Posted on Wednesday 8th July 2026

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Fleet news catch-up

The first 26-reg SVs to be reported were a second set of Dacia Spring electric cars for Transport UK at Beddington. Noted in April were four, numbered 6012-6014 and 6016, and there are believed to be ten in total, numbered 6007-6016 to follow on from 75-reg 6001-6006.

The next 26-reg vehicle to be reported was rather interesting. KM26OGR was a Vauxhall Movano electric minibus for TfL and based at Plumstead Elizabeth Line depot along with similar YO75GNU. These two carried curious fleetnumbers 9834V and 9833V respectively. Apart from marking the return of the V suffix after a couple of years absence, the numbers seemed far too high to be correct. After all, other vehicles being delivered at the time were mainly in the high 94xx and low 95xx ranges. Fleetnumbers 9465 and 9466 in the middle of a block allocated to the Elizabeth Line were also notably still free, and I initially assumed that the minibuses had had incorrect fleetnumbers applied.

The fleet of ferry cars used by Uno from its remote base in Hatfield are mainly BYD electrics, and in the spring these started gaining fleetnumbers in the series UNO1 upwards. The numbers are applied front and rear in very large lettering, as shown in various photos already uploaded. A later addition was a Mercedes Sprinter minibus.

Deliveries of new full-sized vehicles for the central fleet finally resumed in early 2026, all deliveries in the past couple of years having been of small vans. The new additions included some electric Transit dropsides for the Elizabeth Line, hybrid Transit Custom minibuses, and diesel Transit vans and crew vans. A couple of months later these were joined by a Transit box truck and two electric Transit minibuses (9465F and 9466F with Minibus Options bodywork and presumably destined for the Elizabeth Line, and which are therefore not the correct numbers for the two Vauxhall minibuses). There were also the first examples of the Transit Connect Mk3 van (the large batch delivered in 2024 were late-model Mk2s). All of these vehicles had fleetnumbers in the range 9461F to 9561F.

More recently, a number of large vans have been delivered for TfL, which appear to be Vauxhall Movanos, Peugeot Boxers or something similar. This is interesting as it represents a move away from the previous domination by Ford and Volkswagen. Unfortunately we could not get the details on these vehicles because our access to Acton Works has been suspended following a change of management. This is rather unfortunate, since all new vehicles are still delivered to Acton - there had been a rumour that this function would be moved elsewhere, perhaps to Ruislip. It is also slightly ironic, given that in recent months we have gained first-time access to other locations such as Lillie Bridge and Stratford Market.

Stagecoach London has added a few new vans, including a red electric Transit for their Building Maintenance department, and two white electric Vauxhall Vivaro to replace the Mercedes Sprinters inherited with the Hackney CT fleet. Stagecoach's Rainham garage continues to use a number of unmarked cars (presumably hires), and these now include a Kia Niro electric that had previously been used by Metroline.

Back to the centrsl fleet, and a new car has been delivered to Harrow-on-the-Hill station for use as an Incident Response Vehicle (replacing Mitsubishi Outlander 9054MIT). The new car is a BYD Seal, in white but brightened up by a broad blue-edged yellow stripe on the sides and a red bonnet. It carries fleetnumber 9836B, bringing back the B suffix after many years (it was previously use for Bedfords), while the very high number suggests that 9833V and 9834V (mentioned above) were indeed correct. If so, this implies that around 300 new vehicles have been ordered and allocated fleetnumbers, so we could be in for an interesting few months.

Finally, a bit of a mystery concerns Mercedes Sprinter minibus KN20VCT, noted recently at Sydenham Garage in white with Go-Ahead London logos. What is interesting is that this is a coach-built minibus, with taller bodywork and a folding passenger door (i.e. more like a PSV minibus than the 'panel' minibuses normally used as crew ferries).

Photos covering some of the developments mentioned above have already been added, while more recent events will be in the next batch of photos when I get time.

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Posted on Tuesday 24th February 2026

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Fleet news update - part 3
Following some conversations, I have decided to include the six additional lorries in the database. It is believed that these all passed from Balfour Beatty to TfL in May 2025, and that they were (and continue to be) based at Ruislip Depot. There are four large (4-axle) DAF lorries, which appear to be switchable from dropsides to flatbeds - FN15RNV/RNX and YN20YWO/YWP, plus two Isuzu Forward box trucks - LN20YLP/YLR.

I should also correct my statement about the new Fords. Although the vans are all diesel, the five Transit Custom minibuses are in fact hybrid-electrics.

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Posted on Sunday 22nd February 2026

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Fleet news update - part 2
Following on from a large quantity of small vans (Ford Transit Connects and Renault Kangoos) in 2024, and two batches of electric vans for the Elizabeth Line in 2025, deliveries of new vehicles for TfL resumed in late-Jan/early-Feb 2026. First up were three Ford Transit dropside trucks numbered 9467F-9469F. These numbers, plus the fact that they are electric, suggests that these will also be for the Elizabeth Line. The livery has been marked as white, but the colour of the bodywork is yet to be confirmed. The remainder of the additions are all diesel Fords, with numbers in the range 9487F to 9532F. Five Transit Custom minibuses probably include a couple for Stratford Market Depot (to replace 8244VW and 8245VW), while the Transit Mk8 vans and crew vans are likely to be spread around. As noted, two have already been found at Museum Way.

The FoI list included some un-numbered lorries that have not previously been reported. DAF CF flatbeds FN15RNV and FN15RNX are presumably hires, though similar but newer YN20YWO and YN20YWP may have been acquired, based on their licensing data. Hopefully our Acton correspondent can report soon. Also listed were the two Isuzu box trucks latterly used by Balfour Beatty, LN20YLP and LN20YLR. Two photos of YLP have already been added to LTSV, and it appears that these trucks passed to TfL control in May 2025, so they should probably be added to the database. I have no idea where they are kept though.

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Posted on Saturday 21st February 2026

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Fleet news update - part 1b
I have tried to untangle the TfL Ford Transit Connect registration mix-ups with limited success! What I can say fairly confidently is that the following vans are in the fleet but with unknown fleetnumbers: LJ24YKS, LD74GNY, LD74GOJ, LD74GPX, LD74GSO and LD74GSY. Conversely, the following fleetnumbers are believed to be active but without confirmed registrations: 9284F, 9312F, 9314F, 9377F and 9378F. Finally, the following numbers are believed to have not been used: 9328F, 9337F, 9372F, 9373F, 9397F and 9398F.

I'll move on to the newest deliveries in part 2 tomorrow.

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Posted on Saturday 21st February 2026

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Fleet news update - part 1
After a fairly uneventful winter, things are now picking up. On Thursday, a couple of brand new TfL-liveried Ford Transit crew vans were found at the LUL facility on Museum Way at Acton Town. These were numbered 9496F and 9504F, suggesting that renewal of the larger van fleet is finally underway. By coincidence, the very next day I was forwarded a current central fleet list that had been obtained through a Freedom of Information request. This confirmed that quite a few new diesel Ford Transit vans and Ford Transit Custom minibuses had been delivered from late January onwards. More on these in part 2, coming soon.

The FoI list proved to be useful in providing the details of most of the missing smaller vans that were added to the fleet in 2024. We knew that there were about 230 Ford Transit Connects plus around 60 Renault Kangoos (including some electrics), but we were lacking details for about 50 of the combined total, either because they had not been seen at all, or the fleetnumbers had not been noted.

There is a slight snag in that about a dozen of the Transit Connect vans on the list showed different registrations from what we had already recorded. My policy is to record the actual fleetnumbers, not the official ones, but this does mean that I cannot yet add all of the vehicles. For example, 9314F is listed as LD74GOP, but I cannot add that as we already have 9311F as LD74GOP. This will take some time to work out, so I will focus initially on the straightforward updates and additions. Needless to say, the allocations for all of the additions will have to be shown as Unknown, but hopefully they will eventually be seen by one of our roving reporters.

One other interesting vehicle on the list was a Ford Transit crew van numbered 8917F new in February 2020. This has never been seen, although it seems likely to be in the standard LUL livery of white/blue/red that was in use at the time. Something else to look out for.

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Posted on Friday 31st October 2025

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A few more TfL vans (Ford Transit Connects and Renault Kangoos) have been tracked down, and there are also two more new vans at Metroline. Perhaps most interesting is the delivery of six new Dacia Spring electric cars to Transport UK at Beddington. Apart from starting a new number series (at 6001), these are notable for being the first new cars for Transport UK or its predecessors (Abellio, Travel London), all previous cars having been second-hand.

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Posted on Friday 19th September 2025

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After a fairly quiet few months, things picked up in August, although pressure of other work has meant I have not had time to catch up until now.

Firstly several white 25-reg Renault Kangoo Maxi electric vans were seen at Metroline garages. Given that Metroline has previously used mainly red Ford vans, we were not sure if these were company vehicles, although a couple have since been seen with red Metroline lettering. In a further twist, the first 75-reg SV to be reported was a Ford Transit Courier van in unmarked red seen at Metroline Hayes. Perhaps they are going to dual-source.

In mid-August a visitor to the Elizabeth Line depot at Plumstead found no fewer than 15 new Ford Transit electric crew vans present. All were in the standard TfL white livery and had fleetnumbers in the range 9470F-9486F. A couple of weeks later they were joined by four Ford Transit Custom electric crew vans (9461F-9464F), both types being new to the central fleet. Most of the existing white/blue/purple vehicles have now gone, apart from one VW Caddy Maxi (8637VW), and it appears that the Transit dropside trucks have been replaced by hired vehicles for now. We have been advised that a further 4 new vehicles are due in the next couple of weeks, to give a fleet total of 41. This represents a considerable enlargement over the original fleet of 24.

Fleetlists were received for both First Bus London and Go-Ahead London. The former included a lot of previously unknown service vehicles, although it appears that many were hires and were most likely operated without any markings. I took the decision to add the vans to the database but I did not bother with the many cars listed, as it was not clear which were used as crew ferries, and in any case some had already left the left.

By contrast, the Go-Ahead list did not contain any new vehicles, although some must be expected soon to start replacing the oldest Mercedes Vito crew ferry minibuses. What the list did show was the ESxx and FVxx fleetnumbers allocated to most of the existing fleet. Very few vehicles carry these numbers externally, but I have added the details to the database for info.

Potentially more interesting was a list of central fleet service vehicles that was passed on to me having been obtained through a Freedom of Information (FoI) enquiry. Unfortunately it was limited in detail, showing just the fleetnumber and vehicle type. Registration numbers, users and allocations were not included. Even so, there were some interesting points. Firstly, 8917F was listed as a Ford Transit crew van. This has never been seen, though we would assume it is 19-reg or 69-reg and in LUL white/blue/red. One to keep an eye out for.

Most (but not all) of the gaps in the known number series have been used. 9150-9152, 9161 and 9166/9167 were missed (cancelled?), while 43 unseen numbers between 9177 and 9393 are on Ford Transit Connect vans. Numbers 9330, 9337, 9372-9374, 9397 and 9398 are gaps, even though we have seen 9330F and 9374F! Similarly, 9399R-9438R are all Renault Kangoo diesel vans, apart from gaps 9411 (this one was returned as faulty), 9418, 9424 and 9432, although 9424R has been seen. Not yet seen are 9407R, 9412R, 9421R, 9425R, 9429R and 9436R. Finally, 9439R-9458R are 20 Renault Kangoo electric vans, of which 9445R, 9450R and 9456R have not yet been seen. The new vehicles for the Elizabeth Line (9461F upwards) were not yet listed.

Finally (for now), an Isuzu F110 mini-dustcart was seen at Acton Works in late August. LT73EAK was in white with a yellow stripe and TfL lettering. However, it may be just a hire, as it was not on the FoI list, and it has not had a change of ownership since it was new in December 2023.

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