Drivetrain specialists Allison Transmission has retrofitted a 1962 Routemaster double-decker bus with a low-emission drivetrain granting it eligible Low Emission Bus (LEB) certification.
Routemaster chassis number RM1005 has been fitted with a Cummins ISB 4.5-litre Euro 6-compliant diesel engine and Allison Transmisson’s T2100 fully automatic gearbox putting its environmental credentials with the latest diesel and hybrid buses.
Frugal software includes new FuelSense 2.0 Max which features DynActive Shifting to optimise the 55 year-old bus’ gear changes, saving six per cent additional fuel use over the company’s previous version.
The retrofitting exercise was carried out by Mitchell Powersystems, which could make other Routemasters eligible for London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) exhaust emissions scheme coming into effect April 2019 in the current Congestion Charge Zone, tolling cars, motorcycles, vans, minibuses, buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles if they do not comply with the emissions standard.
“This conversation demonstrates that it is a viable economic porposition to update old buses and goods vehicles with modern engines and transmisstions to keep them meeting the demands for better polution control and air quality,” RM1005’s current owner and Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy CBE says.
“Since fitting the Allison transmission, it’s been a huge success,” he continues, “We got good fuel consumption after first changing the engine, but not as good as we’d hoped considering how light the Routemaster is. I realised we could get a much better result with a modern transmission that matches the engine… Now it’s an absolutely dream to drive.
“It’s really smooth, changes gear easily, and has a high speed range the original never had. It shows how far modern engine and transmission technologies have progressed,” he added.
Routemaster’s last double-decker was pulled from the general service fleet in 2005, before being voted among Britain’s top 10 design icons, along with Concorde, the Spitfire, the Mini, the K2 phone box and the Tube map. However, 10 of the 1200 buses still existing remain a mobile tourist attraction between Tower Hill and Trafalgar Square.
