SV Fleet News

27 fleet news items added in 2012.

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13/05/12	It would seem that the report of London United taking Ford Transit vans was a bit premature. None have yet been seen, although a couple of (different) 12 registered Transit vans have been noted in unmarked black, perhaps as cover while the red ones are prepared. The Fiestas are all in use however, while a surprise find yesterday was an old Vauxhall Combo van at the Park Royal garage. This is believed to be one of the former NCP examples (LR03MTX/MUE/MUU) although it was unfortunately parked in a position where the registration could not be seen. Regarding the central fleet, we still need to determine allocations for a couple of the latest LBSL IRU vans. Eltham does seem to have taken more than its fair share of them though! A couple more of the Volkswagen Caddy vans seen at Bedfont in March are now in use, taking the fleetnumbers into the 74xx range. Among additions to the database today are a pair of minibuses marked as Epsom Coaches. Although the bus fleet generally uses the Quality Line fleetname, these vehicles appear to be used as crew ferries, perhaps since a couple of the Toyota Yaris cars have been taken out of use. Quality Line has also recently acquired the tender for route X26. Also added are two Ford Transit Connect vans with Metroline (AY60WRV/WRW) . These were first reported back in January but only confirmed as Metroline vehicles recently. There is a third example, also at Cricklewood, which may be AY60WRX.
07/05/12	The final four of the current batch of LBSL IRU vans were licensed at the end of last week and should be in service soon. Among other recent central fleet deliveries was a new high of 7374R, yet another Renault Kangoo van. Having said that, there are still lots of gaps in the 72xx and 71xx ranges to be filled (or reported). Indeed 7095F was only delivered in March, almost a year after other similarly-numbered vehicles. This reminds me that it is probably about time I produced a new fleetnumber-plotting chart, as seen in my article of 2006. The new MAN lorry (RV12OFK) has yet to be licensed, even though it was first seen almost a month ago. Having taken a large number of new Ford Fiesta vans recently, London United has now followed this with a fleet of Ford Transit vans. Luckily I have been sent a list with details and allocations, allowing me to add neatly-numbered vehicles FF1-FF22 and FT1-FT9 to the database. Note that the last few of each type are allocated to Fulwell but assigned to the company's head office. As such, they may be seen at other locations as required (Hopefully a couple will be visible during the 'event' at Fulwell Garage this coming Saturday). It seems likely that these new additions will have completely replaced the existing London United service vehicle fleet. The company was notable for operating some relatively elderly vehicles, including ex-CDS veterans 4203F and 4252F. Finally, Metrobus BV12PYL is now confirmed as being numbered 8052 rather than 8051.
30/04/12	Another Metrobus Vito minibus at Croydon has been reported as BV12PYH with fleetnumber 8051. This means that BV12PYL must be some other fleetnumber. However, until the Metrobus website is updated (or someone visits Beddington Lane), I will leave both as 8051.
28/04/12	Recent central fleet additions have been what you might call traditional, ie mainly Ford Transits! Lillie Bridge has been the main recipient, getting some crew vans to go with the new dropsides it got last month. There have been surprisingly few reports of the latest LBSL IRUs, perhaps the lousy weather is keeping our reporters indoors! We now have allocation information for all but three of the new batch (7290M, 7299M and 7300M/7304M WU12MUE). A final four IRUs are expected in early May as 7286M to 7289M. A curious sighting at Eltham was of an electric Ford Transit Connect van in white livery with London Buses markings. A photo of this will be published very soon. Arriva London closed two of its garages in March. Edmonton (EC) and Beddington Farm (CN) both had an allocation of engineering vans and crew ferry cars, the fate of which is not yet clear. The main bus route remaining at Edmonton (the 34) moved to Palmers Green garage (AD), although most of the buses are parked at Lea Valley garage. There is therefore a rather unusual garage-to-garage crew ferry service between the two. The nine Vauxhall Corsa cars that have so far been reported working from AD have been updated on the database today. These included four from EC, three from Lea Valley (LV) and two previously unreported. It may be that the AD-LV cars are pooled with those allocated to LV, which confusingly can often be found at Tottenham garage! The database still has five Corsa cars (plus three vans) listed as being at EC, so further reports would be welcomed. Beddington Farm's mobile classroom bus has moved to Tottenham, while its Vauxhall Combo van and three Corsa cars have most likely gone to Croydon (TC), reports please! Note that both EC and CN have been retained for non-operational purposes, eg engineering, storage, etc. Staying with Arriva Corsa cars, the last of the thirty 58-reg examples (numbers 107 to 136) have been withdrawn. Fifteen of those numbers have been reused on newer Corsas. Given the closure of EC and the route losses from DX, it remains to be seen whether the other numbers (112-123, 125, 130 and 136) re-appear. Another garage change during March was that First sold its Northumberland Park garage (along with the buses and routes operated) to Go-Ahead London. It would appear that Vauxhall van EX03MHA was included, while a red 59-reg van has also been reported (possibly one of First's VW Crafters). Crew ferry duties are now undertaken using a fleet of un-marked silver Ford Galaxy estate cars. These were initially added to the database as Go-Ahead vehicles. However, a correspondent noted that they carried Private Hire licence badges and hence must belong to a contractor. As such they will be removed from the database. First has used contractors for crew ferries from several garages (including NP), mostly with anonymous vehicles. Sticking with the crew ferry theme again, London United's new Ford Fiesta vans are now in service. FF1 to FF9 are working from Hounslow Heath, while the allocation of FF19 (seen at Hammersmith) is not yet known. Any reports of FF10 to FF18 would be appreciated!
22/04/12	Farewell Metronet! Ford Transit minibus 6231F, the final vehicle reported to be carrying Metronet logos, has now been returned off-lease.
20/04/12	A photo of the new lorry has been added tonight, and shows it to be a 3-axle MAN. As such it seems unlikely to be a replacement for 2579. Most of the recent additions are with the bus companies. More London United Fiesta vans have been reported at Hatton Cross (working from Hounslow Heath), plus one at Hammersmith with the fleetnumber FF19. It seems there will be more of them than we expected! Also added are a group of Ford Galaxy cars now working from Northumberland Park Garage for new owners Go-Ahead. These carry un-marked silver livery.
17/04/12	As expected, the next four LBSL IRUs have arrived at Acton Works (either this morning or yesterday afternoon). These have been added to the database as 7290M to 7293M, although only one fleetnumber and three of the registrations have been visually confirmed. There have been no further reports of the other recent IRUs with identity queries. However, I believe that WU12MVA (at Turnpike Lane) is 7295M, WU12MUY is 7296M, and WU12MUE (reported as a second 7304M) should be 7300M. A final four vans are expected in the first week of May. The LUL Land Rover Freelander delivered a couple of weeks ago is still in the car park at Acton, along with white LUL-branded Renault Kangoo LX12UEU. Unfortunately they are parked too far away to see if fleetnumbers are applied, let alone what the fleetnumbers are. Meanwhile, down at Bedfont another new white/blue lorry has been seen. The make and model are not yet known but the vehicle (RV12OFK) has a crane and therefore may be intended to replace MAN 2579 at Frank Pick House. All but a couple of the Ford Fiesta vans at Stamford Brook Garage have gone, presumably to service at Hounslow Heath (and perhaps other London United garages).
13/04/12	Rather surprisingly, Lillie Bridge has been taking more new Ford Transit dropsides recently (they got nine last year in the form of 7104F to 7112F). 7237F, 7238F, 7243F and 7245F have been reported so far, suggesting another batch of nine. My theory that 7347R to 7349R would be three Renault Kangoo vans to replace Transit Connects 6474F to 6476F has been thrown off a bit by the arrival of 7346R.
11/04/12	Another London United Ford Fiesta has been reported (FF6), although the majority are still parked up at Stamford Brook. The VW Caddy vans that have been sitting at Stanwell Road for a few weeks are now entering service. RK12UGB is 7322VW, while several others have at least made it as far as Acton Works.
08/04/12	London United are indeed getting new crew ferry vans. Red Ford Fiesta van EO12UGE was seen at Hatton Cross today with London United lettering and the fleetnumber FF1.
07/04/12	Several new deliveries for LUL are of note, although we don't have fleetnumbers for them yet. LN12YHR is a Ford Focus estate, the first (we know of) in about 18 months. VK12GPU is a Land Rover Freelander car, possibly to replace C-Max 6221F (which itself replaced Freelander 5215LR). LX12UEU is a Renault estate, possibly a Kangoo, unusual for having LUL markings on an all-white body. All three cars were seen in the car park at Acton Works this week. The new MAN lorries at Acton are yet to gain logos. Delivery of the latest LBSL Incident Response Unit vans is taking a while. Looking at the licensing dates, it appears that a batch of four is done every three weeks, with the next lot due on 13th April. WU12MUE, reported as 7304M, is probably meant to be 7300M, while WU12MUY and WU12MVA are most likely 7296M and 7295M respectively. I have some doubts whether orange Renault Master minibus LX12BFL (reported at West Brompton Empress State Building) is actually a Metroline vehicle. Another LX12BFx minibus was seen yesterday with Easybus lettering, and this company does of course serve Empress State. Reports would be appreciated. Seen in the car park beside Stamford Brook Garage during the week were about a dozen 12-reg plain red Ford Fiesta vans. It could be these are destined to be London United crew ferry vehicles, perhaps to replace the elderly stock at Hounslow Heath.
04/04/12	Metrobus now has six new Vito minibuses at Croydon (8045-8050). Six older Vitos have left the fleet. The former 8017, 8019 and 8024 are now in plain white working for Go-Ahead Blue Triangle from Rainham. The whereabouts of the other three (8018, 8022 and 8025) is not yet known. A new central fleet vehicle seen today was 7347R, pushing the fleetnumbers ever higher.
02/04/12	The new MAN lorries seem to have replaced the last two of the Volvo demountable trucks, 2566V and 2567V both being SORN'd recently.
31/03/12	I don't have time to update the database with the various recent additions and withdrawals tonight. However, worth mentioning is that three of the final few vehicles in Metronet livery (6002F, 6191F and 6209F) have now gone to British Car Auctions. As far as I can tell, this leaves just Transit minibus 6231F (seen this week) and perhaps van 6230F (not reported since November).
21/03/12	More new vehicles are four Mercedes-Benz Vito minibuses for Metrobus, numbered 8045 to 8048. These were seen today at Addington, and are presumably to start replacing the 5/6-year old Vitos at Croydon garage.
21/03/12	The two 12-registered MAN lorries are now in service at Acton. A couple more LBSL Incident Response Units have been reported. It seems that this type has yet again been afflicted by misnumberitis. WU12MUE is reported carrying number 7304M, already claimed by WP61ZXJ at Stratford. Two more white/blue VW Caddy vans have been seen at the dealership in Stanwell (RK12UHE/UHF), although the earlier pair (RK12UGA/UGB) are yet to enter service. Also at Stanwell were two red VW Caddy crew vans (RK12UHA/UHB). These may be destined for LBSL. The bulk of today's additions are a batch of eleven Citroen Berlingo vans acquired by Arriva the Shires. These are to replace all the crew ferry vehicles at Garston garage, currently a mixed fleet of cars and Vauxhall Combo vans. Note that the new vans have been given fleetnumbers in the range V205 to V215. This is another example of the Shires moving away from their former four-number series to a letter-prefixed scheme as used by Arriva Southern Counties. A new engineers van for Garston last year (Vauxhall Vivaro YG11VKM) has been allocated number V202.
15/03/12	Two of the new MAN lorries that have been seen at the Stanwell Road dealership were finally licensed on Monday (12th March). These are RV12OEY and RV12OEZ, and they should appear at Acton any time now. By the way, despite what I said last time, these do appear to have ben re-registered from RJ61LTE/LTF. The latter have not been seen recently, and according to the DVLA website, have not been registered. I won't delete the database entries just yet as I'm sure all will become clear once they enter service. The two VW Caddy vans also seen at Stanwell Road (RK12UGA/UGB) are not yet licensed. Another correction to make regards the Mitsubishi L200 pick-up recently illustrated (7318). I said it was unique, but another has now been reported! WV61PUO differs in being in full LUL white/blue/red livery and based at Hainault (surprise!). Curiously it has the fleetnumber 7136. This made me think that 7318, which was a high-number at the time, was in fact an error for 7138. However, 7138 has already appeared (on a Smart car). It could be that 7136 should be 7316, or it could be that the pair were ordered at different times and hence have very different numbers. Not much else to report at present. The latest LBSL Incident Response Units are slowly entering service, although no more have been reported this week. A couple more Astra vans for the Tube Lines Lifts and Escalators fleet have been seen (surely they have had enough new vehicles now!), along with a continuing flow of second-hand vehicles into the Abellio fleet.
05/03/12	Several people have made the trip to Stanwell Road in Bedfont over the past week, to peer through the fences of the MAN, Mercedes and VW dealerships. At MAN, a white/blue TGM18.250 lorry registered RV12OEY was seen. This could be one of RJ61LTE/LTF replated but I believe it is a third. At Mercedes, at least four LBSL Incident vans have been noted in full livery (including 7298/7299/7301M WU12MUV/MUP/MUO). Finally at VW, a second 12-reg Caddy van was seen (RK12UGA). These vehicles, along with some other recently reported ones, will be added to the database shortly.
02/03/12	The new vehicles illustrated recently (MAN lorries RJ61LTE/LTF and VW Caddy van RK12UGB) do not yet appear to be licensed. It is possible that the lorries will be re-plated with 12 marks. Several owned lorries have been taken out of use (and SORNs declared). However, they are probably still present at Acton Works. My database does not at present allow distinguishing between 'withdrawn' and 'disposed of'! The vehicles are MB Actros artics 2559M and 2561M, and MB Sprinter mobile generator 2563M.
24/02/12	More new vehicles include IRU 7302M, a second MAN lorry (RJ61LTE, again seen pre-delivery at MAN Stanwell), a Mercedes Actros artic (WP61ZXE seen in Acton Works lorry yard today) and two VW Caddy vans (seen unregistered and unmarked in white/blue livery at VW Stanwell dealership). The database will be updated over the weekend.
22/02/12	The first of what might be several new MAN lorries for the Tube Lines fleet was seen today at a dealership in Stanwell. A photo has just been added. Other deliveries have included two more LBSL IRUs, numbered 7303M and 7306M.
17/02/12	Rather surprisingly at least three of the 2009 batch of IRU vans have already gone off lease and have appeared on the British Car Auctions website.
15/02/12	Not many new vehicles to report this week, but two are worthy of note. Firstly, the new ERU/BTP link-up was launched at a press event at Canary Wharf last week (making the national TV news that evening). Reliveried 2593 was present, along with BTP Iveco KE05JLX and 'old' livery ERU 2597. However, perhaps of more intrest was a Suzuki motorcycle in ERU livery. LO61CCZ was new in January and is intended for use delivering urgent small parts such as signal relays. Pictures to follow. Seen working in the east end today was the first of a new batch of London Buses Incident Response Unit vans (7304M WP61ZXJ). These had been expected from March, to replace the 2009 batch (6603M to 6623M). The database will be updated with these (and a couple of other) additions shortly.
28/01/12	Along with yet more Renault Kangoos, recent deliveries have included at least five Vaxhall Astra vans (not a common type in recent years). Tube Lines appears to be renewing its Escalator Services fleet, and most of the recent additions (including at least some of the Astras) are going to them. Also new are a further pair of Toyota Prius cars for TfL Streets and another Smart fortwo car for LUL. Finally LBSL has a new VW Caddy crew van, possibly delivered last summer. 7085VW is thought to be a replacement for 6462VW.
21/01/12	A bit more variety has been added to the central fleet with the arrival of at least two Renault Kangoo Compact vans. As the name suggests, these are shortened versions of the Kangoo van, and they really do look rather diddy. As the Kangoo also comes in stretched van (the Maxi) and estate car format, the model could cover most of the small vehicle requirements! Arriva London has continued to replace its three-year old Vauxhall Corsa cars with new examples, the latest going to Barking. Our correspondent also noted Barking using three 11-reg Corsas transferred from Lea Valley. An update on the Arriva Southern Counties taxi fleet reports that only one has been sold for scrap so far. Another (the first LTI TX1 model to be reported as a service vehicle) was fairly quickly transferred to Arriva the Shires at Hemel. This retains its CF25 fleetnumber. Indeed the Shires, having used a four-number range for years, seems to have adopted the Arriva SC prefix scheme. CF73, CF74 and CF77 are further additions. The identities of CF73 (at Stevenage) and CF74 (at Aylesbury) are not yet known, although the latter could be P229SUC. CF77 is at Hemel and is another example of the TX1 model. The reason for the unmarked cars in use as crew ferries with Arriva Shires has become clear. No fewer than five of the Garston-based vehicles have been withdrawn in the past couple of months, amounting to almost half the allocation. As a temporary measure, four hired cars are being used (details of these will not be published). However, a batch of 11 new Citroen Berlingo vans is expected during the spring. EX09WEV, an unmarked Ford Tourneo minibus latterly used by Go-Ahead Docklands Buses, has appeared on the Metrobus fleetlist as their fleetnumber 8933 (re-used). It is listed as a hired crew ferry vehicle based at Crawley. At least two of Metroline's three '57-reg Mercedes Sprinters have been sold, possibly replaced by new Renault Masters (just LM61UNY reported so far).
17/01/12	An interesting recent development is a new livery applied to one of the Tube Lines Emergency Response Unit (ERU) rescue tenders. Fleetnumber 2593 has been rebranded as a British Transport Police (BTP) vehicle. It retains the basic white livery but now with blue/yellow chequers and prominent Police lettering. This is in connection with a long-standing desire to allow the ERU to use blue lights and two-tone sirens when on the way to incidents. Rather than trying to get the Home Office rules about this changed, the plan is for the vehicles to be driven by British Transport Police personnel. I have heard conflicting reports that this will be an initial trial of one vehicle, based at Camden, or that it is to be Stratford-based for use during the Olympics. Although the vehicle retains its fleetnumber (2593), it has also gained a BTP fleetnumber L91. Curiously, this duplicates the number on one of the Iveco Daily rescue tenders already used by the BTP (KE05JLV). I will be publishing some photos of the rebranded tender soon but you can see it now at http://www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/6679798659/in/photostream. Additions to the central fleet recently have included yet another new model, the Mitsubishi L200 pick-up. Given the surprisingly high fleetnumber of 7318 (without a suffix) it carries LUL branding on a white livery and will perhaps be allocated to Hainault, which seems to have a penchant for the odd non-standard vehicle! Only six other Mitsubishis are known to have operated as service vehicles. Metroline used two L200 pick-ups (not at the same time), while TfL Streets acquired four electric i-MiEV cars in 2010. Several members have reported anonymous vehicles recently that may or may not be bus company vehicles. These included the following cars that may be with Arriva the Shires: Fords WN10SKV and FE61YXY at Edgware and Renault DL60URP at High Wycombe. These were certainly in use as crew ferry vehicles but I am hesitant to add them to the database as there is a possibility they may belong to individual drivers. As a rule, unmarked cars are not added unless they are known to be owned/leased by the company. For example the unmarked Vauxhall Zafiras operated by Metroline and First London are generally registered in batches or at least in similar series. Next were a pair of small vans at London United's Hounslow garage. YD10FVV is a white Citroen Berlingo while YN61KNU is of an as yet unknown make. The resurrected London United name has been very slow to appear on service vehicles, despite the removal of most Transdev fleetnames. Unmarked vans are somewhat 'safer' than cars, so I will be adding these to the database. Whilst on the subject of London United, there may be an unmarked white Ford Transit van at Shepherds Bush. Lastly, a trio of plain white Ford Transit Connect vans was seen at the back of Cricklewood garage, two of which were registered AY60WRV and AY60WRW. Despite what I said a minute ago, I am not sure these are SVs. Metroline has a modern fleet already and has applied extensive lettering to most of its vans. It is possible that these belong to a contractor of some type so I will await further reports before adding them.
06/01/12	Among vehicles added in the last month were at least five unmarked Vauxhall Zafira cars for use as crew ferries from First London's newish Atlas Road operating base.

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