL and it's political side.

Route 174 operating to timetabled times to test performance, instead of headway - headway is normal on high frequency routes.

36 retained on this date

9th: First president and founding father of Naminia, Sam Nujoma, passed away age 95.

Arriva T163 and Go-Ahead MHV78 crash whilst on routes 250 and 333 respectively

10th: Lewisham had quite the scene, a man brandishing and waving a knife in front of HSBC meant armed police were sent, creating a huge police presence.

Closure of Lambeth Bridge begins. Buses diverted via Vauxhall Bridge (route 3) or Westminster Bridge (route C10). The closure is mainly 'southbound' facing east, though full closures will happen too.

11th: A passenger assaulted a flight crew and opened the emergency exit whilst the Iberia flight, Airbus A320 plane, from Paris Orly to Madrid was taxing on the runway.

12th: By this point, 316 is converting to the correct length of Volvo BZL single deckers of 10.8m length, it's very own batch of VMSLs.

13th: The UK to look into 100 sites to create a few new towns, an attempt to address the housing crisis. If successful, this will be the largest building program in 50 years (i.e before Thatcher.) The aim is 1.5 million homes in 5 years, with each new town housing around 10,000 people.

Middle of February

14th: Slough wants to be apart of Greater London. Transport for London wants the whole of Govia's rail network including Thameslink...?

Rwandair banned from airspace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with what it seemingly an open secret of Rwanda invasion inside DRC's northeast region that borders Rwanda.

15th: Company magazines makes mention of BYD B11Ds for routes 18 and 31... about 59 of them.

17th: Argentina sees it's President advertise a meme crypto coin $Libra, which immediately skyrocketed it's value and then suddenly crashed in value - a rug pull, leading to his citizens whom invested in this to lose their money to the rich.

It seems locals have plead for the unreliable 235 to be converted to double deckers, as it regularly leaves passengers behind.

TE1432 the first of the transferred Enviro400s at Harrow Weald (HD) to enter service, on the 182, these TEs were drafted for the 258 that is using VWs currently.

Go-Ahead SE268 the first diesel to be refurbished with LEDs, as 170 will receive these 65-reg Enviro200s to replace it's 60-reg Enviro200s.

18th: Delta Airlines Mitsubishi CRJ900 plane had turbulence and landed upside down at Toronto Pearson airport. All onboard survived, most injuries were children, infants aren't tied unlike in Europe.

Goldsmith, Kingston, Middlesex and York Unversities are on the brink of bankruptcy.

Among Metroline's BDEs registered is BDE3028 LF74UCK.

Seems if it was RATP's wish, they would convert the 235 to double deck quickly...

19th: 4000 litres of oil spilled threw drain pipes in the Croydon region and is believed to be from a bus garage. Reports of diesel fume smell in the Colliers Wood area led to some presence at Merton (AL) as the garage is on the River Wandle, although the likely culprits are between Beddington (BC), Croydon (C) and Thornton Heath (TH). It was then confirmed as Thornton Heath (TH). This huge quantity of oil spillage is certainly damaging to the environment, reducing ecology of the rivers it flows into.

Route 343 consultation results, TfL will go ahead with the proposes changes.

A shocking article on Former Chief Whip for the Conservative Party, Simon Hart, and his run-in with a spy and a fake taxi.

Netherlands to return Benin Bronzes back to Nigeria.

Another revelation is that in the 14 years of Tory power, only 455 prison spaces added. The 13 years of Labout prior (1997-2010) they added 27,380 prison spaces. As of current, prisons are near maximum capacity, which led to 

Volvo BZL demo MVB1 at Yorkshire, being trialled by First.

20th: Volvo BZL single deck orders for Go-Ahead.

New First bus logos on some RATP buses like VH45189 is confirmed to be true, after some alleged photoshop edits. This is still ahead of a confirmed date or announcement of First Bus taking over RATP operations.

RATP Kite Electroliner WKE37102 seen.

21st: Last day of the 414, this would have been relatively uneventful, but allegedly some bus enthusiasts, supposedly 10, were involved in a fight over deodrant, some hit the windows and some pressing the rear door's emergency open button whilst the buses were moving and all this required police attention. Last bus was ADH45061 at 01:09 on the 22nd.

22nd: In replacement for 414's death last night, the 14 received a frequency increase which couldn't all fit in Putney (AF), thus some buses are now allocated at Waterloo (RA). The buses themselves have been sourced by 61-reg B5LH Gemini 2s moved from East London and allocated to the 22, with some of 22's B5LH Evoseti MHVs allocated to route 14 out of AF.

233 H28 retained on this date

Paris also going for bus franchising model, as Manchester has proven.

23rd: Largest hack in the world has happened, North Korea alleged to have stolen $1.5 billion.

Stagecoach 10189 on route 261 has run someone over...

24th: Route 605 withdrawal consultation.

By this point, Thornton Heath (TH)'s fuel pumps have been decommissioned.

25th: RATP DDE20288 on route 395 crashed was on the receiving end of a crash into a car at Whitmore Road in the evening, this accident killed 1 and injured 3 people. As for damage, windscreen damage and front bumper damage. The car itself planted inside a home's hedge.

26th: TfL now has to find an extra £23million in funding as the government increased employees' National Insurance contributions.

27th: An article details on 154's poor performance, with some buses bypassing Roundshaw, which altogether culminates in a diabolical service.

TfL considering placing their own electric infrastructure at bus garages using London Underground substations in order to speed up bus electrification.

28th: RATP Dev Transit London is no more, enter First Bus London. First owns the RATP Dev Transit London licenses, which happened in an afternoon. RATP's operating licenses have been leased by First Bus, making it fine for most buses running around with RATP logos and operator licenses, some of which have a First Bus logo and RATP operator license legals! First London Bus' headquarters are First's headquarters near Paddington.

A rare occurrence: Great Planetary Alignment! An event where all other 7 planets in the solar system can be seen in the night sky! Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars!

Go-Ahead WSD2 has hit the low bridge on Latchmere Road it's roof damaged in this accident.

29th: Wright launched a subsidiary called Rightec, which will focus on zero emission E-trucks in Left Hand (Europe) and Right Hand (UK/Ireland) configurations, as well as midibuses of 6m and 9m length. These are to be sold in the UK, Ireland the European mainland and these already have orders  from the respective regions.

End of February

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March

1st: First Bus logos start being applied en-masse on the now ex-RATP buses.

Turns out Bakerloop press release cost £13,515.28. Which is a third of the cost of upgrading bus stops along X68 into SL6. Similar cost to vinyls on the Superloopified buses.

55 56 335 397 423 488 H22 H37 H98 retained on this date

Also, English is now an official language in the United States. English is not an official language in Australia, Spanish isn't an official language in Mexico and Japanese isn't an official language in a 98%+ native Japanese speaking land... making Palau the only official Japanese-speaking country due to history and ethnic Japanese there.

2nd: It is said that ex-US government employees are being hired by Russia and China. A true shot in the foot by the Trump administration if true.

3rd: Japan's biggest forest fire in three decades, in the northern city of Ofunato. Five thousand acres of land torched. 4600 people under government issued evacuation, at least one person has died.

4th: By this point, Tesla's share price dropped by 41% after the elections whereby Elon Musk did a Nazi salute.

US pauses military aid to Ukraine. In addition, tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China take effect. The tariff on China has been doubled from 10% to 20% in Trump's administration, which stacks on top of Biden's tariff on Chinese imports. China has immediately responded with a 15% tariff on American imports, particularly with agricultural goods. Canada has drawn up plans, a 25% tariff on $155 billion worth of American goods... friendly reminder, Canada supplies the US with a lot of energy. Mexico likewise will explore tariff and non-tariff retaliations. Canadian populace have voiced their anti-American sentiment and are aiming for alternatives to American goods, as tariffs are taking place.

Also in the US, a chicken rental service has proven to be popular amidst soaring egg price increases, two chickens producing a dozen per week.

5th: Following above tariffs, S&P, the biggest stock market index, reported trillions of dollars lost. After two days, exemptions to tariffs have been granted, mainly automobiles imported from Canada and Mexico.

Irish lawmakers propose a law to allow Irish peacekeepers overseas, this is in light of the US-Ukraine disgrace and subsequent pause of military aid from the US towards Ukraine

Uno unveils new BYD B12 11.8m single deckers with a total capacity of 93 passengers, to be deployed on Electric Shuttle between the Park & Ride site and University of Hertfordshire campuses. With a range exceeding 300 miles. A further 22 on order to arrive between this year and 2026.

6th: Superloop SL11 consultation (renumber of 472).

Intelligence sharing between US and Ukraine has stopped...

South Korean jets in an exercise dropped 8 bombs, one exploded causing no loss of life but there were 15 injured people. Damage to buildings as this was in a residential area, just over a dozen miles from the border with North Korea.

7th: All Paris-bound trains (including Eurostair trains) cancelled after an unexploded World War 2 bomb.

Trump reduces more tariffs, this time it is potash imports, reduced from a 25% tariff to 10%. Potash is vital for US farmers. Ontario Premiere Doug Ford has mentioned the possibility of a 25% tariff on electricity for 1.5 million homes in New York, Michigan and Minnesota.

8th: 655 won by Stagecoach from Arriva.

282 308 415 444 W16 retained on this date

9th: Bus orders announced. Stagecoach with more Electroliners to Bromley (TB) for 61 261 and Lea Interchange (LI) for 58 D8. Arriva opted for integral BYD BD11 double deckers and B11 single deckers to Croydon (TC) for their recently retained routes.

Arriva LT729 found wedged by Tulse Hill's low bridge.

10th: The 257 starts electrification with it's Electroliners entering service. The 242 also sees Volvo BZL double deckers meant for D7, these at 10.9m length believed to be too long for 242's side streets between Hackney and Homerton Hospital.

11th: Cummins and UK Goverment funded project for Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine has concluded, further tests to be conducted against other powertrains, £13 million invested in a test facility.

12th: The start of D6's conversion to spare diesel double deckers in order to release single decker buses indirectly for 138 and 225.

13th: NHS England will be abolished and management be under government control, instead of being at arm-length; private with some government influence.

14th: American Airlines Boeing 737 plane had unusual vibrations, thus diverted to Denver where it's engines set on fire. Everyone was evacuated.

Reports mention Sudan rejected whilst Somalia and Somaliland didn't reply to the US and Israel's plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza to the African countries mentioned.

Middle of March

15th: The 138 and 225 won by Stagecoach from Go-Ahead, both housed at Catford (TL) using existing Enviro200s; the 225 meant to receive ex-W13 Enviro200 MMCs but has obtained the same type from D6 whilst the D6 has been temporarily double decked.

The 225 uses running numbers from when it was previously at TL! 71-76. In contrast, the 138 adopts 101-103 which were part of P4's.

It took until Sunday for the first single-door bus on 225 in the form of 36625 which was substituted... then another came along in the evening, 36538!

161 172 181 284 677 retained on this date

Last 138: 161 at 00:31

First 138: 36625 at 05:34

Last 225: 745 at 01:47

First 225: 37784 at 04:33

Route 273 with fixed bus stops introduced in Horn Park area in conjunction with reroute away from Senlac Road and onto Exford Road

18th: Turns out McGills were interested in purchasing RATP Dev Transit London...

Very soon it will be a decade since the village of Cromar in France has started it's "one family, one hen" policy in partnership with local farms to give free chickens in order to reduce food waste, a large source of methane emissions in the atmosphere. Cromar copied from Pincé who started this in 2012 as a joke, but was a surprising success. About 58% of methane emissions are from food waste. Methane is 80 times worse in contributing to global warming compared to CO2 emissions over a twenty year period. One third of produced food is wasted or lost, resulting in up to 10% greenhouse gas emissions, which is 5 times higher than aviation emissions. Contrast with America who faces egg price skyrocketing and people resorting to pay $600 to loan chickens.

21st: Heathrow Airport and 5000 homes lost power due to a substation fire in Hayes. London Underground uses the National Grid and has backup generators, so the Piccadily Line was unaffected amongst this chaos of diverted planes mainly across Europe (Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, etc) with some few to other UK airports excluding Stansted... though quickly afterward those UK airports reached capacity, Stansted complaining from lack of diversions to them. This proves UK's inadequate infrastructure even more.

22nd: TUK's new Enviro100s for G1 coded 1201-1213. Plans clearly changed later as they're now 1051-1063.

Tesla recalls 46000 Cybertrucks due to glue that deteriorates under weather conditions causing the vehicles to fall apart. In addition, a website has sprung up to target anything made by Tesla due to Elon Musk and especially after the Department of Government Efficiency responsible for many job cuts affecting the people who need the money to survive the hardest, as well as the deportation of civilians elsewhere. Many Tesla charging stations and vehicles have been vandalised with graffiti - even innocent owners who bought the vehicles years ago and some of them being Jew, some graffiti being harmless to the unastute observer whilst many including the Nazi swastika. Some Tesla signs had graffiti "Nazi" under the logo.

169 247 287 482 C10 U5 retained on this date

23rd: Vintage Buses at Wood Green (WN), operating on routes 29 121 144 251 W3

24th: ComfortDelGro changes their logo and brand. Gone is the orange.

New Enviro100EVs for W12 have finally materialised at Walthamstow (AW)

Stagecoach 11385 involved in an accident whilst on route 25 at St Paul's.

25th: Two new Enviro400EVs meant for SL3 sighted at Catford (TL)

26th: Announced the day after a mysterious 352 and 354 tender award from Metrobus to London Central, it is confirmed Go-Ahead have acquired a depot in Lower Sydenham next to Stagecoach's KB and routes 126 162 227 352 354 will move to this new location due to Orpington (MB) electrification taking up valuable space.

27th: South Korea fire, largest wildfire in it's history. 27 people confirmed dead, many more injured. The fire has consumed 35810 hectares of space so far.

Trump announces a 25% tariff on foreign-made car imports.

Go-Ahead EBD25 crashed into a ditch in Biggin Hill whilst on route 320. Two people taken to hospital.

TUK's sole Kite Electroliner for P5 arrives at Walworth (WL)

28th: Optare consider leaving the UK market altogether after a £20million loss and considering shutting down their Yorkshire plant. They blame poor economy and slow uptake of electric vehicles. The latter is false broadly speaking as Yutong has become commonplace in the UK outside London whilst Volvo and Wright have proven to make great buses. More likely if they didn't have products that required a recall and being temporarily withdrawn, as well as having some decent aftercare, their image would have been better to buy vehicles from them.

Superloop SL12 consultation.

Electric bikes to be banned from the London Underground after one nearly exploded. They are banned on buses already, except on Silvertown Cycle Service bus directed towards cyclists due to the tunnel not built to accommodate bike lanes nor is infrastructure friendly to cyclists to approach Silvertown Tunnel.

Go-Ahead's Electroliners coded DEL being delivered to Sutton (A) by swapping a DOE to Waterloo (RA). DEL9 and DEL16 became the first electric buses to service 151.

29th: Nearly two decades ago, the same route had buses with black on yellow blinds to denote it's difference from other stopping services, now it is mainly white on black as normal but the text for "Limited Stop" in all caps is inverted. Yes, it was X68 and is now SL6. It is slightly more frequent than the last time Norwood (N) had the route, still the only other express route that saw zero change from it's change in number to join the Superloop status.

New integral E400EVs using Hanover displays (refurbished HVs use Mobitec) with massive range ordered for this rush hour with-the-flow route where many buses only perform two trips a day, 5 days a week.

However, not all the new buses coded EEs were ready on Monday - SL6's first day, so, stored Electroliners in Brixton (BN) meant for Thornton Heath (TH) have been used in conjunction with almost half of the EEs delivered entering service. The next day on Tuesday the SL6 was fully EE-operated with the type fully mobile.

SL6 became the first London bus route to have the new Enviro400EVs enter service, despite SL3 having them ordered before as well as a few delivered before this date. These SL6 buses in particular have their stop buttons in white instead of red, but they do not stand out against the cream poles of Arriva's interior.

Peculiarly, the front displays on the EEs have their route number on the left as normal on side displays. In addition, the side displays on some were blank. It does seem to fail the DDA regulations specifying route numbers to be as close to the nearside of the bus (where the doors are). The NAVAHO iBus displays were also not functioning for passenger use.

On this date, route R6 was withdrawn, replaced by a reroute of B14 and a Sunday frequency increase on B14 to match R6's frequency. No replacement to B14 as R11 provides enough capacity. The last R6 was vandalised by bus enthusiasts, one offside window was smashed.

Last R6: 167 at 23:38

Last SL6: EH218 at 20:22

First SL6: EE1 at 05:57

Route 343 cut from Aldgate to Tower Gateway.

Route 434 finally rerouted in Kenley finally happened, a full year and 4 weeks after the other Croydon/Sutton changes in early March 2023.

TUK Kite Electroliner for route P5 enters service on C10.

London Bus Museum running day on route 19

68 468 B14 R1 R2 R3 R4 R8 R11 retained on this date

31st: Uno takes operation of Potters Bar local residential route PB1, operated out of Potters Bar (PB) for a long time.

Route 405 loses it's 50mph section as the sections of A23 have speed limit changes, from 50mph to 40mph and 40mph to 30mph.

Turns out there is spare capacity at Temple Mills depot for any daring company to offer a Cross Channel train service, allegedly Eurostar aren't pleased with this news of potential competition.

TUK Enviro200 MMC 8156 on route H26 was on the receiving end of a crash in Feltham, the car itself burst into flames. The bus then also caught fire. 3 people confirmed dead, presumed car passengers.

End of March

——————————————————————

April

1st: Fake tenders, fake rare workings. What else?

Trump administration may have sent an innocent man to El Salvador prison camp. European Commission considering to close the European Union market to American goods.

2nd: RATP First London seemingly reducing Park Royal (RP)'s role in it's own authority as it has become a satellite of Stamford Brook (V)

An Enviro400EV demo may have been sighted at Merton (AL)

3rd: Trump launches tariffs against basically the world, ranging from 10% to 54% and he has included the uninhabited islands in Antartica, McDonald Island and Heard Island. Both administered by Australia. British Indian Ocean Territory, which is uninhibated and contains US military bases has also been slapped with tariffs thereby effective tariffing itself! This has tanked the US Stock Market.

5th: As a result of N271 being joined into 263's contract, it is (internally?) known as N263, thus the contract is 263/N263 instead of 263/N271. 

263 432 retained on this date

Land Rover suspends exports to the US, following the tariff debacle.

6th: Night route N271 renumbered N263, no change otherwise.

7th: Silvertown Tunnel open date! That means route SL4 start date! All bus routes in the tunnels are free for a year - 108 129 SL4 and Silvertown Cycle Service the cycle bus. Even the DLR for a stop either side of the river supposedly. The first route to use the Silvertown Tunnel wasn't 129 or SL4 or SCS... but a diverted 108! There was an accident conveniently by Blackwall Tunnel, and the 108 is the only night service among these 4 bus routes. The new tunnel opened after midnight and fully usable in both directions by 1am. Before the opening of the new tunnel, traffic delays in relation to road layout changes necessitated 108's northbound diversion via Tower Bridge.

A lot left to be desired with practically no improvements south of the river in regards to cycle infrastructure in order to make reaching the cycle bus amicable instead of hostile. North of the river upgrades have been done. The bus stop in the south has been found to be less ideal. A £2.2 billion tunnel project that could've costed a bit more with an extra lane to faciliate a cycle lane would've still had this problem. Between Greenwich and TfL of course. Some roads in a dire state of uncleanliness I'd think I'm looking at somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

This will offset the rather high toll cost on Blackwall Tunnel and Silvertown Tunnel. However, Rotherhithe Tunnel and Tower Bridge will be decimated with traffic.

First day experiences on 129 and SL4 are following the normalised trends of loud volumes and large crowds of enthusiasts, usually young.

Go-Ahead had a trespasser at a bus garage, whereby a kid swapped an 'unfit' plate to bus WHV163 whose valid running number in route 188's running numbers applied onto a diesel Enviro400 EN48 that was unfit for a reason! The driver who took the bus out shares no blame as he did his job in taking the bus with his running number. Go-Ahead however get the fine of the diesel bus entering the Central London ULEZ - the zone is exclusively hybrid or zero emissions for TfL bus services.

First SL4: EBD56 at 05:00

First SCS: 64202 and 64204 at 06:30

9th: Trump backs down on his outrageous tariffs, reducing it to 10% for all non-China countries. China faced a 104% tariff, China responded with an 84% tariff, and now Trump has further upped it to 104%.

11th: Tourist helicopter crashes over the Hudson River in New York, killing all 6 on board, 3 of them being children.

China has retaliated with 125% tariff on the US. Trump responded by upping the tariff to 145% on China.

12th: School routes 649 650 651 move out of Silvertown (DS) into Silvertown (SI) making space for restructured 129 and new route SL4.

427 SL5 SL7 retained on this date

Middle of April

16th: Vix Technology to roll out upgrades to countdown and other information related infrastructure in TfL. The roll out of E-ink, e-paper and next generation LED displays which will have long lasting batteries which will prove to be economically and environmentally better.

DOEs released from electrification of route 151 will join other ex-Go-Ahead London buses in East Yorkshire.

17th: Go-Ahead Enviro100EV spotted, SEO8.

19th: It turns out that Peckham (PM) does indeed have chargers all installed. However, it seems that the transformer was installed in a wrong place.

20th: Go-Ahead will repurpose the StreetDeck WSDs from 44 into Rail Replacement buses (familiar? Arriva sort of did this with their SWs) and some sent elsewhere in the Go-Ahead group. Meanwhile, ex-SL6 Enviro400H MMCs being refurbished and simultaneously the Superloop vinyls being removed. What is certain is route 44 will receive a different hybrid allocation.

24th: TfL told the Superloop SL12 should stop at Hornchurch instead of Elm Park, not just by Havering Council but also neighbouring councils Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Barking & Dagenham as people are referred between hospitals King George in Chadwell Heath, Queens in Romford and St George's Healh and Wellbeing Centre in Hornchurch.

Stagecoach to convert route 499 to double deckers. Note: 165 is double deck temporarily due to 310 and will be permanent, 246 temporarily double deck, D6 temporarily double deck due to 225. Now 499 will join. In addition, route 346 will be upgraded from it's 9.6m allocation to 10.8m sized buses.

25th: The Bus Rapid Transit scheme in the southeast that would see 472 into a speedier SL11 has been delayed to 2029. Furthermore, people calling on the SL11 extension to Welling.

26th: RATP take 31 over for their first time but for Westbourne Park (X) it is a homecoming. First is also back so the 31 truly is back home!

The 31 predominantly started with ADHs released from 414's withdrawal in addition to spare OMEs from 28/C3's loss.

Blind updates galore with new qualifiers, mostly redundant. Camden Town now "Camden Town, Bayham Street", Swiss Cottage exists as-is and as well as "Swiss Cottage Station, FINCHLEY ROAD" whilst the N31 has "Clapham Junction ST

 JOHN'S HILL" then "Kilburn Park Station CAMBRIDGE GARDENS". Now, Chalk Farm has a Morrison qualifier and White City has the bus station qualifier familar on Metroline buses.

Last N31: VMH2577 at 05:24

Last 31: VMH2557 at 01:17

First N31: ADH45073 at 00:53

First 31: ADH45078 at 05:05

Seemingly route 289 moved from Thornton Heath (TH) to Beddington Farm, in this process it takes diesel Ts and ENXs with it. The reason may or may not be related to route 196.

95 171 retained on this date

27th: Sunday electric conversion of route 218 into Kite Electroliners coded WKE.

29th: Turns out the open secret of vacating West Ham (WH) has backtracked, as instead, the offices are moving out. Perhaps making this depot more competitive. The 277 move is already set in stone, leaving the garage with few routes, 241 323 SCS 667 after the 330 and 474 move to Go-Ahead.

30th: Arriva HV76 burnt in Fiern Barnet on the A406.

End of April

——————————————————————

May

1st: Lodge Avenue flyover replacement started on this date, lasting until 2027.

2nd: .

3rd: The 196 under Arriva. In 2016 there were three bidders for the route but the winner withdrew their bid, Go-Ahead already had the route though they had to use new buses, we know the next winner was Abellio, the operator who had the route wouldn't have withdrew their bid if they already bid and have the space... who could it possibly have been?!

So, the 196 joins 468 by being at a mid-route garage, in Norwood (N), albeit 196 already passes a Stockwell (SW) that once housed it. It is Arriva's first batch of integral ADL Enviro400EVs for this route and SL6. In electric fashion they are late. So, Electroliners not yet used at Thornton Heath (TH) due to their issues have become the predominant temporarily allocation alongside B5LH Gemini 3s with LEDs - spare Gemini 2 variants used on 2/249/468 to spare these LED'd HVs. Whilst 196 started strong with ESs, it would be mostly HV-operated until around two weeks later, chargers could be used at Norwood (N), allowing more usage of electric ESs on 196 in lieu of HVs.

Over in East, the 474 also makes a homecoming! It even used it's exact previous allocation of B9TLs... well, D7's. But it's really home sweet home! Night 474 even saw a BYD BD11! Blue Triangle instead of Docklands Buses but it is still home, over at Henley Road (DS) which it so dearly passes. Joining the 474 for the first time is the 330, with diesel Enviro400s to start it.

485 and G1 won by Transport UK from Go-Ahead. Now the 485 is only single decker route with dual door buses at Battersea (QB) whilst G1 isn't alone as 322 has been there for some years, the two having a habit of either going opposite operators or as of recently, being under the same roof.

Unfortunately for the company, they have exhausted any spare buses they could muster, many allocated to S3 which was awarded as an electric contract but negotiated to diesel. Alas. H20 part-converted to 10.2m buses from H28 - allowing some H20 MMCs for G1, H28 itself receiving 10.5m MMCs freed from R70's electric conversion. Ex-P13 MMCs were acquired from Go-Coach. This is all not enough. So, 8 E200s were loaned from First - these being ex-SDE20241-6, now 44981-9, once allocated to S3 under Quality Line and RATP. Now coded into TUK as 8251-8258?

As for the 485, 10.2m Enviro200s also released from H28 started off the new operation. Ironic it was on a diesel contract under Go-Ahead but using electric buses temporarily (freeing it's diesels elsewhere) whilst now under TUK it is on an electric contract but using diesel buses temporarily until it's Kite Electroliners are delivered.

Last 196: 2460 at 00:54

Last 330: 11045 at 00:51

Last 474: 19840 at 00:40

Last 485: SEe288 at 00:33

Last G1: SE247 at 00:37

First 196: ES119 at 05:35

First 330: E178 at 04:58

First 474: E181 at 04:15

First (N)474: E138 at 01:05

First 485: 8568 at 06:40

First G1: 8158 at 05:45

Route 315 extended from Balham to Earlsfield, Springfield Hospital. Sourced indirectly with reacquiring of P13's MMCs from Go-Coach allowing two 9.3m E200s 8322 and 8332 sent to Beddington Cross (BC) to S4.

241 P5 retained on this date

Go-Ahead SEe177 and Transport UK's 2485 collided.

7th: Consultation on school routes 697 698 and new 695. Involves the removal of rare school-bus-only bus stops on Shepiston Lane.

8th: Victory in Europe Day! 80 days since Germany was defeated in World War 2.

9th: GoCoach have the Enviro100EV demonstrator, used on their route 3 (Sevenoaks-Locksbottom, Princess Royal Uni Hospital)

10th: The first London Enviro100s enter service on the W12. Stagecoach also used new Electroliners on route 287.

11th: London Underground sees power failure network-wide, the whole tube and the Elizabeth Line. Bakerloo line is suspended and parts of the Mildmay line. Delays on the Elizabeth, Jubilee, District, Circle and Piccadilly lines. Part suspension on other lines too.

Earlier, sections of the Northern, Jubilee, Waterloo & City and Elizabeth lines were also shut.

13th: Go-Ahead Kite Electroliners arrive at Bexleyheath (BX) for route B16 who is due SEL1-16 (originally for 355, B16 originally SEL29-39) likewise StreetDeck Electroliner DEL100 at that garage

14th: One of the first, if not first, Australian-built Custom Denning electric bus enters service in the UK, Diamond Bus 39004 on BL2 - a route in the Heathrow area.

Middle of May

15th: Buses of the first Enviro400 EVs enter service on SL3 with 80403 doing the honours. Bearing in mind the second batch of E400EVs bought for SL6 have all entered service by this point.

ADL having some upper management friction due to less than expected sales of electric vehicles.

16th: Consultation results for 30/205 224 and 319, 30/205 going ahead despite 66% disapproval and rejection by all shareholders, 224 reroute going ahead in October whilst the 319 night service withdrawal confirmed.

17th: Seems to be the first day 200 is fully electric as all of it's Metrodeckers have all returned to service as of a few days prior.

Also by this point 207's diesel E40Ds have been replaced by ex-196 E40H MMCs (including 2577/78 new to U5 but reused for 196 to reduce the order of new buses by two).

A rumour of a new bus garage in the southeast, Woolwich or Thamesmead, for Go-Ahead following retains of 51 178 291 into electric buses has quickly stopped it's mill.

18th: Mexican ship crashed at Brooklyn Bridge in New York. 2 dead and many injured.

Arriva ES53 in Ireland as a demonstrator.

21st: Consultation on new N118 and 114 night service withdrawal.

The UK set to trial chemical castration on prisoners who voluntarily agree and they will be rewarded with a reduced prison sentence - reduced by 2/3 of the sentence. Any people serving 4 years or less may see the light of day quickly. It possible if this trial goes well, it will become mandatory.

23rd: Managing Director of Go South Coast, Andrew Wickham, passed away after battling bladder cancer for five years. Rest in peace.

24th: 337 was won by Transport UK, as the sole bidder! Just like wins 306 and C3 before it also at Battersea (QB), the 337 starts operation with Electroliner buses which bedded in on all other QB routes the few days prior to this takeover, as usual the 133 is slightly sacrificed of it's due buses of the same type as the only route to use hybrids alongside Electroliners from the start but alas.

25 retained on this date

Last 337: E159 at 01:16

First 337: 3112 at 05:16

Liddell Road residents won their case against Metroline 28s dead runs using that road to get to/from garage. Residents complained against the diesel buses 'the start of an earthquake' as well as the quieter but heavier electric buses.

Kite Electroliners 10.2m WSEs enter service on C11

MTR lost the Elizabeth Line contract to ...

Another incident of enthusiasts trespassing into bus depots after Parr Road (CP) is now Cricklewood (W) where the enthusiast drove the bus whilst recording and crashed it. The offences of trespassing, driving without insurance, driving without license and damaging property.

25th: First MTR South Western lost the contract of South Western Railways, now nationalised.

26th: Havering calls for another independence motion from Greater London.

27th: King Charles III visits and addresses Canadian Parliament regarding Trump comments of annexing the country. This is the first royal in parliament since 1957 with Queen Elizabeth II.

29th: Impending move of 209 378 533 to Stockwell (SW) due to Putney (AF) electrification

Metroline testing electric WDEs on 7, seems to perhaps hint at a different route to use the hydrogen WHDs... perhaps the 83 which is closer to Perivale (PV). A straight swap between the two allowing 83 to be part WDE/WHD and the 7 fully WDE, though this is rumours at this point in time.

30th: First night of Silvertown Tunnel closures, lasting every night until 21 June. Some moments of northbound tunnel closure and 10 weeks of total closure at night.

31st: Arriva gained the 67 again! Lost from Stamford Hill (SF) whilst allocated LTs the last time and now the 67 is at a lower frequency from this date onwards whilst still allocated LTs - but an older selection during the reshuffle of LTs to fit contract length and age of LTs across the companies. Alas. It has, come home.

Last 67: LT59 at 01:02

First 67: LT51 at 04:40

37 44 77 87 219 270 491 retained on this date

Canada still battles wildfires which have only spread, more people evacuated.

End of May

——————————————————————

June

1st: Paris Saint-Germain's win against Inter Milan in the finals of the Champion League has resulted in 2 deaths and 500 arrests from human failure in the form of rioting.

2nd: Consultation on rerouting 287 687 away from A13 using unserved Maplestead Road and also Goresbrook Road with two new bus gates installed for bus and emergency services access.

3rd: First ADH45019 burnt whilst on route 303, it was the last surviving pre-2012 Enviro400H in the fleet, a 60-reg.

An allocation of £113 billion towards transport, a faster Liverpool to Manchester rail line that serves both airports and Warrington at a frequency of every 10, allowing increased frequency in the slower local traffic. This budget also includes transport infrastructure itself. Stockport Metroline extension is a part of this. Tyne & Wear and the West Midlands both having funding for their extensions as well as West Yorkshire metro scheme.

Route 654 confirmed for withdrawal after consultation report published.

4th: Brighton & Hove receive an Enviro400EV demo.

New analysis in regards to Silvertown Tunnel. Prior to the new tunnel, Blackwall Tunnel saw over 100,000 journeys a day. Now, both tunnels in combined see 88,000 journeys a day, due to the toll on both tunnels. The SCS cycle bus sees 100 passengers a day which translates to 0.75 passengers per trip. The combination of 108 129 SL4 all see 20,000 daily journeys.

5th: Demos of BYD BD11 double deck and B12 single deck seen at Croydon (TC) who have both types incoming for electrification of almost all the routes in the garage.

A Volvo BZL sighted at Enfield (E) it seems.

Lambeth Council ordered by court to remove the West Dulwich LTN that raked in £1 million in fines.

6th: Trump and Musk have a public breakout in spectacular fashion. Elon Musk calling for the impeachment of Trump as well as mentioning Trump being in the unreleased Epstein Files. Trump called for termination of subsidies to Musk's companies ($17 million per day!)

Furthermore, Trump started a crackdown on immigrant populations in Los Angeles, 44 unauthorised people arrested and a further 77 also arrested. This immediately triggered protests.

7th: Old chargers at Croydon (TC) from 312's Metrocities have been replaced by newer chargers in preparation for the new BYD buses.

231 268 304 H2 H3 retained on this date

By this point the protests in Los Angeles are now riots, as the Armed Force were sent in to deal with the unrest. Stun grenades and tear gas are par for the course... tear gas is internationally recognised as a war crime when used on other nations, therefore not making exempt usage of the government on their own people therefore allowing the United States to punish it's populace with the cruelty it deems necessary.

8th: Metroline's stored BYD BD11 double deckers in First's Westbourne Park (X) have all left that depot.

Trump deployed 2000 National Guard members against LA protestors.

10th: B16 starts it's conversion to Kite Electroliners.

Arriva ES53, accident damaged, has been written off. Another bus ordered on top of Arriva's order of Electroliners for route 217 has been added to replace ES53.

Eurostar announced plans for a new route from St Pancras to Germany and Switzerland.

Los Angeles update, 700 Marines and another 2000 National Guards also sent to quell the civil unrest... which is not resting anytime soon. Trump used a law not used since 1965 to circumvent the state governor's permission allowing Trunp to call the National Guards...

Northern Ireland also has protests which are racially motivated after two teenage boys who were Romanian had attempted to sexually assault a teenage girl, the boys in court on this day.

11th: Protests in America spread to Dallas, Chicago, New York, Omaha, Seattle.

ADL to shut down Falkirk plant due to the manufacturer not having enough orders.

Transport UK 8822 crashed onto tram tracks near Fieldway whilst on route 130 and this has temporarily suspended Tramlink between Sandilands and New Addington.

Go-Ahead SE180 crashed onto a building's gate on Plough Lane on route 493 last night.

Major candidate for working of 2025: VW1056 does route 331, a double decker on a route that has not seen one in... very long to say the least, if ever!

12th: Fatal Air India Boeing 787 crash after leaving Ahmedabad Airport it quickly fell and landed in a hospice, it exploded upon landing most likely due to the fuel on the plane. Over 242 people were on board and all onboard confirmed dead and at least 8 in the hospice dead, may they rest in peace. This is the first 787 crash ever in 14 years of the type's existence. For reference, the 777 took 13 years to experience it's first crash. Air India did not have a crash since 1985, their safety record is sky high.

Los Angeles mayor sets a curfew from 8pm to 6am due to the protests.

Northern Ireland protests escalated into riots, masked youths attacked a leisure centre housing people in an emergency after the clashes of previous nights. The youths burned the centre on fire.

Fun fact... every £1 invested into bus networks returns £4.55 to the economy, statistics say.

13th: Stagecoach 13081 collided into the rear of Go-Ahead WVL455 by Woolwich Arsenal.

Start of Flixbus cheap coach services from London to Brighton costing only £4.49 each way. It takes 2 hours and a half compared to the trains that take 1 hour and a bit.

14th: Here East extension of route 241 extended from Stratford City. Thought to maybe occur on contract renewal which was the 3rd of May.

Routes 209 378 533 moved from Putney (AF) to Stockwell (SW) to allow for... electrification works.

Route 368 has been converted to BYD BD11s on this date ahead of 330 474 takeover by Go-Ahead.

Middle of June

15th: Stagecoach 12396 on route 422 crashed into a fence inside North Greenwich Bus Station.

16th: An LT crashes

No Kings protest against Trump in America countering the 250th anniversary of the United States Army: over 200,000 in New York, over 100,000 in Philadelphia and tens of thousnads in Los Angeles and Minnesota.

17th: Trump Mobile has launched a T1 phone... yes, Trump with a $499 phone.

SEe72 crashed on route 164 by Morden's roundabout.

18th: Go-Ahead WVL494 burst into flames

HS2 again delayed, with no date given.

21st: 30 46 230 274 retained on this date

Closures of Silvertown Tunnel complete.

Route 178 buses towards Woolwich and 335 B16 in both directions have been rerouted in Kidbrooke to serve Tudway Road, Plowden Road and Pegler Square. 178 no longer serving Cambert Way or Ryan Close.

Preserved ex-Isle of Wight Trident President caught fire.

22nd: The start of direct American involvement in Israel-Iran conflict by bombing three nuclear sites in Iran.

Summer festival at London Bus Museum in Brooklands.

23rd: TUK throws back 111/481D 322 350 433 contracts and 481D has been separated from 111. I am certainly pleased to see 322 go back.

28th: 460 499 K1 K3 retained on this date

29th: Stagecoach 82047 on 86 on the receiving end of a car crash.

End of June

——————————————————————

July

1st: .

2nd: New Go-Ahead depot near Thamesmead had it's signage sign recently. The location is White Hart Lane, near Western Way. 

3rd: .

4th: TfL wants the Waterloo & City Line to be sponsored. From the moquette, to signage, platform to map changes. Friendly reminder, the two-day station name change from Southgate to Gareth Southgate generated £80,000 for TfL during the 2018 World Cup semi-final. In 2024, Old Street became Fold Street as Samsung promoted it's Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip phones, generating TfL £250,000. Also, the IFS Cloud sponsorship of the Cable Car is worth only £2.1 million, a line that is sparsely used. Imagine the money raking potential from an underground line that has business and decision-making people as it's clientele.

Route 103 is the source of complaints from passengers in it's part of East London due to it's vehicles' poor reliability causing delays in service. People complained to their local MP in seeing the service not be in disrepair. TfL may have acknowledged the buses' reliability issues.

Vectare (remember Trustybus?) had their Vectare Transport Solutions bought by a school trust... citing the bus company's operation of school buses... the rest of Vectare operates normal bus routes mainly - commercial commuter routes, tendered routes, rail replacement and Demand Responsive Transport. For one, Vectare Transport Solutions contracts out a school route in Edinburgh which is far outside Vectare's own operation.

Some of Route 131's batch of Electroliners (DEL17-39) have entered service on Go-Ahead commercial Wimbledon Tennis service 840.

5th: Arriva BYD BD11s for Palmers Green (AD) exist at their depot and preparation to enter service has begun via type training. 

Routes 14 37 return to terminating/starting at Green Man instead of Lytton Grove

331 425 retained on this date

7th: ex-Arriva ENL92 at Metroline's Potters Bar (PB) but the bus is owned by a training company

8th: TfL iBus, supplied by , had a remote factory reset baked in to it in nearly 10 years since creation in November 2005, this activated. Many buses not tracking, all the iBus displays were showing the time using Greenwich Mean Time instead of British Summer Time; the buses are an hour behind on the clock.

10th: Impending SL8 and 222 move into Uxbridge (UX) in September... rumours for SL8 is the live changeover but is certainly related to performance. Swapping with 222 is the U1 U2 U3 U4 - which as of current these four routes are bigger than the space of Uxbridge outstation (UE) which only houses route 222 currently.

12th: News of Air India flight from it's recording box reveals the fuel switch was turned off and one of the pilots questioning it.

Go-Ahead WS144 crashed whilst on route 232, the bus received front damage where the bumper was completely removed, exposing parts of the electrical system in the bus chassis.

14th: Closure of Church Road results in 200 diverted via Western Road whilst a temporary service numbered 700 runs between Mitcham and Colliers Wood to serve some of the roads

Middle of July

15th: Arriva's E400EVs for the 196 have entered service. The Norwood (N) electrification, between Arriva and Zenobe, is a £17million project with 15 chargers (150kW each) for the 30 buses. The chargers use Zenobe's smart charging software.

A €1 summer train service from Nimes to the seaside Le Garu-du-Roi is so popular it reaches new heights, another train was deployed last year as well as extra staff to deal with rowdy passengers. Full passenger load (450 passengers) on trains, totalling 11,000 passengers carried in July and August alone. Clientele consisted of high school students, retirees, family and holiday-makers.

16th: Metroline's Holloway (HT) has route 234 drivers type trained on the WSE Kite Electroliner bus type.

17th: Stagecoach throws back contracts of routes 135 and 177.

Voter age in UK reduced to 16+

More 24 stock tubes delivered to Ruislip depot.

19th: Stagecoach stood down 339's Metrocities; using spare 10.8m Volvo BZLs running not further south than Mile End due to narrow streets.

Singapore's government gives $60 public transport vouchers to at least 12,000 families of lower income to ease transport costs for them.

21st: Terrible bus crash into a low bridge with at least 15 injured, one of which hanging on at the rear of the upper deck for dear life before falling onto the road.

24th: Superloop SL11 consultation results, SL11 going ahead as planned.

The plan to redevelop Edgware bus station to have flats above it is approved by the local council, Barnet Council.

25th: Route 72 283 N72 consultation (283 renumbered into 72)

26th: N5 N20 retained on this date

29th: Sullivan Buses fined £1000 for poor performance of their commercial route 306 which is abysmally operated.

30th: The first BYD BD11s for Croydon (TC) to enter service, EBD73 for SL5. The bus is also the first double decker in service on SL5.

31st: Go-Ahead EH32 caught fire on Great Portland Street, on route 88.

End of July

——————————————————————

August

1st: Arriva HV110 combusted whilst on the A13 near Wennington headed for maintenance at Grays (GY). The entire two-thirds of the bus from the back to near the staircase area became charred burnt black once the fire died down. Almost unrecognisable what bus type it was.

2nd: Go-Ahead Electroliners enter service on 230, these allow 230's existing Ee's to be repurposed for Bakerloop BL1.

The 83 183 SL10 N5 and N83 all rerouted towards Golders Green in West Hendon via Broadway and Station Road.

3rd: .

4th: Metroline have the depot the 83 resides in, Athlon Road, listed as a TfL depot thus gaining the code AO. On the 2nd, six buses of 83s allocation moved into Perivale (PV) with 14 remaining at AO and five buses of 245 to Perivale (PV) but 12 remain at AO.

5th: Kite Electroliners enter service on 355, a few have been running off iBus on route 360 already.

Likewise at Transport UK, Kite Electroliners for 485 have already entered service but at Walworth (WL) on routes C10 and P5.

6th: Consultation of 695 697 698 going ahead.

Consultation of 452 cutback also going ahead despite majority negative feedback.

Route 339's Optare Metrocities start returning to service, two today.

Route 243 sees Electroliners meant for Thornton Heath (TH), this is allowing HVs from 243 to be prepared for Grays (GY). These Electroliners were already used for SL6 and 196.

8th: Consultation result of 419; it is going ahead but is delayed due to 'operational restructures within the teams concerned'.

Consultation result of 673; withdrawal goes ahead

12th: Lagos Metro staff trained by Transport for London. Sadiq Khan's visit to Lagos in Nigeria has certainly brought business opportunity between London and Nigeria.

14th: Two 13-year old boys broke into Henley Road (DS) bus garage at around 3am and stole a single decker BYD and drove it around, crashing into parked cars. They returned to the depot to have a go at a double decker BYD and crashed that into the fence before they could drive the bus out of the garage. The boys were summoned into court. The increase in vandalism from young bus enthusiasts is very worrying.

Middle of August

15th: Enviro100 EVs enter service on route G1 (some did yesterday without iBus logged in), at last... before B14's or Orpington (MB)'s R-routes! Postscript; B14 had an Enviro100 enter service but did not have iBus logged in.

16th: Northumberland Park (NP) has a demo Enviro400 EV and drivers trained on it, it will enter service.

R9 retained on this date

17th: Under the now unprivatised railways of c2c and Greater Anglia, they are to be merged with Network Rail's Anglia region to form Anglia Railways in 2027. In the meantime, they are already merged into one operation whilst keeping the c2c and Greater Anglia names in use until the formal merger in 2027.

22nd: Go-Ahead Enviro100 EVs coded SEO have entered service on route 233.

Another double decker bus enters a low bridge somewhere in the UK, it is now Essex's turn. A First Bus Enviro400 struck a bridge in Chelmsford whilst on First's 372 to Colchester.

24th: Notting Hill Carnival Sunday! Sees no more 36X (the 2X also withdrawn last year, but new 7X came into play) with one new route 148X to seemingly cater for traffic from Brixton (former well used 2X route) and Peckham (also well used 36X) into this one limited stop route from Victoria to Shepherd's Bush. Quite a cheap and bad solution to what was otherwise a 'don't fix what isn't broken' system of well used 2X and well used 36X... well, more people puking and urinating on connecting buses which encompasses more than just the 2 and 36.

Routes like 28 and 70 were diverted to White City away from Kensal Rise and South Kensington termini respectively. Route 316 curtailed to Harrow Road Elgin Avenue instead of the usual North Kensington curtailment for many years. Route 23 also sent to Harrow Road, Elgin Avenue.

- 21 arrested for possession of a weapon

- 19 arrested for possession of Class A drugs

- 15 arrested for police assault

- 4 arrested for sexual assault

- 4 arrested for public order

- The other of the total 140 arrests is related to other crimes, some also drug related.

29th: London United division of First strike on this day and 1st September. This sees route 290 receive double deckers, the 290 being fully VH-operated. The only other serviced routes were 13 (Finchley, Church End - Baker Street), 293 (Epsom Hospital - North Cheam) and 467 (full service) on this day. The 293 was not using double deckers. Route 2 received extra buses, seemingly the original plan was to aid the 18 but, was any other operator was suitable for the task other than Arriva? Really?

30th: Route 605 withdrawn.

The 277 moved from Bow (BW) to Hackney (HK), using smart hybrid E40SHs at that depot previously used to start operation on 242, 277 previously allocated E40H MMCs.

The 188 also moved garage, from Morden Wharf (MG) to Camberwell (Q). The reliability of this route at MG was abysmal despite the changeovers being in the same location at Waterloo.

School route 627 moved from Croydon (TC) to Norwood (N).

Route N551 moves from Hackney (HK) to Barking (BK) on this night.

60 73 139 166 293 390 405 412 434 466 H12 N550 N551 retained on this date

End of August

——————————————————————

September

1st: Route 84B (Potters Bar - Barnet circular) withdrawn as the operator gives up the service. Uno takes over on a commercial basis and extends it to Hatfield, renumbering it to 243. The 610 has been cut from Cockfosters to Hatfield on this same date.

The 627 moved from Croydon (TC) to Norwood (N), having the hybrid HAs consolidated alongside 198's batch that also are parked at Norwood (N)

2nd: A Jubilee Line train failed in Waterloo, causing the line to be shut for several hours, people eventually walk from the train to safety.

3rd: .

4th: Victoria bus crash during rush hour morning, LT617 on 24 crashes into pavement, injuring around 17.

6th: Routes 126 162 227 352 354 moved to new garage at Lower Sydenham (LM), unfortunately for passengers this created iBus problems on these routes as TfL didn't sort problems out, this meant for many weeks buses barely appeared on countdown.

312 retained on this date

7th: Transport UK 2401 crashed into a window at the front of Beddington Cross (BC) depot.

8th: Tube strike started last night and it ends on the 12th. Many routes receive extras; 2 15 19 22 27 29 38 59 66 91 108 155 158 159 188 230 259. Of those, Arriva utilising spare DWs and Ts on these services, extras on 2 and 59 operating from Brixton (BN), 29 extras from Wood Green (WN) and the other Arriva routes from Edmonton (EC).

Furthermore, the Metropolitan Line running a skeleton service. From Amersham/Chesham to Rickmansworth as well as Uxbridge/Watford to Harrow-on-the-Hill. Notice both of these do not meet, would've therefore been better for the former to go further than Rickmansworth to Northwood.

Furthermore, Elizabeth Line trains skipping stations between Whitechapel and Bond Street; stations managed by London Underground. They skip before 0730 and after 2230 on the 8th and 10th September. They skip before 0800 on the 9th and 11th September.

9th: DLR strike, which is happening alongside the tube strike, the DLR strike ending on 11th.

Today the Northern Line did run with 'minor delays' TfL said on their site, it ran at an every 7 minute frequency. The Piccadilly also operational between South Harrow and Hammersmith.

Nepal's government set alight after the Prime Minister resigned due to protests.

French government collapses after a no-confidence vote suggested by the Prime Minister, President Macron has to find ANOTHER Prime Minister.

Japan had it's Prime Minister resign too.

Israel who signed a ceasefire deal just before, has targeted their enemies' officials in Qatar's capital, Doha. A country with good relations to Israel.

10th: SL13 consultation, contains E7 extension to make space at Ealing Broadway for SL13.

Barnes (209 378 485 changes, 533 withdrawal) consultation.

By this point, Electroliners for Bexleyheath (BX) have entered service on 401, 99/269/401 promised new electric buses.

Another hectic day internationally

Afghanistatn earthquakes again this year

France Paris protests

Swedish Health Minister collapses on first day

School shooting in Colardo

Charlie Kirk, pro-gun conservative and ally of Trump was assassinated in Utah with a hunting rifle bolt-action shot in his neck near the throat as his final words were "gang violence" in response to a question about gun deaths whilst sat under a banner "Prove me wrong" as he was promoting loose gun laws like Utah to be across the entire United States.

Israel strikes another 5 countries (Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Tunisia with a drone targetting a docked ship that could have sent aid to Gaza, Palestine unfortunately obviously also targeted)

12th: As the tube strikes another strike meant yo start but was cancelled in lieu of the tube strike chaos; First Bus would've done a strike until Monday.

13th: Vintage buses operated on route 54 from 10:00 to 17:00.  Selkent repained smart hybrid 11011 and branded it 'Selkent Envoy', celebrating 111 years of Catford (TL, Tillings Lewisham) bus garage in Bellingham, hence the chosen fleetnumber.

319 D6 D8 retained on this date

14th: Last day of operation of temporary route 700 as works near Mitcham complete, thus allowing 200 to return to line of route via Phipps Bridge.

Middle of September

16th: Manchester Bee Network bus strike, 2000 drivers striking.

Arriva's upcoming withdrawal of route 477 has been responded with Go-Ahead taking over the service out of the same depot that runs the Fastrack services.

18th: Word of ex-Sullivan Enviro200 MMCs previously used on W9 to be reused in Go-Ahead, the only contracts with existing buses of that length are 386 and S4...

Rare working of year candidate: 11.3m WS129 on route 354, the route has the small Streetlites banned from it due to their poor turning circle wheel-forward. Reportedly this long door-forward Streetlite kept doing 3-point turns to continue service, thankfully it was the last bus of the night performing a few trips.

19th: Go-Ahead Volvo BZLs 9.7m single decks for their awards have been spotted and photograph.

20th: 202 246 248 352 354 retained on this date

27th: Start date of Bakerloop BL1 between Waterloo and Lewisham, it is technically an extension of the Bakerloo Line done but by bus until the train can do it, this practice happens elsewhere in mainland Europe but this is TfL's first example. Operators that could win it were down to just Stagecoach and Go-Ahead, both with spare garage capacity and both with new electric buses in catalogues that can have their intended routes receive at a later date. Alas. Go-Ahead won it, the operator who did a showcase of the route with a single EBD whose lower deck moquettes sported the moquette of the Bakerloo Line.

Various routes had stop changes to facilitate BL1. In Waterloo southbound 59 and C10 swapped so that BL1 and C10 share a common stop. P12 changed so BL1 can stop. 415 northbound at Elephant & Castle had a stop change so BL1 can stop. 436 with a new pickup point and no longer serving Stop S on Molesworth Street.

Firsr BL1: Ee46 at 05:00

165 179 193 252 256 365 retained on this date

29th: Metroline LT643 had front crash damage.

End of September

——————————————————————

October

1st: 

2nd: .

3rd: .

7th: More 10.8m Electroliner Kites have been registered for Transport UK, more than needed for the 493, but enough for both 433 and 493. This, in addition to unusual unreliability of 433's Caetano batch which are younger than the somewhat unreliable C10/P5 batch, makes it a plausible destination, after 5 Kite Electroliners thought to be for 485 turned out to not be for 485 but for Walworth (WL). Transport UK paying out of pocket for new buses must say something, whether it is the Caetano fleet or not.

11th: 224 moves over from First to Metroline. New electrics are of course late as usual, so the 206 has been part-converted to diesel Volvo B9TL double deckers in the weeks following up to this date.

144 is liberated from it's many decades at one company, tasting fresh new life elsewhere, at Go-Ahead's Northumberland Park (NP).

Last 144: HV128 at 01:47

Last 224: DLE30308 at 01:00

First 144: WHV62 at 04:30

First 224: DEL1978 at 05:00

12th: Greater Anglia nationalised on this date, announced in early May.

13th: Cockroach infestations in Streatham canteen and on route 55 159 345 buses have been found. In the short time a driver left their drink unattended, a cockroach entered, the driver spat out the cockroach and later puked out of disgust. This cockroach infestation isn't an isolated incident.

Middle of October

16th: TfL submitted a case study to take over the Northern City Line.

First 75-reg bus in service seems to be 1766 on route C10, a Kite Electroliner.

Route 188 had it's BYD BD11s enter service.

18th: The 18 moves from Park Royal (RP) to Westbourne Park (X)

173 174 220 296 385 496 675 retained on this date.

20th: Superloop SL15 consultation.

22nd: Poppy livery Buses! The buses this year to have the livery are: Arriva's Electroliner ES114, First's BYD Enviro400EV BCE47177, Go-Ahead's BYD BD11 EBD118, Metroline's LT762, Stagecoach's ADL Enviro400EV 80422 and Transport UK's Electroliner 3110.

25th: Mentioned in June is the next date of 164's pending extension from Sutton to Sutton Hospital. Albeit not much development is visible, hence the delay from the other Croydon & Sutton changes.

324 403 retained on this date

End of October

——————————————————————

November

1st: 12 retained on this date

2nd: .

3rd: Volvo BZLs for Arriva start delivery and shorter 9.6m VMSS type for Metroline, long awaited for 382.

6th: Self-driving Enviro100 EV in Cambridge coming soon...

8th: Another route that was at Arriva London North for a long time, but not all the time, was the 318. It returns back to Northumberland Park (NP) after 19 years which finds itself under Go-Ahead London instead of First. It utilises Enviro200s again, this time the batch which was new to G1. 318 demoted from part 9.7m single door buses back to fully 9m single door buses

Last 318: ENR5 at 00:43

First 318: SE252 at 05:45

10th: Transport UK 8569 crashed into a building whilst on route H25.

Middle of November

15th: 217 moves back over to Arriva, but from Enfield (E)! The last stint was temporary operation from Edmonton (EC) or Tottenham (AR) right after Sullivan Buses collapsed, this wasn't on a contract, thus there was a fee not dissimilar to tube strike extras, for TfL this was costly. The short temporary contract awarded to Go-Ahead where they weren't the lowest bidder out of the three, with many speculating this to be Metroline. Alas, the 217 on a long-term electric bus contract has found itself back to Arriva. I would imagine they would not have bid for this route if Sullivan Buses didn't collapse.

Last 217: WVN12 at 01:28

First 217: DW477 at 04:51

For the past several weeks, nay, months, 10 extra Kites ordered by Transport UK but not for a contract award or retain has had their existence confirmed... they were ordered for routes C10 and P5, with the same amount of Caetanos from C10 and P5 sent to 433, allowing 433's own Caetanos to be withdrawn since they are chronically unreliable and surprisingly so despite being the newer batch after the batch for C10/P5.

453 retained on this date

17th: Consultation on 424 and new 454.

20th: Route 244 sees its first double decker working in the form of Enviro400 E210.

21st: Oxford Street transport and highway changes consultation (reroutes via Wigmore Street or curtailed).

22nd: The beginning of bus swaps between 424 and 434, Streetlites from 424 at Stockwell (SW) to Croydon (C) and Enviro200s from 434 at Croydon (C) to 424. The upcoming S4 will utilise ex-Orpington (MB) Streetlites released from electrified R-routes there and S4's allocation will be supplemented by leftover ex-G1 Enviro200s.

699 retained on this date

23rd: By this point Putney (AF) has it's first Electroliners delivered, DEL53 for route 22.

26th: First London driver strikes at Westbourne Park (X) called off, this was meant to be 3 consecutive days on 26th, 27th and 28th.

28th: Consultation on 19, 38 and new 10. and a consultation on withdrawing 349 again.

29th: Sutton S1 and S4 swap operators. S1 from Go-Ahead to Transport UK. S4 from Transport UK to Go-Ahead. Landing in the same depots. In addition, the S1 received a +2 PVR increase without changing its frequency, which was funded by reducing the frequency on the S4, hurting S4's existing userbase in addition to the part of S4 that used to be called 455 prior to 2022.

Existing allocation used in both sides, the S1 downgraded adopts all the 9.3m Enviro200s used by S4 in addition to two 10.2m Enviro200s. The S4 returns to its contractual size of 9m buses meaning it is downgraded from 9.3m buses, taking on SE257-60 which were new to G1 and Streetlites WS57-60 transferred in from Orpington (MB) R-routes electrification.

Last S1: SE82 at 00:29

Last S4: 8326 at 00:44

First S1: 8328/8329 at 05:20

First S4: SE257 at 05:15

61 261 386 452 H25 969 retained on this date

End of November

——————————————————————

December

1st: .

2nd: A Metrobus GB Kite Hydroliner caught fire and has severe burn damage.

Meanwhile in London, a 157 bus lost its wheel. It may have been WVL434.

3rd: A crash in Sutton, appears to be Transport UK Enviro200 8332 whilst on the S1.

5th: First BE37020 on route 72 crashed into the wall of Hammersmith Flyover whilst entering the bus station.

Self-driving bus at Metroline's Brentford (AH).

6th: Uno take on another bus route, this time it is the 292! Using existing buses to start off, two electrics and a couple of Enviro400 diesels to top it off. Certainly a chaotic first day. Many buses weren't tracking on iBus. Bunched buses that remain bunched for hours. The last bus of the day being over an hour late.

Last 292: VWH2060 at 00:51

First 292: 1479 at 06:10

51 79 159 178 244 292 B11 R5 R7 retained on this date

10th: First have won the contract for the London Overground, currently operated by Arriva. Other bidders were apparently Go-Ahead, Arriva and Transport UK.

11th: First Bus have acquired Tootbus tour operation, previously owned by RATP. It has been explicitly mentioned they plan to increase route portfolio by winning TfL routes from Wandsworth (formerly JE under RATP and formerly WD under Arriva) which may explain the third bidder on route 156's recent contract.

Arriva Croydon (TC)'s non-Superloop BYD BD11s ED79/80 enter service on route 466.

12th: Route G1 became suspended after around 7am due to issues with its ADL Enviro100EVs. Other Battersea (QB) routes and other operator's E100EVs were fine. Some buses returned to service on G1 during the afternoon, but the next day saw normal service.

New BYD BD11 delivered to Uno, for route 292.

13th: The 283 withdrawn, the 72 and N72 rerouted via 283 to replace it.

Middle of December

15th: ADL Enviro400EV demo EO1 made its way to Metroline's Cricklewood (W)

17th: Driver type training underway for route 382 and it's delayes new bus type, 9.6m Volvo BZLs coded VMSS.

Go-Ahead LT852 wrapped in Superloop SL11 livery.

19th: First's BYD BD11 BDEs for route 31 started entering service.

20th: The 46 with a change at Paddington. Starts and finishes journeys in Eastbourne Terrace, arriving via Bishop's Bridge Road and Eastbourne Terrace and departing via Eastbourne Terrace, Cleveland Terrace, Westbourne Terrace and Bishop's Bridge Road.

By this point, the Bakerloo Line's lack of service north of Queens Park during the week was due to the fourth-rail moving position (the rail that powers the tube trains) thereby damaging trains. TfL described it as an operational incident related to the depot.

21st: Class 455 farewell network tour at South Western Railways, last day of service for the type on scheduled service on Tuesday 23rd. Some trains of the type would be reused a few days later substituting for other trains.

22nd: First Westbourne Park (X) strike, the 13 running mainly between Park Lane Hilton Hotel and Golders Green providing service, as well as on route 295

24th: Go-Ahead SEe20 crashed in Bow into an ambulance.

25th: Christmas Day. The 111 is running between Heathrow and Hanworth Road (Godfrey Way), funded by Heathrow Airport themselves. Not operated by TUK but it is operated by Carousel where some of the allocation was 10.9m Enviro400 MMCs and 10.8m classic Enviro400 models. This was to provide some services as it turns out some flights are operational on this day. The 111 was apparently busy as well... a return to skeleton Christmas Day bus services with volunteer drivers isn't a bad shout, London used to have these a while ago but under 7xx series vaguely parallel to existing routes, such as 716 which largely mirrored the then-16 to Victoria.

26th: Israel becomes the first United Nations country to recognise breakaway Somaliland. This is one day after Somalia's capital Mogadishu had its first elections since 1969. (The timing is no coincidence!) European Union, African Union and practically all countries which includes Israel's biggest supporter -  the United States have all defended the territorial sovereignty of Somalia and have denounced Israel's 'naked invasion' into the country in the Horn of Africa.

30th: Protests in Iran as the country's situation is only getting more dire, economic woes and water shortages to name a few.

31st: New Years Eve yay!

End of December

——————————————————————

There you have it! Twenty Twenty Five complete!

Yay! 

Now more surveillance and Artificial Intelligence woes to worry about next year! Yay(!)

Bleak reality aside. I hope you liked this read. 

I have two things left for you, as usual.

PVR changes spreadsheet.

ULEZ Diesel workings 2025 (read text below)

Stay safe in these trying times, take care of yourself, peace!

List of years I did a recap on (as of 31/12/2025)

Year 2019.

Year 2020.

Year 2021.

Year 2022.

Year 2023.

Year 2024.

Year 2025.

Year 2026.

ULEZ diesel workings 2025 (that I am aware of):

New Year 2025

The fine is around £1000 per bus and no mileage paid for the trip inside the zone until the nearest curtailment. For example the 242's nearest curtailment is Shoreditch.

01/01/25 9528 on N207 from 01:08 to 02:51 (9541 logged in from 00:52 to 01:02)

10/01/25 E179 on 171 from 12:10 to 00:00 on 11/01/25

                E179 on N171 from 00:37 to 01:18

20/03/25 10198 on 53 from 23:30 to 01:40 on 21/03/25

07/04/25 EN48 on 188 from 15:46 to 19:24

06/05/25 9535 on N207 from 01:14 to 01:45

18/05/25 9543 on N207 from 00:45 to 01:29

21/05/25 10121 on 56 from 21:02 to 21:55

03/07/25 19767 on 242 from 07:09 to 20:00

                19844 on 242 from 06:53 to 19:28

      ^ Stagecoach sent buses for F1 shuttle as usual, smart-hybrids this time which were being used on 242. Hence the diesel 242s.

04/07/25 10121 on 56 from 08:39 to 09:04

13/07/25 10118 on 56 from 21:02 to 00:30 on 14/07/25

06/08/25 10122 on 55 from 20:11 to 20:50

11/08/25 10181 on 53 from 13:38 to 14:26 (10133 logged on the 53 from 13:30 to 13:57)

15/08/25 10164 on 53 from 22:41 to 01:14 on 16/08/25

20/08/25 E253 on 172 from 21:26 to 23:52

31/08/25 E141 on N15 from 02:45 to 05:02

02/09/25 10115 on 53 from 08:00 to 10:42

11/09/25 E253 on 171 from 21:45 to 00:30 on 12/09/25

12/09/25 E253 on N171 from 01:15 to 02:03

24/09/25 10314 on N551 from 01:58 to 02:24

09/10/25 E142 on 115 from 05:30 to 07:22

23/10/25 10155 on 56 from 21:16 to 01:00 on 24/10/25

31/10/25 10119 on 56 from 21:16 to 01:14 on 01/11/25

14/11/25 10119 on 56 from 16:20 to 21:33

14/11/25 10122 on 56 from 21:30 to 00:48 on 15/11/25

26/11/25 10120 on 56 from 21:15 to 00:46 on 27/11/25

28/11/25 10174 on 53 from 09:40 to 12:50

12/12/25 10185 on 53 from 21:45 to 00:00 on 13/12/25

...

Thanks for reading.

Take care.

Pretend I gave you a pat.