Our Ref:         FOI-4817-1718

Thank you for your request received on 9 March 2018 asking for information about bus fleet allocation.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.

We cannot renew the entire fleet all at once because of the cost and practical obstacles. Retrofitting, combined with some replacement, is much more cost efficient and can enable us to achieve much greater emission reduction overall and a more gradual approach enables us to benefit from emerging technologies like electric at the same time – of which some outer London areas like Croydon are a benefiting from, regardless of being far from the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

We are raising part of the bus fleet that is not as clean as the newest diesel vehicles to the same ultra-clean emission standard between now and 2020. There may be buses of different ages across London, both in the centre and outer areas, but they will all be ultra clean diesel vehicles for oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter.

At the same time, when routes come up for renewal, we will consider them for new Euro VI buses including the outer London routes, so that there will not be an inexorably drift of older buses from the centre to the surrounding areas, with one area benefiting at the expense of others. When we allocate buses to routes they may need to move around for operational and maintenance reasons to ensure there are no gaps in services so we are unable to give assurances that the exact buses will stay there all the time. However, we are raising the fleet up to Euro VI so all buses will be of this standard.

If this is not the information you are looking for please feel free to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]