Posted on Friday 21st March 2025

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Most notable amongst recently reported fleet additions are no fewer than 8 Renault Kangoo electric crew vans at the Elizabeth Line depot in Plumstead, where they appear to have replaced most of the VW Caddy Maxi crew vans. The new vans are in the plain TfL white and are numbered in the range 9442R to 9455R. This suggests the batch is multi-user, as 9444R, 9453R and 9457R have been seen working for LBSL. There are also reported to be a couple of TfL Kangoos with London Overground at Silwood Triangle, the identities for which are not yet available.

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Posted on Sunday 2nd March 2025

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More TfL Renault Kangoos have been noted recently. The short-wheelbase diesel vans are numbered in the range 9399R to 9437R, with 20 reported (plus 2 for which fleetnumbers were not obtained). These have been followed by a batch of long-wheelbase electric crew vans, with just 4 seen so far, numbered between 9439R and 9457R. One each has been noted at Blackwall (Naval Row) and Acton Works, with 2 at Eltham Bus Station, although it is not entirely clear who the user of these is. Of the Eltham vans, one featured yellow safety stripes along the sides and red/yellow chevrons on the rear, while the other lacked the stripes and had a plain white rear.


Talking of safety stripes, these have also been noted on a few other vehicles, including a new diesel Kangoo, one of the Ford Transit Connect vans delivered last year and, surprisingly, on an LUL-liveried Ford Transit Custom crew van.


It is not yet clear if the yellow stripes are to become a standard livery feature, or only applied for particular roles. Reports of any sightings would be welcomed. I have not yet decided if this detail should be included in the liveries recorded on the LTSV database, but I have started producing icons to allow it to be shown there (see today's Site News).

Ahead of producing a new SUP24 booklet for LOTS, I have been trying to track vehicles that have left the fleet recently, making use of license and V5C data from the DVLA. This is not foolproof however, as a vehicle can be delicensed and/or have a new V5C but still be in the fleet. Departures have included yet more cars, including the last 2 Ford Mondeos. There are now fewer than 30 cars in the central fleet (down from about 120 a year ago), although I suspect that the actual total will be even less. Some cars are certainly out of use (though still 'in stock'), while others have not been seen for years and may well have already gone.

There is not much to report from the bus company fleets. The nine (or so) anonymous white Nissan NV250 vans with HG21xxx registrations that had been used by Go-Ahead London have all been marked as withdrawn, since none have been reported for a couple of months. There are also now (thankfully) fewer anonymous hired crew ferry cars at Arriva London's Dartford garage, following the loss of 3 bus routes on re-tendering recently. The big news however is that the sale of RATP-Dev's London bus operations to First was completed on the last day of February. London United, London Sovereign, and London Transit are all now part of First Bus London, although it is not yet known whether the subsidiary company names are being retained or changed. Also unknown is whether First will implement a fleet renumbering, although this would seem likely.

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Posted on Thursday 12th December 2024

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The monopoly on new deliveries by Ford Transit Connects was finally broken when 11 Renault Kangoo vans were delivered to Acton Works last week. This is a bit strange as the Kangoo is broadly similar to the Transit Connect in size and capacity. I had expected any variety to be in the form of larger vans, minibuses or dropsides. Still, it is at least some variety. The new vans are in the same all white with blue TfL markings, and they were numbered in the range 9399R to 9437R, suggesting a batch of at least 40 is on the way. It is too early to say where they are going to be allocated but a reporter passing the lorry yard today noted that most of the Kangoos had already departed, and in their place were a variety of LUL and TfL cars, perhaps having been replaced.

We are not yet done with the Transit Connects though. There are now 172 in the database, for which fleetnumbers are not known for 20. The known number range is from 9169F to 9396F, and I suspect that this entire run of 228 vehicles will indeed be Transit Connects. A correspondent has identified about 50 additional registration marks which could well be TfL vehicles. We just need somebody to see (and report) them all, which might take some time. Having said all that, a couple of 24-reg Transit Connects were seen at Acton Works in late November. They were in the normal registration series but were unmarked, and it appears that they had only just been delivered, despite having been registered 7 months earlier. By the following week, the two vans had gained TfL markings, and they were numbered as 9247F and 9459F, the latter number being well after the block of Renault Kangoos.

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Posted on Sunday 3rd November 2024

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Deliveries of new vehicles for TfL have continued, now into 74 registrations but still only featuring various types of Ford Transit Connect vans. A total of 151 have been reported, and it is highly probable that there are some others that we have missed. The newest arrivals have pushed the fleetnumbers up to 9395F, meaning that the range now covers 227 numbers (9169F to 9395F). However, they are not arriving in numerical order, so some of the missing 76 vehicles may not yet have been delivered. Of the 151 known vehicles, 106 are crew vans (all but one being of the longer variety), while the 45 vans are split almost equally between the two lengths available.

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Posted on Friday 27th September 2024

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The number of TfL livery Ford Transit Connects has continued to rise. We haven't caught any bulk deliveries to Acton Works recently but examples have been seen 'out in the wild', with the total now up to 124. On top of that, about 40 related registration numbers have been identified that are potentially additional examples, though it is possible some went to other customers. Moreover, the fleet numbers on the vans cover a range of 211 (from 9169F to 9379F), with lots of gaps. Some of these gaps will presumably be filled in due course by other types of vehicle.

Not previously mentioned is that at least one of these new vans has had a change of identity. LJ24YJV was licensed at the end of March but appears to have only been delivered to Acton in August, at which point it was numbered 9372F. After a couple of weeks, it was still at Acton but it had been given a replacement number of 9251F. I hope that this was a one-off case, either due to an admin error or a change of plan. However, there is a risk that some of the other vans that were noted at Acton when newly delivered are now in service with different numbers. Can I ask observers to try and note both the reg and fleetnumber if possible.

Apart from these, other recent additions have mainly been second-hand cars for Transport UK. Many have been noted carrying 4-digit fleet numbers, though there are lots of gaps. There is also an issue that they are about to run out of numbers. Recently reported was Vauxhall Astra 6897 (with the interesting registration of ASZ5553), but numbers from 6900 to 6911 are allocated to various vans. Will cars skip to 7001? Or perhaps start back from 6501? Well, I won't know unless/until somebody sees it and tells me.

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Posted on Saturday 3rd August 2024

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New Ford Transit Connects in TfL white ivery have continued to flood in, with a total of 106 now reported. The vast majority are long-wheelbase crew vans, but there are also a dozen LWB vans and (so far) just one SWB van (9250F). Fleetnumbers are spread across the range 9169F to 9379F, and I am beginning to think that this is the only type that has been ordered so far. This could mean there are still 105 yet to be reported or delivered.

The only other central-fleet addition is a bit of a mystery. Renault Kangoo van MW24VRU was seen at Newbury Park Station and was white with LUL roundels on front and sides and TfL lettering on the sides. No fleetnumber was carried but this looks to be a long-term addition. What is not clear is why this got LUL livery when TfL-only seems to be the new standard. The Renault Kangoo model was updated a couple of years ago and this is the first example reported as a service vehicle.

A newish (73-reg) Vauxhall Combo van was found at Arriva London's Grays garage. This is a 'stealth' SV, in that it has white Arriva lettering on its white bodywork! Not yet added to the database is HK24KZS, an unmarked red Seat Ibiza car seen at Dartford garage. If anyone sees this in use as a crew ferry, please let me know.

Metroline has been receiving new vans again, two of which were Ford Transit Courier Mk2 vans. This new model is markedly different from the original Courier, which was visually similar to the Ford Fiesta car. The new version has a more pronounced bonnet. Also at Metroline, two Ford vans were noted recently that have perhaps been operated since new a few years ago. Quite how AX68UYA and AY71JKK avoided being seen until now is a mystery.

Transport UK has added several more second-cars of various makes, replacing the once-standard Ford Fiesta. A growing number also have Transport UK fleetnames and numbers in the 68xx range.

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Posted on Friday 19th July 2024

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Lots more TfL Ford Transit Connect vans have been found this week, bringing the total up to at least 88. Fleetnumber-registration tie-ups are missing for a few so please get in touch if you can help.

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Posted on Sunday 7th July 2024

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The number of TfL Ford Transit Connect vans delivered over the past couple months has risen to at least 54, and there are probably some we have missed. Fleet numbers are spread across a wide range (9189F to 9379F) and it is presumed (hoped!) that some of the other numbers will be used on vehicles of other types.

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Posted on Sunday 26th May 2024

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Deliveries of new Ford Transit Connect vans in TfL white livery have continued. Ten more arrived this week (photos to follow), meaning that at least 37 have been delivered over the past two months. The fleet numbers on the latest batch are interesting, being spread across a wide range from 9272F to 9376F. This suggests that a large quantity of vehicles are on order.

Transport UK has been adding a variety of second-hand cars for use as crew ferries, moving away from the standardised fleet of mainly Ford Fiestas used by Abellio. The examples added today include three makes not previously featured in the LTSV database (Alfa Romeo, Mazda and Ssongyang), while I have also updated the operator name (from Abellio to Transport UK) for all the older vehicles that have been noted still in use since March. This has left 18 vehicles that are still listed as Abellio, none of which have been reported recently. Any sightings of these vehicles would be welcomed.

Two more of Metroline's Ford Puma cars have gained advert liveries, formed of all-over vinyl wraps with graphics and lettering for bus driver recruitment. AY23KUE has a yellow base while AY23KWO is green (photos to follow). All three examples (including AY23KVM in light blue) are working from Brentford, while the Pumas at other locations appear to still be in unmarked red.

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Posted on Sunday 28th April 2024

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Fleetnumbers for central fleet vehicles are romping ahead. Four new Ford Transit Connect vans seen at Acton Works recently carried 9254F to 9257F, these being more than 30 higher than the batch of Connect crew vans delivered over Easter. So presumably lots more vehicles have been ordered. The four new vans (plus one further crew van numbered 9216F) all have the basic TfL white livery. Taking the places in the Acton lorry yard recently occupied by new Ford vans have been a variety of older LUL vehicles, such as Renault Kangoo Maxi vans 8357R, 8358R, 8360R, 8365R, 8367R, 8369R and 8372R. This would suggest that the new TfL Fords are indeed for LUL use, backed-up by the fact that examples have been noted at Frank Pick House and at Stratford Market Depot.

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