VE2130's Travel Snapshots, London (2026)

05/06/2026

[Prague’s Living Heritage]

Amongst the many tram lines in Prague, there lies a special “nostalgic line” - the 23 between Královka and Zvonařka, travelling through various parts of the city and the outskirts of Prague Castle. The line operates during the day until around 7 p.m., every 30 minutes on weekdays and 15 minutes on weekends (was 7-8 at the time of my visit).

The line typically uses a range of trams long gone from regular lines, including some older variants of the world-famous Tatra T3, as well as a few of the older T2 and newer T6A5 trams. I also recommend paying a visit to the transport museum there, with many more historic vehicles and exhibits on static display.

Contrary to the historic routes 41 and 42, line 23 is seen as a regular tram service and thus regular public transport (PID) tickets can be used on them. Considering not many cities offer heritage rides 7 days a week and without a “surcharge”, this easily became one of the must-go’s when I visited Prague!

22/05/2026

[Orange, Gold, Red!?]

Following the complete withdrawal of Scania K310UDs, Euro IV-compliant Enviro500s are also inevitable from an “early ending” - 10 of such waved goodbye last week, shy of 17 years in service.

New to Long Win Bus in 2009-2010, they served the company’s Tung Chung- and Airport-based routes until the early 2020s where the pandemic led to a surplus of vehicles. Combined with newer buses being ordered for LWB, most of the fleet were gradually transferred to KMB and distributed to serve various local routes.

Most remained in the legacy orange & white LWB livery despite the transferral, but there were a few cases where a repaint into gold happened (such as NY6119 pictured here). One (NV 966) even gained the red “Heartbeat of the City” livery found only on newer buses, making it the unique one amongst the fleet and caught much attention during special workings.

#九巴

08/05/2026

[Art Deco]

During the previous bank holiday weekend, London Transport Museum organised a series of tours for their preserved 1938 Tube Stock on the Piccadilly line (which came earlier this year compared to first outings in June past few years). Saturday saw 5 trips from Northfields down to the Heathrow T4 loop, then Sunday and Monday each saw 2 return trips from Northfields to Cockfosters. The train was operated alongside regular passenger services, but did not call at intermediate stations.

The 1938 Stock was one of the largest and most successful fleet of London Underground trains, with over 1100 carriages working on multiple underground lines at its peak. It represented a breakthrough in electric tube trains back then, with all motors and electrical equipment placed under the floor, freeing up space inside the carriages.

The entire fleet was withdrawn from regular LU service by the end of 1990, but a few sets were refurbished and moved to the sole National Rail route on the Isle of Wight - the Island Line, where they remained in passenger service until an overhaul of the system in 2021.

📍Stamford Brook / Piccadilly Circus

04/05/2026

[Here Comes the Longer One]

The all-ADL Enviro200EV is finally here, after more than a year of its shorter variant first entering service. Whilst London is still nowhere near to seeing an E200EV operating on the streets, the regional version just made their debut with Go North East in mid April.

There are currently 4 of such buses (numbered 8810-8813), with 8810 gaining a special registration of “GA26 GNE”. They are mainly used for shuttling between Gateshead and Metrocentre on the X66, replacing the previous “Supershuttle” E200MMCs. They carry the standard “Voltra” branding, as seen on other GNE’s zero emission bus types.

📍Gateshead Interchange / Metrocentre Interchange

24/04/2026

[Hello from the North]

This post is dedicated to a batch of buses that served the Southampton area for a very brief moment, mainly in 2023 and early 2024 following the collapse of First Bus services within the city. They are the 2006 Wright-bodied Volvo B7TL’s, transferred from Go North East in Newcastle and, more previously, serviced in all red for Go-Ahead London. Contrary to many Londoners sent to the rest of the country having their back door removed, this did not happen with the batch.

Throughout its time with Bluestar, they were mainly allocated to route 19, which also sees Optare-bodied ADL Enviro400s displaced from London. Soon after, the E400s were refurbished and repainted, sending these off the Go-Ahead Group - but to my knowledge a few survived with Metrobus in Crawley as they continue to cope with the lack of available buses.

📍Southampton Central

20/04/2026

[Short-lived Feeder Route]

Citybus’ route 43M was discontinued after last Saturday, ending just over 11 years of history. The route was introduced to help passengers in Tin Wan, Wah Fu and along Victoria Road connect to the then-newly extended Island Line to Kennedy Town. Causes of its failure include a pretty indirect route and competition with minibuses and route 971, the latter of which intended to “replace” the route itself.

Having lived in Kennedy Town for a while, I have only ever used the routes a few times, but their allocations, usually different from other routes nearby, still caught my attention sometimes. It also took a somewhat unique routing around the area - first looping into Forbes street for the MTR Station, then carrying on via Shing Sai Road non-stop to westbound “Hill Road” in Shek Tong Tsui, before continuing like other Kennedy Town-bound routes.

📍Hill Road / Kennedy Town Swimming Pool

#城巴 #9149 #青年巴士 #1820 #堅尼地城 #田灣

10/04/2026

[Happy? 18th Birthday to You]

Here’s to an easily overlooked fleet of buses in Hong Kong - the MAN NL273F (Euro 4) with Gemilang bodywork. 10 vehicles were registered with NLB in 2008, featuring luggage racks as they were originally ordered for the Shenzhen Bay Port route B2 - a route they won the contract for but nowhere close to their operating territories!

New double deckers were deployed on the B2 series routes in 2015, moving them to local routes in the Tung Chung & Airport regions. They were typically found on routes 37H / B4, as well as NLB’s busiest route 38 pre-pandemic (but started reappearing recently, particularly during the weekends).

The fleet was gradually decommissioned from 2019 as more double deckers enter service on the Tung Chung routes, with only 2 (NG4675 & NG8134) being able to operate past 2025. As the 18-year serviceable limit of the “last man standing” approaches, it may be time to finally wave goodbye to the fleet.

It is worth noting that vehicles registered at a similar time, such as KMB’s Enviro500 bodied Volvo B9TLs and Citybus/NWFB’s Enviro500s, have all been stood down early, making them the only franchised buses that have been used fully to their 18-year limit in a while.

📍Intersection of Yu Tung Road & Chung Yan Road / Tung Chung Bus Terminus

#嶼巴 #新大嶼山巴士 #猛獅 #猛獅巴士 #順豐

03/04/2026

[A Disappearing Familiar Sight]

The Tyne & Wear Metro is Northeast England’s only rapid transit system, extending from Newcastle City Centre to the Airport, the coast and nearby Sunderland, running alongside National Rail trains in the southern section. Some relate it to the Hong Kong MTR as they have several common specifications, were built in the same era, and there was even MTR trains testing in Newcastle before shipping to Hong Kong!

Each train is formed of 2 coupled “Metrocar” sets manufactured by Metro-Cammell, and have both longitudinal and transverse seating areas. They do not have end doors unlike the London Underground, and one unique feature on them is the half-size driving cab positioned to the left, leaving the right side available for passengers to enjoy the front view.

As these trains age, the operator Nexus purchased a fleet of Stadler units to replace them. Whilst the process was not at all smooth, the new trains are starting to completely take over in recent days, with only a few or even zero Metrocars out into service (unless a failure occurs).

📍Felling / Whitley Bay / Haymarket

27/03/2026

[A Premature Farewell]

In 2020, Abellio London (now Transport UK) ordered their first electric single deckers, the Caetano e.City Gold, for routes C10 (Victoria - Canada Water) and P5 (Elephant & Castle - Patmore Estate). Considered to be innovative at the time, they had high-resolution destination blinds, LCD passenger info systems, USB ports, camera mirrors, driver speed assist / alert and so on.

However, they were plagued with maintenance and durability issues during their service time. They have been slowly phased out by Wrightbus’ GB Kites from late 2025, including those transferred to route S1 (Colliers Wood - Banstead) as a temporary allocation earlier this year. Their fate is currently unknown - only time will tell…

On a side note - the second batch from 2023 (featuring a Toyota emblem on the front) currently remain operational on route 433 (East Croydon - Addington Village).

📍Salter Road, Rotherhithe / Waterloo Station / Addiscombe Road, Croydon

20/03/2026

[New Red Boxes?]

Since the “breakup” with ADL post 2024, BYD has been actively supplying for and competing in the British bus market. Whilst the double-decker BD11 is already in service with multiple operators, the single-decker B12 is a first for London since earlier this month - with Arriva purchasing a bunch of them for Croydon bus routes 312 and 166. Metroline is also expected to follow suit later in the year to cater for several new contracts.

Once again, many commented about it having a questionable outlook, despite it having been modified to meet new London standards. But the most annoying thing to me is that unlike BZLs and GB Kites, there are no seats directly behind the front doors, which greatly hinders enjoying the front-facing scenery along the trip…

📍East Croydon / Purley Tesco

VE2130's Travel Snapshots

05/06/2026

22/05/2026

08/05/2026

04/05/2026

24/04/2026

20/04/2026

10/04/2026

03/04/2026

27/03/2026

20/03/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category