Some bespoke projects really get you excited and this one was no exception. The London bus fleet has been operating since 1829, albeit they were initially horse drawn and of course things have moved on slightly since then. In 1906 route numbers were first introduced on buses but it was not until 1933 that the more traditional and iconic red London bus came into existence. Now, over nearly 90 years later there have been many variants including the well know R.T, Routemaster, Bendy Bus, Night Bus, Boris Bus and now the new Electric Bus.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has bold plans to clean up the capital’s dirty air, which leads to thousands of deaths each year, causing health problems which include dementia and stunting the growth of children’s lungs. The Mayor has committed to making all buses within the M25 zero emission by 2037 at the very latest and has asked Transport For London (TFL) to look at the feasibility of bringing this date forward. To deliver substantial benefits in the short term, TFL’s £85m bus retrofit programme will help ensure that all of the capital’s 9000 buses meet or exceed tough Euro VI emission standard by October 2020. This means the whole of London will become a Low Emission Bus Zone.

When we were first approached to look at a project for replacing the batteries on the new electric London bus it was exciting and we really jumped at the opportunity. Being part of the development history of something as important as this was inspiring.

The single deck electric bus is currently being trialled in some London boroughs. They are powered by zero emission new battery technology and they require changing daily. Basically, the batteries are removed for charging whilst a new charged set are fitted in place on a daily rota basis. This is a task that has a fair degree of manual intervention, but we were asked to look at providing access and handling equipment that would facilitate that operation in a safe and timely manner. Safety steps, scaffold towers and lifting hoists had been tried previously but they all failed to provide the safe and easy method that would become integral to the operation of the new buses.

Several meetings took place, time and motion studies were employed, and then modern design techniques were used to provide the customer with our initial proposal. We have now completed the supply of a totally bespoke access solution based around a mobile stairway coupled with a secure overhead walkway that in turn affixes to a vertical cat ladder with user access via a safety trapdoor platform. The construction is from an aluminium tube framework which ensures that the equipment is light, easy to move around yet still incredibly strong due to its unique design.  

Stairway side of access solution

Opposite access side with trapdoor platform

The rechargeable batteries are both considerable in size being 1680mm long x 500mm wide x 500mm high and they also weigh in at 300kgs each. This means that the operatives would obviously need a lifting mechanism to handle the daily unloading/loading and positioning of the batteries. We therefore supplied a mobile A frame gantry fitted with a three-phase electric chain block. The chain block engages with a specially designed spreader bar that in turn can be attached to the four lifting lugs fitted to the corners of the battery pack. The operatives can now easily access the top of the bus, move the gantry into place and then attach the lifting mechanism to complete the lifting task. This method is safe, quick and very easy to employ in order to allow minimum downtime when returning buses back to the vital job of moving London's passengers around the capital. 

Walkway access to battery packs

Trapdoor platform access to battery packs

We are pleased to hear that the trials of the new access and lifting solution have been very well received and we are looking forward to extending our help as the electric bus plan develops further. Double decker electric buses are also soon to be introduced on different routes and our existing solution has been designed in order to be suitable to handle the battery packs on these higher bus models accordingly.

Full access solution, with mobile 'A' frame gantry, chain hoist and spreader bar in place enabling quick and easy removal of the electric battery packs.

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