Fleet of electric buses taken off the streets after one caught fire in London | UK News

A fleet of electric buses has been withdrawn in south London after a double decker caught fire.

The bus caught fire at 7am on Thursday in Wimbledon, close to the Alexandra pub, leading to the Metropolitan Police declaring a critical incident.

The fire caused rush hour chaos but thankfully there weren’t any reported injuries.

Transport for London (TfL) has now taken all electric buses on route 200, which runs between Raynes Park and Mitcham, out of service ‘as a precaution’.

Tom Cunnington, TfL’s head of bus business development, told the BBC it was working with the operator, London General – a subsidiary of Go-Ahead London – and the bus manufacturer, Switch, to ‘investigate’ what happened.

Go-Ahead London confirmed it had ‘withdrawn the vehicle type in question’ and was working with relevant authorities to ‘establish the facts’.

TfL also said another bus caught fire on Friday but said it was ‘unrelated’.

The hybrid double decker was destroyed by the fire just before 7am on Factory Road in North Woolwich, but thankfully again there were no injuries reported.

Mr Cunnington added: ‘London’s bus network remains safe to use and we have no reason to suspect that this fire on a hybrid bus was linked to an earlier incident on an electric bus in Wimbledon.

‘TfL and the bus operators will not hesitate to take action if required to ensure the bus network remains safe.’

London Fire Brigade is also investigating the cause of the Wimbledon bus fire.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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