The Optare Fiasco
Intro On Friday the 22nd May a fire broke out at Metroline Potters Bar [PB] depot, with the bus going up in flames being an Optare Metrodecker, this has since led to the grounding of every fleet of these vehicles in the UK since, however this is not the first time the Metrodecker has faced an issue... Route 134 Back in 2019, the 43 & 134 were the first 2 double deck routes to go electric upon tender, both were to get different batches of vehicles. The 43 received 37 Enviro 400 City EV vehicles (BDEs) at Holloway [HT] garage and the 134 received 31 Optare Metrodecker EV vehicles (OMEs) at Potters Bar [PB], as seen below: OME2663 & OME2667 by VP500 However, from the very start the 134 was plagued by issues. The batch of buses began arriving very late, however the 134 had already gained a temporary allocation of hybrids due to the ULEZ coming into force in April 2019, which affected the 134 at the time due to it terminating at Tottenham Court Road, which was within the zone. The t...