Route RV1

Route RV1
22 October 2010

A curious new route began on 27 April 2002, following a decidedly indirect route between Tower Gateway and Covent Garden via the South Bank. Surprisingly, despite TfL's dislike for letters in route numbers, it was dubbed RV1, doubtless for Riverside as shown on the side of the bus, and awarded to First Capital using new Mercedes Citaro full-size single deckers. The route is clearly aimed at tourists, and the original buses had depictions of the various attractions served along the way, including the Tower and London Eye. Buses run every 10 minutes all day every day of the week, which is unusual – most routes run less frequently during the evenings and on Sundays. The use of full sized single deckers, rather than Dart sized buses, is also unusual for London.

However, the Citaros were suddenly whisked away during 2010 without explanation, and nearly new "bog standard" Enviro200Darts have replaced them. DML44157 (YX10 BFZ) is one of those, and was seen passing the London Dungeon in Duke Street Hill, at the side of London Bridge station, on 11 July 2010. The buses were originally bought for new tenders on Uxbridge routes, but were transferred to the RV1 after only a few months, the previous buses being temporarily re-instated at Uxbridge.

Photo © Taelin-Jorda Lambert.

I do not normally deliberately include obsolete vehicle types, but three vehicles used on the RV1 from 2004 to 2006 deserve a special mention. These are the hydrogen powered fuel cell buses, which use hydrogen and oxygen to produce water and electricity – the reverse of electrolysis – the electricity being used to power the vehicle. Although hydrogen production and storage raises challenging questions, if technical and cost issues can be cracked then the technology provides an ideal solution for clean urban transport.

Photo © James Fullick.

Providing a typically atmospheric view is ESQ64992 at Aldwych on 22 February 2006, where the route terminates, near Covent Garden, showing off its "demonstration" blind displays. The "no emissions" claim on the side of the bus is clearly spurious, but what can be said is that the emissions are clean, being pure steam. The bus is labelled with many of the organisations taking part in this research & development trial; London was one of ten European cities which received 3 of these vehicles each. The buses initially ran on route 25 as extras, then transferred to the RV1 where they formed part of the service, albeit only being able to operate for part of the day due to limited fuel range; they were swapped with conventional buses during the day. Following completion of the trial, the vehicles were decomissioned and the components returned to manufacturers for further research.

The RV1 is now to be home to a larger trial of Hydrogen vehicles, and this time they should provide the majority of the service. This time they are a completely different type, designated VDL SB200/Wright Pulsar. Original plans to run 5 of these alongside 5 with hydrogen combustion engines (as opposed to hydrogen fuel cells) have been dropped, and instead 8 fuel cell buses are on order. Theoretically this will be enough to cover the full peak vehicle requirement, though two new Enviro200Darts were ordered to act as spares (though they have actually just entered service at Uxbridge); it is intended to return most of the afore-mentioned Darts to Uxbridge – but that does assume that availability of the new vehicles is adequate! Delivery should commence soon.

To facilitate the trials the route has been removed from the tendering programme, having already completed the original seven year term, extended from 5 years. A new negotiated (i.e. non-tendered) contract is due to start shortly.

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