Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sun, 23 Jun 2013 19:21:05 +0100, "Stephen Furley"
wrote:

"Recliner" wrote in message
...

I looked at Victoria the other day, and all the 38s in the queue were
conventional buses, so perhaps the NB4L prototypes have been
withdrawn. I suppose their new role might be to test out other routes
for production models. Or maybe they've gone back to Wright to be
upgraded to production spec?

I tried them out in January on the 38 route, and took a few pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/recline...7632900943469/

I do use the 38 from time, but never with one of the new buses. Do you know
how they differ from the production series?

There are 8 prototypes - LT1-8. Two of them, LT1 and 2, are on "Great
Britain" promotional work at the moment. LT1 is the one that went to
the USA.

The remaining 6 prototypes are on route 38. However they way they are
used has changed. Up until 14 June there was a "supplementary
schedule" which just used the LTs. That has been scrapped and the LTs
are now just part of the pool of buses that can be used on route 38.
There has been a road closure in Hackney which has altered the way
buses have to move near to Hackney Central and Clapton Garage. To
avoid gridlock schedules and terminals on several routes have been
changed. A side effect is that the NB4Ls now run to Clapton Pond -
previously they always terminated at Hackney Central sometimes running
into Clapton Garage to stand but other times to Ash Grove where they
actually "live". The conductors have also been withdrawn from the 38
as of yesterday so they run as OPO open boarding double deckers
alongside the VDL double deckers.

The remaining LTs (LT9-40) are production buses and are allocated to
route 24. There are 32 buses for a peak requirement of 27 vehicles.
This is quite a premium of spare vehicles. The main difference is that
the production vehicles are a bit lighter than the prototypes.
Production vehicles can carry 80 pax while the prototypes carry 78.
TfL's standard requires a capacity of 87 for double deckers.

The next route to get them is route 11 on 21 September 2013. A wide
number of routes have been evaluated for potential conversion but no
announcements have been made. The buses for route 24 have route 16 on
their blind set but route 16 already has a compliment of hybrid buses
on it.

Ah, I thought you'd be the one to know! Are there any visible changes? And
will the first eight prototypes get upgraded to production spec?