Perivale (PA) Garage Visit

In terms of posts, it's a double whammy today! With EastLondoner reporting from one half of London, I'll cover how the other half lives. 

A rather empty Perivale (PA) depot is seen in the shot. Three LTs for the 91 can be seen, with SEL744 seen by the wash.

With permission, the good people at Metroline's Perivale (PA) garage allowed me onto their depot grounds last week. 

Currently operating routes 7, N7, 79, 90, 105, 297, 395, E6 and 611, there are an abundant amount of vehicles here and the depot houses some rather unique, or now 'hard to find today' vehicles: notably the East Lancs Olympus bodied Scania N230UDs (SELs) and Armchair Dennis Darts (DPs). They also previously housed the MCV Evolution bodied Man 12.240 (MM) buses until last year, when they withdrawn.

A huge re-shuffle of buses and routes within Metroline is coming up this summer. On the 6th August, Perivale East (PV) depot is re-opening for Transport for London (TfL) service. It is planned that routes 7, N7, 79 and 245 are moving to the garage.

The purpose of this is to house routes 114 at Uxbridge (UX) and new route 483 at Alperton (ON).

• Routes 7 and N7 will continue to use the Wright Gemini 3 bodied Volvo B5LH buses, numbered VWH2001-2022. 
• I personally was please to hear that route 79 will continue to use the East Lancs Olympus bodied Scania N230UDs (SEL) buses. The exact numbers haven't been chosen yet as not all SELs are blinded for the route although if I was a betting man, my personal viewpoint is to look around the SEL753-764 region. 
• Route 245 will take VW1366-1377 and VW1389-97 to the reopened depot as well. 

In terms of buses being reblinded for strays across the routes, I wouldn't count on anything initially. However, in terms of buses being transferred across between West Perivale (PA) and Perivale (PV), that can and should still happen, as with what history has told us in previous times when both depots were operational.

Route E6 is also to move to Greenford (G) garage, which probably signals the end of the line for the ex-Armchair Darts. This should partially compensate for the loss of routes E5, E7 and E9. Route 195 should also be joining E6 at Greenford (G) garage.

In the end, West Perivale (PA) should only be left with 90, 105, 297 and 395. The current future for route 395 has been undecided, as they are trying, for standardization reasons, Perivale (PA) a fully double decker garage. However, as time moves on, the blog will update you and do visit the chatbox as that is where a lot of the news is first announced. 

In other parts of the company, (thank you LondonBusExplorer for this information, and to various other sources for confirming this) routes U4 and U5 are moving to Hayes (HZ) depot (date not confirmed) to allow space for route 114 at Uxbridge (UX). 

As mentioned earlier, I did conduct two visits to the CELF Centre and West Perivale (PA) depot last week in West London. One thing worth noting was the 91's LTs and the short wheelbase ST812 were in the depot. They have left since, and should be in service by the start of next week.

.....and now to let the pictures talk for themselves.

A line up of buses at the south end of the CELF centre

A close up of Greenford (G) TE1992 and Hayes (HZ) DE1791.

They're too different to be same: a withdrawn MM825 and DM964 stand next to each other.

LT756 is parked with ST812 (behind) whilst waiting to get the green light to go on route 91 from Holloway (HT).

VW1566 (LK55 AAV) is seen at the north end of the CELF building. These are to be withdrawn and replaced by the LK55 TEs from route 91 in a few weeks.

Sovereign DE11 can be seen on the far left, whilst TE1992 is seen inside PA now, alongside LT745.

Cricklewood (W) TA656 and Edgware (EW) TE885 are paying a visit to CELF.

A view into the north end of the CELF centre: VP335 of Harrow Weald (HD) is seen in the steam pits.

Thank you for reading this post, and please stay safe!

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