One, Two, Three. Go Ahead!

Route 123 runs between Ilford in the depths of East London all the way to Wood Green in the heart of North London, being the only major route in the area to provide this important link running via places such as Gants Hill, Walthamstow, Tottenham Hale, Tottenham High Road, Turnpike Lane and Wood Green. 

Go Ahead London have just taken over operation of this route from Arriva, who had operated the route since 2005. The route has a pretty colourful history with them and over the years grew to be a staple route. They took over operation of the route in 2005 from First Capital who had operated the route out of their Rainham (R) base, which was considerably off route in comparison to Tottenham (AR) which was the garage who won it. They introduced brand new ALX400 bodied Volvo B7TLs which became synonymous with the route in the years which followed. The route remained at Tottenham garage for nearly 10 years until a closure of Lea Valley (LV) saw a huge reshuffle take place within Arriva and route 123 was moved to Edmonton (EC), although retained a Tottenham  garage allocation on the weekends. 2016 saw the entire route returned to Tottenham garage where it then remained until the end of the Arriva contract. 

The Arriva allocation was predominantly VLAs, however these fell out of favour towards the end of Arriva's second contract on the route and were replaced by Volvo B9TLs which were brought in from Tower Transit. These then got replaced by DW class buses when the route was fully moved back to Tottenham garage in 2016.

During this time, Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 vehicles also became a mainstay on the route, and in some cases making up the bulk of the allocation. 

In 2025 it was announced in a tender result that Go Ahead London had won the contract to operate the route from their Northumberland Park (NP) garage which is just a few minutes drive from Tottenham Hale where the route ran. No doubt this came as a big upset to enthusiasts who had grown used to the Arriva operation, but nonetheless a surprise as Arriva had not been the cheapest bidder on the 123 since their initial win in 2004. 

The 28th of February saw Go Ahead take over operating the route starting with the 123s midnight service. Although a miscommunication on Arriva's part saw Arriva also run the night service alongside Go Ahead so you had the unique situation where two operators were running a route. Notably this is the second time Arriva have done this on a route in just a few years with a similar fiasco unfolding when they lost the 242 to Stagecoach and the N242 service was operated by them when they shouldn't have been operating it. The next day saw a mixed fleet of buses from Go Ahead running on the route. The allocation included MCV EvoSeti bodied Volvo B5LH buses, Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 bodied Volvo B5LH buses, Enviro400 MMC bodied Volvo B5LH buses and both diesel and hybrid versions of Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 buses. 

The first day was rocky to say the least, with hour gaps being present at Ilford and buses running around in huge groups, although Arriva rarely covered themselves in glory on this route often also having large gaps and buses frequently turning short throughout the route. Go Ahead however have a three year contract ahead of them so hopefully the route will improve under them and provide a reliable service!

It's certainly going to take some time getting used to seeing Go Ahead operating on this route, however London's largest operator continues to grow from strength to strength!