London Buses

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London Buses

An East Lancs Olympus bus of Metroline, a modern interpretation of the famous London red double-decker.
Parent company	Transport for London
Founded	1999
Headquarters	172 Buckingham Palace Road
Locale	London, UK
Service area	Greater London, UK
Service type	Bus transport network
Routes	over 700 (100 night buses)[1]
Stops	19,000[2]
Fleet	8000[1]
Daily ridership	6 million per weekday[1]
Operator	Various bus operating companies
Web site	www.tfl.gov.uk/buses

An example of a London bus stop.

London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages bus services within Greater London, UK. Buses are required to carry similar red colour schemes and conform to the same fare scheme. Most services are provided by private sector operators.

[edit] Overview

Transport for London's key areas of direct responsibility through London Buses are:

• planning bus routes
• specifying service levels
• monitoring service quality
• management of bus stations and bus stops and other support services
• providing information for passengers in the form of timetables and maps at bus stops and online, and an online route planning service
• producing leaflet maps, available from Travel Information Centres, libraries etc, and as online downloads.

[edit] Bus operations

The actual bus services are operated by a number of bus operating companies which work under contract to London Buses. Although most of these operating companies are privately owned, one company, East Thames Buses, is owned by Transport for London, and managed at arm's length so as to avoid conflicts of interest. Although this originally came about due to the default of a private sector operator, it seems now to be deliberate policy, possibly partly to act as an example to show other operators how TfL wishes bus services to be run^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Publications

London Buses publishes a variety of bus maps. Some are traditional street maps of London marked with bus numbers. In 2002, TfL introduced the first "spider" maps^[3]. Rather than attempting to cover the entire city, these maps are centred on a particular locality or bus station, and convey the route information in the schematic style of Harry Beck's influential tube map, capitalising on TfL's iconic style of information design. The arachnoid form of bus routes radiating from a centre earned them the nickname "spider" maps, although TfL refer to them on their website as route maps. The maps are displayed at most major bus stops, and can be downloaded in PDF format via the Internet from the TfL website.^[4]

[edit] Legal status

The legal identity of London Buses is actually London Bus Services Limited (LBSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London. East Thames Buses is the trading name of another wholly owned subsidiary of TfL called, rather confusingly, London Buses Limited (LBL).

LBL was first created on 1 April 1985 in the process of the privatisation of London bus services, and acted as an arm's-length subsidiary of TfL's precursor organisation, London Regional Transport (LRT), holding twelve bus operating units (from late 1988) and other assets. The operating units were sold off in 1994/5, and their purchasers make up the majority of companies awarded bus operating tenders from the current London Buses (LBSL).

After 1994/5, the LBL company then lay dormant, passing from LRT to TfL. It was resurrected as a place for East Thames Buses to exist within TfL, separated by a chinese wall from LBSL, and acting as a London bus operator by proxy.

[edit] Scope

The local bus network in London is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Over 6,800 scheduled buses operate on over 700 different routes.^[1] Over the year this network carries over 1.5 billion passenger journeys.

[edit] Ticket machines, fares and concessions

Ticket machine selling single and day tickets for London buses

Buses in the London Buses network accept both Travelcards printed on cardboard and Oyster card products including bus passes, as well as single cash fares. Cash fares used to be charged in relation to length of journey (fare stages), but are now charged as single flat fares for any length of journey. From 2000 the flat fare was higher for journeys in Zone 1 than in outer zones, although from 2004 this difference was eliminated, the change coinciding with the introduction of Oyster card flat fares. Cash fares are considerably higher than Oyster and Travelcard fares for the same journey.

With the Oyster card pay as you go (formerly Pre Pay) users are charged a set amount for single journeys, although there is a "daily cap", which limits the maximum amount of money that will be deducted from the balance on a Pay as you go Oyster card regardless of how many buses are taken that day (from 4.30am to 4.30am the next day). Alternatively, weekly (7-day) and monthly (30-day) passes may also be purchased and loaded onto an Oyster card.

All children under 11 travel free. 11-to-15-year-olds travel free on buses with an 11-15 Oyster photocard (and at reduced rate on other TfL services). There are concessions for people aged 16 to 18[1]. Concessions can be withdrawn from people who breach TfL's Behaviour Code.

The Freedom Pass scheme allows those over 60 and those with a disability to travel free at any time on buses and most other forms of public transport in London, although only after 9.30 am on some mainline rail services. People who have concessionary bus passes issued by English local authorities travel free on TfL bus services at any time.

On routes throughout London operated by 'bendy' buses and on route W7, passengers who wish to pay cash fares are required to pre-purchase tickets prior to boarding. All bus stops on those routes are equipped with ticket machines which sell single tickets and one-day passes. These route numbers are marked in yellow on bus stop signs with a notice to "Buy tickets before boarding", as drivers are unable to issue tickets, and also because passengers may board by any door. Furthermore, many bus stops within the West End of London fall into a "cashless" area where all routes are marked in yellow. Although drivers of non-bendy buses are always able to issue tickets, they may refuse to do so in the cashless area and require passengers to purchase their tickets using the machines. In other places, single tickets may be purchased directly from the bus driver. Most passengers use the Oyster Card and thus the driver may issue a very low number of tickets during a route. As the cash fare is more than twice the Oyster fare, there is a clear incentive for this, and people paying by cash tend to be either tourists or infrequent public transport users.

[edit] Current operators

[edit] Vehicles

The various bus operators providing services under contract to London Buses operate a wide variety of vehicles, about the only immediately obvious common feature being their use of a largely red livery. However, London Buses does in fact maintain a close control over both the age and specification of the vehicles. Particular examples of this include the use of separate exit doors, increasingly unusual on buses in the United Kingdom outside London, and, on double-deckers, the use of a straight staircase where most other UK operators specify a more compact curved staircase. Additionally, London Buses also specifies that vehicles operating in London use linen roller destination blinds, whereas in most other parts of the country, electronic dot matrix or LED displays are the norm on new buses.

Because of London Buses' close control on the age of the fleet, it is very common for London buses to be cascaded by their owners to operations in other parts of the country after a few years service.

[edit] iBus

An iBus screen on a London United Scania OmniCity double decker on route 482.

iBus is an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL)^[5] system to improve London's buses using technology installed by Siemens AG.^[6] The system tracks all of London's 8000 buses to provide passengers with audio visual announcements,^[5] improved information on bus arrivals,^[7] and to trigger priority at traffic junctions.^[8][9]

Each bus contains a Windows-based computer^[2] that has the details of all 19,000 bus stops in London.^[2] As the bus approaches the stop, the on-board system will announce and display the bus stop name.^[7] In addition it is able to give recorded announcements such as "please move down inside the bus"^[10] and "seats are available on the upper deck".^[11]

The iBus system aims to provide a better fix on bus locations than the old Selective Vehicle Detection (SVD) system.^[8] iBus can locate every bus to an accuracy of about 10 metres, or its distance from the nearest stop by around 10 seconds.^[2] It does this using several instruments:

• Global Positioning System (GPS)^[7][8]
• General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)^[12][7]
• Odometers,^[8] including Speedometer^[2]
• Turn-rate sensor^[2]
• Rate gyro^[12]

The essential part of the system relies on GPS satellite data that roughly determine the location of a bus down to 100 metres.^[6] Data collected from GPS is passed into a Kalman filter,^[12] and other data including velocity^[12] and temperature^[12] is calculated on the bus and transmitted every 30 seconds via GPRS.^[6] With the bus network map, this helps the Central System to make a "best guess" of the bus position and depicts the overall image derived from the data provided by all buses,^[6] even in areas with poor GPS reception. The Central System^[12] can update the countdown signs as before^[12] that now has a more accurate prediction derived from all this data. Knowing the location of the bus, controllers have the means to regulate the service more efficiently,^[7] and priority can be given to a bus at traffic lights.^[12][8][9]

In the future this data may be made available over mobile applications and the TfL website.^[2]

[edit] See also

• List of bus routes in London
• London Underground
• East London Transit
• Articulated buses in London
• Aldenham Works

[edit] External links

• London Buses website
• iBus
• List of routes currently installed with iBus
• Collection of Google Earth locations of London Bus Stations (Requires Google Earth software) from the Google Earth Community forum.
• London Omnibus Traction Society
• Greater London Bus Map
• London Bus Routes Fotopic

[edit] References

v • d • e Bus companies based in Greater London Central London Arriva London South · Arriva London North · East Thames Buses · First Centrewest · London Central · London General · Metroline · Transdev London · Selkent · Travel London North London Arriva East Herts & Essex · Arriva London North · CT Plus · East London · First Capital North · Metroline · NSL Buses · Sullivan Buses · London United · London Sovereign · Uno East London Arriva London North · Arriva East Herts & Essex · Blue Triangle · CT Plus · Docklands Buses · East London · First Capital East · First Capital North Ltd · Metroline · London Sovereign South London Arriva London South · Arriva Southern Counties · East Thames Buses · Epsom Coaches · First Centrewest · London Central · London General · Metrobus · Quality Line · Selkent · Travel London · London Sovereign West London Arriva London North · First Centrewest · Metroline · NSL Buses · London United · Travel London West National Megabus · National Express

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