As electric buses start to enter London tick and fast, Stagecoach are part way through introducing a large batch of Wright Electroliners onto routes 86 and 199 out of North Street (NS), Lea Interchange (LI) and Catford (TL) garages. 

It's certainly been a long time coming for these buses and their entry into service, with the tender award for route 199 being in October 2022 and the tender award for the 86 being in November 2022. While we knew that brand new electrics were on the way for the retains, Stagecoach and other sources remained tight lipped for a few months until it was announced that both routes would be recipients of Stagecoach's first batch of Wright Electroliners, a departure from Stagecoach's usual orders from Alexander Dennis, but notably not their first order from Wright as they had previously placed an order for route 53. 

These buses were to be the first for Stagecoach that were going to be specified to 'high spec', and Stagecoach were also the last major operator which were to introduce the new spec. The buses were spotted on delivery towards the end of summer 2023 before eagle eyed enthusiasts noticed that the standard Stagecoach interior was not present on these buses, followed by the revelation that the interior present on the buses wasn't a Stagecoach themed interior at all but was actually the TfL specified interior that had been seen on Sullivan Buses, CT Plus' buses and Arriva's E40H Citys. Did this signify the end of the famous and much loved Beach Ball interior? Quite possibly. These buses were unique in being the only batch of buses in London specified to the new specification interior, but having blinds on the front of the buses as opposed to LED displays. 

I went out in November shortly after the buses made their debut on the 199 to take a ride on the vehicles to get an impression for them. Following a very long wait due to a protest in Lewisham an Electroliner eventually turned up and I made myself comfortable on the upper deck. The new specification for buses require a digital LCD screen displaying next stop information on both decks. TfL have a standard format that they use across all routes but it needs to be programmed. When I rode the bus Stagecoach and/or TfL had not managed to do this yet and the next stop information was being displayed on the standard McKenna Brothers software, which actually isn't much use as it can only display the final destination and not the next stop information. Thankfully this problem has since been fixed and the next stop is now displayed in the standard TfL format alongside the final destination on all routes that these buses operate. The floors on the vehicle are a wood effect -  laminated flooring and not actual wood and the seats have leather headrests with priority seats having a 'Priority seat' sign on them so that passengers know whether they are sitting in one or not. The new bus specification also required a rear facing iBus display so that passengers in the wheelchair area can see the next stop information without needing to turn around, although on Stagecoach's vehicles these are to a slightly lower quality than the forward facing screens. 

The rear facing display has the slightly annoying quirk of not being centred, and the righting is slightly offset towards the right. The display also does not have the ability to scroll text (yet), which means longer destinations and stops often get cut off. I would imagine this will get solved in a future software update, but at the time of writing this post that is yet to happen. The buses also have the standard bells and whistles of USB charging points and up lighters on the stairs. 

82006 seen at Canada Water Bus Station

As I alluded to earlier in the post, the 199 and 86s batches of buses were ordered as one big batch. With the 199 getting the earlier buses (82001-82014) and the 86 taking the later buses (82015-82048). The batch for the 86 suffered a bigger delay with getting into service due to Romford garage (NS) facing delays with its electrification and the introduction of a partial allocation at Lea Interchange (LI) as well to ensure that all the buses could be accommodated. It wasn't until 2024 that buses started entering service on the 86. While I'm writing this post, the full batch of buses is still yet to enter service on the 86 and it's a really slow process due to the various restrictions at the garages that the route is running from. The buses otherwise are identical to the batch that is found on the 199. 

Old and new at Ilford, 19807 and 82025

82045 seen at Stratford Bus Station

While these were Stagecoach's first order for Wright Electroliners, they certainly aren't the last. A second batch of Electroliners is currently in the process of delivery for the recent acquisition of route 242 from Arriva, this newer batch have even more features such as a sky light and LED destination blinds. Alongside this there are also brand new MCV bodied Volvo BZL single decker buses arriving for routes 276 and 314, some new MCV bodied Volvo BZL double decker buses for routes D7, 58 and 277 and Switch MetroCity EV buses arriving for route W11. There are certainly exciting times ahead for the company!

All photos used in this post are © EastLondoner and may not be reproduced without permission. Please email LondonTransportConnected @gmail.com for photo use queries

20th of January 2024 saw Arriva once again on the receiving end of a tender blow, with route 133 making its way to Transport UK (previously Abellio London) at Battersea (QB) and route 333 returning to Go Ahead operation at Stockwell (SW). 

Routes 133 and 333 both operate in South London. Route 133 operates between Streatham Station and Holborn Station and route 333 operates between Elephant & Castle and Tooting Broadway. Their previous contracts saw them both with Arriva London operating out of Brixton garage (BN) with route 333 being allocated Alexander Dennis E40H Citys and route 133 was allocated with a mix of E40H Citys and Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B5LHs. 

© EastLondoner

Route 133 has a long history from prior to 1934, originally operating between Croydon and Liverpool Street via Elephant & Castle, Brixton and Streatham. 1942 saw the route cut of the main day service from Croydon to Streatham, but evening variations of the route continuing to Croydon continued for a while alongside a short lived Hendon extension on Sundays. 1971 saw the route permanently cut to Streatham in the South while Liverpool Street continued to be the northern terminus. 1985 saw the route restructured to run between Tooting Broadway and Liverpool Street. 2003 saw the route cut back to Streatham, St Leonard's Church from Tooting with that section being replaced by brand new route 333. 2012 saw the route extended from St Leonard's Church to the new bus terminus at Streatham Station. Further change didn't come until April 2023 when route 133 was rerouted at Bank via route 8 to terminate at Holborn, taking it away from the Liverpool Street area for the first time in its history. 

Unlike the 133, route 333 does not have such a long history, as mentioned above it was introduced in 2003 to replace the 133's Tooting leg. The only change to its routing ever came in 2008 when it was rerouted between Brixton and Oval via Stockwell. 

 © EastLondoner

Both routes 133 and 333 were awarded to their new operators on the premise of using brand new electric buses. Go Ahead London opted for their mainstay, the Alexander Dennis Enviro400 City bodied BYD electrics while Transport UK chose their new standard, the Wright Electroliner. Needless to say that both routes at the time of writing do not have their allocation in place due to production delays of the vehicles alongside time required to prepare the garages they operate out of for electric operation. Route 133 in the meantime is using a mix of Electroliners from elsewhere in the fleet, New Routemasters and Alexander Dennis Enviro400H MMC buses while route 333 is using MCV EvoSeti buses.

© EastLondoner

I went out a few days after the new operators took over to grab a few rides. My ride on the 333 was MHV70, which judging by its state had a very rough morning with the passengers with litter all over the bus and a very weird smell on board, but other than that there wasn't much to report. My ride at midday meant that I pretty much had the entire bus to myself and had a relatively quiet journey with minimal traffic apart from at Brixton, I'll savour those when I get them as with the increasing presence of LTNs within the borough of Lambeth it won't be often we'll be getting fast journeys such as this. It certainly wasn't long until we reached the last stop on the route at Elephant and Castle. 

© EastLondoner

© EastLondoner

Upon disembarking I made my way to get the 133, hoping to get one of the Electroliners on the route that were borrowed from various other routes within the Transport UK fleet. Much to my luck I got 3034. The bus was to the new higher TfL specification, with high backed seats and an updated iBus display. The bus also had wood effect flooring and glass pillars at the front instead of the standard opaque ones. But journey wise this was the complete opposite to the 333 that I had earlier, we were travelling really slow and got caught up in traffic all over the place. We regulated for a while at London Bridge before slowly trundling through the City despite an obvious lack of traffic. One thing I was certainly glad for was the high backed and more padded seat, a small consolation in the grand scheme. 

© EastLondoner

After what felt like forever we eventually made it to Holborn Station where I was the only passenger left on the bus. My journey today had given me two completely different experiences, a mediocre bus that was worn down and desperately needed a clean, but a very fast and seamless journey which was then followed by a nearly brand new bus with all the bells and whistles that you'd want but accompanied by a really slow and painful journey. I'll leave it up to you, the reader, to decide what you'd prefer out of the pair but I can certainly say that when I want to get somewhere I'd much rather be there in a timely manner and maybe have a less comfortable journey rather than having a comfortable journey just to arrive with a higher than average blood pressure and later than you expected.

© EastLondoner

My rides showed the past and the future. Both routes will get their permanent allocations over the next few months. If you'd like a ride on the 133 and 333 before the electrics (fully) take over on the routes you will need to get a move on! The future is most certainly zero emission.

Superloop is a scheme which incorporates new and existing express routes to form an orbital loop around London, with a few extras. On London Connected we will try our best to provide coverage on the new routes being introduced as part of the scheme. Today's post will focus on brand new route SL1 which has been recently introduced running express from North Finchley Bus Station to Walthamstow Central Bus Station. This route is operated by Arriva from their Palmers Green (AD) garage. But before I get into some details about the SL1 in particular I've listed the various routes below that will make up the complete scheme.

Route SL1 - North Finchley to Walthamstow Central via Arnos Grove (Arriva from Palmers Green AD)

Route SL2 - Walthamstow Central to North Woolwich via Gants Hill, Ilford and Barking (Arriva from Barking DX) - To be introduced early 2024

Route SL3 - Thamesmead to Bromley North via Bexleyheath (Stagecoach from Plumstead PD) - To be introduced early 2024

Route SL4 - Grove Park to Canary Wharf via Silvertown Tunnel (Go Ahead London from Henley Road DS) - To be introduced 2025

Route SL5 - Bromley North to Croydon (Arriva from Croydon TC) - To be introduced early 2024

Route SL6 (formerly X68) - Croydon to Russell Square (Go Ahead from Camberwell Q)

Route SL7 (formerly X26) - Croydon to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 via Kingston (Go Ahead from Croydon C)

Route SL8 (formerly 607) - Uxbridge to White City via Ealing and Acton (Metroline from Greenford G)

Route SL9 (formerly X140) - Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 to Harrow, Bus Station via Hayes (RATP from Harrow SO)

Route SL10 Harrow, Bus Station to North Finchley via Kenton (RATP from Harrow SO)

All routes together will make up the Superloop network, an initiative to improve bus services in outer London. This will involve buses wearing a special livery to help distinguish them from standard bus services which will be calling at all stops.

Route SL1 was introduced on the 9th of December running express between North Finchley and Walthamstow Central, being the first route linking these two areas, the route predominantly follows the line of route of route 34, using the same route between Walthamstow and Arnos Grove before following route 232 to New Southgate, and then route 221 to North Finchley.

As mentioned earlier, the route is operated by Arriva from their Palmers Green (AD) garage, operating as a spin off on the existing 34 contract. The route uses E40H City buses that have been made free by the loss of route 78 a few weeks prior from Ash Grove as that moved to Go Ahead operation from Peckham (PM) south of the river. 

The iBus display for the SL1

I went down to Walthamstow Central on the 9th of December to try to ride the route, however faced with the prospect of a half an hour wait for 4 to turn up together I decided against riding the route and opted to come back another day. I went back on the 22nd of December, this time to North Finchley to have a second attempt at the route. Upon arrival I was lucky to see HA4 preparing to depart and it wasn't long until I was sat comfortably on the front right hand side of the upper deck. I was only one of two people who boarded at the first stop, but there were a few people at the second stop slightly further down on Woodhouse Road. It wasn't long until we were breezing down the road towards Friern Barnet and New Southgate, although we did get caught at some traffic on the approach to Betstyle Circus. Up until this point the bus had been relatively empty, however once we pulled up to the bus stop at Arnos Grove station we picked up quite a healthy load with only a few seats left on the bus to spare. 

New USB ports have been installed

After Arnos Grove, route SL1 uses the North Circular road to get to Walthamstow so I was expecting a fun ride. But before the fun ride could start we had to negotiate a long line of traffic spawning from the junction at Palmers Green. Just as we made that stop the dreaded announcement of a driver changeover went off on the iBus display and a unanimous groan came out of the mouths of many passengers - the first I've heard many people do this so loudly! To say it was quick would be a lie, during the time we were waiting we got overtaken by the all stops 34 before we could eventually make it on our way. Our new driver however was not hasty with the foot pedal, it wasn't very long until we caught up and overtook the 34 which had passed us during the driver changeover. One of the biggest benefits of the SL1 is that it can use flyovers and underpasses while the standard 34 has to exit at them to serve the various communities. We went through the underpass at the Great Cambridge roundabout before existing the North Circular Road to serve Angel Corner and Silver Street Station before we were back on the North Circular. We also had the luxury of using the flyover to go above Meridian Water and Ely's Estate before we could see the Sainsbury's at Crooked Billet, the sign that we were entering Walthamstow. 

All new Superloop buses have an interior map

Unfortunately this is where it all ended up going slightly pear shaped, severe traffic leading to the Crooked Billet ended up in us wasting 15 minutes on the entrance ramp, before we knew it another SL1 had caught us up behind (despite this bus was 20 minutes behind us as we had left North Finchley). Once we finally managed to break free from the traffic at the Crooked Billet, we were greeted by another line of cars with their brake lights on stemming from Bell Corner. After what felt like forever we finally pulled into Walthamstow Central Bus Station with the second SL1 right behind us, and just as I was walking to the station a third one pulled up too! What was a great journey, showing the strengths of express routes and their obvious place within our bus network was ruined at the end by excessive traffic and a lack of bus priority. I think many of us are in agreement that the public should be encouraged to use buses where they can, and that schemes such as the Superloop should be welcomed with open arms, but what's the point when they're subject to the same drawbacks as your standard bus services?

If you are interested in checking out the new SL1 route, below are the stops that the route will stop at. Remember it's an express bus service so will not stop at every bus stop that it passes.

North Finchley Bus Station

North Finchley High Road

Friern Barnet/Friern Barnet Lane

Beaconsfield Road/New Southgate Station

Arnos Grove Station

Palmerston Road

Angel Corner/Silver Street Station

Ely Trading Estate

Crooked Billet/Walthamstow Avenue

Walthamstow/Crooked Billet Roundabout

Forest Road/Bell Corner

Walthamstow Market

Walthamstow Bus Station

Have to say we've not been posting as much as we'd have liked to over the past few months, unfortunately all members of the London Connected Team have been very busy over the past few months. However you can always keep up with the latest on the London Connected Online Chat where we are frequently found 

10 years of this blog, who knew we'd still be here all this time later! It's been a while since the last post, but here's one today. We are focussing on route 91 and its recent move to Go Ahead London operating obscurely out of Stockwell (SW). 

Yes, the route that runs between Trafalgar Square and Crouch End is being operated out of a garage in South London. There's a multitude of reasons for this, however the most widely acknowledged one is the crippling driver shortage at Northumberland Park (NP) up in North London (which was the garage which actually won the route) meant they were not in a position to take over the route. Stockwell garage isn't suffering as badly so were able to take the route on for now. 

Go Ahead are a new operator to this route, but if we look back into history the original plan where the 91 was meant to operate out of Northumberland Park isn't a completely new idea. The route is a relatively young one, starting operation in October 1992 running between Crouch End and Trafalgar Square via Holloway, Kings Cross, Euston, Russell Square and Aldwych. This is the same route that is in operation today. In 1992 when the route was introduced, it ran out of Holloway (HT) garage, at the time part of London Northern (Later MTL, and later Metroline). 1997 saw the route move to Northumberland Park (NP) under Capital City's (later First London) and in 2009 the route returned to operating from Holloway (HT) where it remained until Go Ahead took on the contract recently. 

© LondonBuses72

The previous two contracts at Metroline saw the route have an interesting allocation with it being allocated Enviro400s, then New Routemasters which were removed due to a variety of incidents on the route before using a mix of Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 and MCV EvoSeti bodied Volvo B5LH. The Go Ahead contract was won using existing hybrids, and these were soon after confirmed to be the unique EHVs that were previously allocated to the 135. Unique in the sense they are the only Enviro400 MMC bodied Volvo B5LHs in the Go Ahead fleet, and are part of only three batches in London completely. After being relieved from their duties on the 135, the EHVs initially made their way to Merton (AL) to provide cover for some grounded Optare MetroDecker EVs on the 200. They were then found on other routes at Merton before making their way to Stockwell. 

© EastLondoner

The Enviro400 MMC as a type are iconic to say the least, being present in almost every area of London, and you're never far from one. But I had special interest in doing the 91 on its first day at Go Ahead as the EHVs were the first MMCs that I rode. I made my way to Crouch Hill then grabbed a ride on the W7 to Crouch End broadway. I had to run to the bus stop to make my bus, which was going to be EHV8. Internally the bus felt like new, the refurbishment had very clearly been carried out to a very high standard. The ride itself was nothing out of the ordinary, we didn't have much traffic throughout the journey but this did have the negative effect of needing to stop three times to regulate the service. I wasn't too bothered about the regulation, but there was a large portion of people who got off my 91 that when the regulation announcement went off rushed off the bus and piled onto the 259 behind. Before I knew it we were along the Strand, stuck in traffic from the inevitable weekend closure of Whitehall due to a protest. 

While EHVs are to be the mainstay of the 91s allocation for the foreseeable future, Stockwell do have a variety of Hybrids available that can run the route. The first day itself saw WHV50, a Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 make an appearance on the route. 

© EastLondoner

I believe the eventual intention will be to move the 91 to Northumberland Park (NP) when the circumstances permit, so you may be limited in your time if you'd like to ride the route while it's operating out of Stockwell (SW). 

Go Ahead have been managing alright on the route so far (it's only been 2 days!), hopefully the operation remains consistent under their operation, and matches the standard set by their predecessor for the next 7 years!

It might be a stretch to ask whether anyone reading remembers the weird situation route W16 had in 2012 when it had three operators within the space of a month. Arriva lost the route to First, who then sold Northumberland Park (NP) to Go Ahead 4 weeks later. It's very rare any route has this happen, and naturally no route has matched that until a few weeks ago when route 414 became another route to go through three operators within the space of a month.

Abellio London up until the end of the 12th of November used to hold the contract to operate the 414, but Tower Transit took the helm on the 13th of November, although this wasn't to last for very long as RATP and Tower Transit had both announced a plan to merge operations into a company called RATP Dev Transit, and this would involve Westbourne Park moving over to a new company controlled majority by RATP, with Tower Transit retaining a minority shareholding. 

9487 seen on stand at Maida Hill
© EastLondoner

Route 414 is one of London's younger routes, only starting operation in November 2002 operating out of Westbourne Park (X) under First London, and running between Maida Hill, Elgin Avenue and Fulham, High Street, although buses would have to dead run to Putney Bridge Station from Fulham to stand. This arrangement was then changed so that buses would continue all the way to Putney Bridge in service from June 2002. January 2005 saw the northern terminus altered to be Maida Hill, Chippenham Gardens. No change then came until 2009 when tender saw Abellio London taking over the 414 out of their Battersea (QB) garage where it would spend the next 12 years. The tender in 2020 saw the route's tranche come up at a time when TfL were looking at many ways to save money, and it was decided that upon tender the route would be withdrawn between Marble Arch and Maida Hill, running only between Putney Bridge and Marble Arch. Tower Transit won the contract on tender using Alexander Dennis Enviro400 Hybrid buses previously allocated to route 23.

DNH39131 at Putney Bridge
© EastLondoner

Tower Transit took on the contract on the 13th of November, a couple of weeks earlier than planned in order to allow Abellio to take on route 63 at the same time. The route was cut back to Marble Arch on the same day, as planned. I went out a couple of weeks later on the 9th of December to take a look at how the route was doing, and to also try to do the route while still under Tower Transit operation. One thing that automatically stood out was the still the 'as new' state of the buses. Although they'd now undergone two refurbishments within the space of 10 years I'd not blame members of the public for thinking that these buses were completely brand new. Upon arrival at Putney Bridge I didn't need to wait long for a 414 to turn up. The journey itself was quite quick, with it just taking us over half an hour to make it to Marble Arch. Although while the journey was quick, it seemed the bus behind us had left very shortly after we had, and we managed to catch up the bus ahead of us. When we managed to reach Knightsbridge we were the middle bus in a triple bunching. Although these service control issues should hopefully be ironed out over the next couple of months as the controllers and drivers get used to the various challenges presented by the route. 

DNH39131 on stand at Marble Arch with Winter Wonderland in the background
© EastLondoner

The cut back to Marble Arch has made the 414 a very similar route to the 14, with all but three stops shared with the route now. At a time where TfL is extremely cash strapped, this obviously raises questions about the long term future of the route. Is a route that parallels another route almost end to end really worth the money? I'll leave that to you, the readers to decide. 

At the start of the post I did mention that RATP have since taken on route 414, and you're probably expecting the next part of the post to focus on their tenure on the route. However if you ventured out now you'd be hard pressed to find any sign of RATP on the 414, with the only giveaway being the legal lettering on the buses changing from Westbourne Park to Stamford Brook, which is the RATP head office. It's expected towards the start of next year that logos should start changing, alongside fleet codes which will see the "DNH" class codes replaced with "ADH" class codes alongside new numbers to fit in with the RATP system. 

DNH39122 seen on Park Lane
© EastLondoner

There's not much else to write about on this change, however the only thing that can be said is that this change sets the precedent for many future ones to come. It could be argued the 414 has got off very lightly with its cut back to Marble Arch, with rumours that some routes in the future could be at complete risk of withdrawal or much more severe cuts. Once upon a time the future for public transport and TfL looked very bright, however now the future looks to be a very bleak one indeed. 

The title of this post has many meanings. Notably the fact it's been a long time since the last post on the blog, but it can also be applied to today's post directly. Routes 160 and 180 have returned to their traditional operating after many years away at others.

Routes 160 and 180 both operate in South-East London and have recently been taken over by Stagecoach, with the 160 coming from Arriva and the 180 coming from Go Ahead. The 160 now runs out of Catford (TL) garage and the 180 runs out of Plumstead (PD) garage, but while they're new contracts both routes have links to these garages going back many years. 

T315 seen at Catford Bridge
© EastLondoner

It makes sense to talk about the routes in numerical order. Starting off with the 160, the route today operates between Sidcup Station and Catford Bridge Station. It has a very long history dating back to 1938 operating out of Catford Garage (TL) and running between Catford, St Dunstans and Welling. It managed to remain unchanged all the way to 1985 when it was extended to Bexleyheath bus garage, although in 1989 it was cut It back from Bexleyheath to Eltham. 1996 saw the route extended from Eltham to Sidcup Station, forming the same route in operation today, although the Catford terminus changed from St Dunstans to Catford garage in 2000, before changing to Catford Bridge in 2006 when the route was lost on tender to Arriva's Dartford (DT) garage. The route ended up remaining at Dartford for the next 15 years, with the last 10 years seeing it allocated with Enviro400s. 

WVL357 and 327 at Cutty Sark
© EastLondoner

Moving on to route 180, a route a lot younger than the 160 which started operation in 1951 between Catford and Woolwich, operated out of Catford (TL) garage. The route was extended to Lower Sydenham in 1953. In 1963 the route was rerouted to Abbey Wood, 1981 saw a partial Plumstead (PD) allocation introduced with it becoming the full allocation in 1981, and in 1984 the route was cut back to Catford. In 1994 the route was cut back from Abbey Wood to Thamesmead East while also being cut back to Lewisham from the other end. It was in 1998 that Plumstead (PD) lost possession of the route, at the time to Harris Bus operating out of a garage in Belvedere (BV), which the route was subsequently extended to terminate at in 2002. BV garage eventually fell out of Harris Bus' hands, passing to direct TfL operation under the banner East Thames Buses before then passing onto Go Ahead London. The base was closed in 2017 and the route moved to terminate on a stand on Anderson Way, while the main allocation was moved to Morden Wharf. The loss of the garage terminus no doubt ended up coming full circle and Stagecoach took the route back to one of its old homes at Plumstead (PD). Its most recent contract at Go Ahead saw it allocated with Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TLs.

The tender announcement in November 2020 which announced the move of routes 160 and 180 to Stagecoach operation also mentioned that the routes would use brand new electric buses, although the 180 would have its fleet supplemented by some spare Enviro400 bodied E40H Hybrids which were already floating around the company. It was soon announced that the bus of choice was going to be the Alexander Dennis/BYD Enviro400 EV City which had become the standard choice for most London operators. Although for this reason, RATP, Abellio and Go Ahead also had a batch of the same type on order meaning Alexander Dennis was already very busy, coupled with the time required to install electric chargers at the garages it was no surprise to hear that the 160 and 180 route had to start their contracts off using existing buses before they could be replaced by electrics, much like the situation route 173 had to deal with a year ago. Stagecoach had some spare buses lying around, but nowhere near enough. An interesting chain of events led to Stagecoach loaning out Tower Transit's Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 buses that were previously allocated to route 328. 

The loaned buses started to arrive at Catford in advance of the 160 contract, which was to start two weeks before the 180, on the 18th of September. Prior to starting service the buses started to be run in on route 199 which terminates at Catford (TL) so it made it easy to swap the buses should any issues have arisen. They were given the numbers from 80112-80136, with the last three numbers being the same code that the buses had at tower transit (e.g 80112 is Tower Transit VH38112).

80127 seen at Canada Water on the 199
© EastLondoner

11001 seen at Catford Bridge
© EastLondoner

The 18th of September saw Stagecoach resume operation on the 160 after 15 years. As expected the allocation on the route was predominantly made up out of the loaned Tower Transit buses, although a few native Stagecoach Enviro400 MMCs also were on the route. I did go out on the first day to see how the route was doing, and truth be told I wish I didn't. Traffic within Catford, coupled with the fact that buses go back to Catford garage to change their drivers meant that the service was in tatters. I ended up waiting 45 minutes for a bus to turn up, this was despite many buses actually arrived but then ended up leaving out of service to go back to the garage to change their drivers. Eventually one did turn up, but by that point I didn't have the willpower to take a ride on the route and I just ended up taking a few photos and going home. 

Service since the first day has no doubt improved, it's not taken long for Stagecoach to realise the mistakes that took place on the first day, and adapt to the challenging conditions presented on the route. I'm sure over the next couple of weeks Stagecoach will adapt to the route and hopefully manage to provide a consistently good service similar to what was provided by Arriva at Dartford (DT) for the past 15 years.

80127 seen at Catford Bridge
© EastLondoner

12361 seen in Woolwich
© EastLondoner

Route 180s takeover plan was a bit different to that which had been executed on the 160, while there were loaned Tower Transit buses available for the route, the decision was taken to keep all the loaned buses at Catford (TL) and buses were transferred from Catford alongside other garages in the Stagecoach London empire to make up the numbers at Plumstead (PD), allowing the 180 to have a fully native Stagecoach allocation. The first day on the 2nd of October saw the allocation made up out of Alexander Dennis Enviro400 bodied E40H Hybrids, with a few Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC bodied E40Hs too, there were also a few loaned Smart Hybrids from West Ham (WH) on the route that had LED displays, although sadly I was unable to photograph one of these buses out. Operation on the 180 for the first day was a far better display than what was presented on the 160 two weeks prior, buses were generally running as expected and apart from a breakdown in Greenwich there wasn't too much out of the ordinary. 

12360 seen at Woolwich Arsenal
© EastLondoner

Go Ahead didn't set the bar particularly high on the 180, so hopefully we can safely say that the 180 is in better hands now and will be for the next 5 (or 7) years! When the electric buses start to arrive the 180 will still be allocated a few of these E40H buses, so you don't need to be in any rush to get them! Work is underway at Catford and Plumstead garages to ensure electric buses can be charged and hopefully it won't be too long until we see the brand new buses on the roads. Once the electric buses start to settle in on the 160 and 180, the buses that currently are found on the route should be released. With the loaned Tower Transit buses returning back to Tower Transit for the temporary contract on route 733 before settling down in their more permanent home on route 135 in the summer, while the plan for the buses on the 180 isn't particularly clear yet, although they should end up returning to their own garages of Leyton, West Ham and Catford. 

12344 seen at Lewisham
© EastLondoner

It's been announced by TfL that all of their new buses will be zero emission from now on, so electrics will be the norm! Although we could see some Hydrogen technology creeping in too. Routes 160 and 180 aren't the only routes waiting for their electrics, RATP in West London have a batch of over 100 waiting to enter service on routes 65, 281, 371, 290, X140, H9 and H10. Go Ahead have some arriving in the near future for route 132, Arriva are taking delivery of some for route 319 while Abellio are expecting some for their uptake of route 63 in November. This is very exciting time to be a bus enthusiast!

It's amazing to think that five years ago that we had a huge array of changes on the last day of April. We had the 345 going to Abellio, the 368 going to Arriva, the 35 and 40 going to Go Ahead while there were many new retains throughout London. It's often forgotten that during that time of huge change, among the changes were renewals to routes 28 and 328 by Tower Transit while they also started a new contract on the 69, which got advanced to February due to other circumstances and it ended up missing out on all the attention at the end of April it probably would have got. 

Two brand new electrics at Canning Town
© EastLondoner

5 years is either a short time, or a long time depending on how you view it. Things can change very quickly, but then it can also only feel like a day has passed. But I think Tower Transit would have wished otherwise. While they saw great success in 2016, retaining the 28 and 328 and winning the 69, 5 years later in 2021 it was a disastrous sequence of events for them. The summer of 2020 was certainly not a good time for them, losing two major contracts of routes 25 and 425, but a few weeks following the 425 loss they got further blows. A tender announced in July saw routes 28 and 69 both lost in a single round, with the 28 making a surprising move to RATP while the 69 was lost to Go Ahead from a new expanded base in Silvertown. Most notably, route 328 was missing from this announcement, prompting speculation about major alterations to the route, alongside a possible loss following on from the 28 and 69 awards. 4 long months later, the worst was confirmed for them, with an award in November seeing the 328 awarded to Metroline out of Cricklewood. 

This blow was not softened by the fact that the 28, 69 and 328 were all going to leave on the same day, the 1st of May 2021. While it was clear soon after the 328 award that the route would be heading to Cricklewood (W), there was some doubt over the 28 and 69 awards. RATP did have a garage not too far from the 28, in the form of Park Royal (RP), but the award was actually to RATP: London Sovereign, suggesting Edgware (BT) were the garage taking it on. Although a couple of months passed, and it was made public that the Original Tour depot (operated by RATP) in Wandsworth would be re-opening to TfL services following a reduction in tour buses following the pandemic. This garage however is no stranger to TfL services, operating the 337 many years ago for Arriva, when they owned the Original Tour garage under the code of WD. Although times have changed now, RATP are at the helm and with it comes a new code, JE for Jews Row. This wasn't the only new garage here though. Go Ahead had been on the lookout for new land in East London, following the news that half of River Road garage was being taken over by the council for redevelopment into a multi-purpose business centre. A new site was scouted out not far from the current Silvertown (SI) garage and would be home to the 69, there was some doubt initially over the garage opening on time, but that problem seems to have been overcome. 

VN37953 seen at Wandsworth
© EastLondoner

Starting off with route 28, a route which has a huge amount of history with Westbourne Park (X) was no doubt a major shock to many enthusiasts. The route's history goes back beyond 1934, with Westbourne Park (X) playing a role in the route's operation since 1938 when it had a partial allocation out of the garage as a Wandsworth Bridge - Golders Green route. A couple of years later, the route was extended further into Wandsworth Town Centre, forming a Wandsworth to Golders Green route which would last an extremely long time until 1999, when route 328 took over the section to Golders Green and the 28 was cut back to Harrow Road. Although in 2006 the route was extended from Harrow Road to Kensal Rise which formed the current route in operation today. In 2011, the route had to temporarily move out to a base in Park Royal (AS), although this was only temporary due to building works at Westbourne Park, the route returned there in 2017. The latest change of operator from Tower Transit to RATP marked the first time that the route would not have an allocation out of Westbourne Park (ignoring the phase AS had) since 1938. The last contract under Tower Transit saw the route allocated with Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied B9TLs, supplemented by a few Wright Gemini 2 bodied DB300s. 

I went out a couple of days following the takeover to see how the 28 was doing under RATP. The new allocation was made up out of Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B5LH buses which were previously found on route 139 before that route was lost to Metroline in 2020. These buses were known to be in a notoriously poor state during their time on route 139, they had since undergone an extensive refurbishment. Although interestingly the refurbishment was carried out to different standards on each bus, some buses were fitted with completely new poles which can be easily identified with the new turquoise colour, while some buses continued with their orange poles which were resprayed. While initially confusing, it was later revealed that the refurbishment contract of the buses were split between two companies, Hants&Dorset and Thornton Brothers who each carried out refurbishments to a different standard. Both sets of refurbishments involved fitting of new moquettes to seats along with a deep interior clean. From my experience, the buses rode like new buses following their refurb. Certainly a major improvement from their previous state, I wouldn't even be surprised if people would mistake it for a completely new bus.

VH45119 is seen at Kensal Rise
© EastLondoner

VH45192 at Kensal Rise
©EastLondoner

The new allocation, as mentioned earlier comes out of Wandsworth (JE), which operates as an outstation for Stamford Brook (V), which as a result means any heavy maintenance is carried out there alongside any checks the buses will require. As a result buses may rotate between the two garages, and there's one allocated journey each day which goes back to Stamford Brook garage at the end of the day as opposed to Wandsworth to allow for routine maintenance. For this reason, some of Stamford Brook's own allocation will often appear on route 28. The day I did the route there were quite a few Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 buses out on the route. These buses are likely to appear on route 28 every couple of days should any of its own allocation require maintenance that results in it being out of action for a few days. Service on the route so far has been of a good standard, and all that's left is to hope that this good standard of service continues over the next 5, or maybe 7 years for this route!

VH38132 seen at Chelsea
© EastLondoner

As I mentioned, the lost section of the 28 to Golders Green was replaced by route 328 which was introduced in 1999, making this route a lot younger compared to its sister. It was introduced in 1999 as a Chelsea to Golders Green route and has remained as such ever since. The route was based at Westbourne Park (X) since inception, although it too did move out to the temporary site in Park Royal during the building works at Westbourne Park in 2011 before returning in 2017. Its most recent contract saw it allocated with Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 bodied Volvo B5LHs which were brought for a retained contract in 2016. These buses are similar to what it will eventually be allocated at Metroline, although currently they are on route 7 as that route waits for the introduction of Hydrogen buses. 

A loaned TT bus on the 328
© EastLondoner

However, due to a delay with the Hydrogen buses, Metroline found themselves in a sticky situation where the buses the intended to use on the route would not be ready. Due to spares not being available elsewhere in the fleet, the decision was taken to loan the buses from Tower Transit in order to start the service out of Cricklewood (W), with them gradually being replaced by the intended allocation of native Metroline Gemini 3s as the buses became available following the introduction of the Hydrogen buses. When this will happen at the moment is unclear, the pandemic has delayed the Hydrogen programme considerably and it could range from just a few weeks to many months until the buses are ready. Despite the loaned buses are the exact same allocation as Tower Transit, the move to Metroline did mean that native Metroline buses kept at Cricklewood (W) can appear on the route. Workings of native VWHs, TEHs and MMC TEHs have already happened on the route.

TEH2087 seen at Elgin Avenue
© EastLondoner

Arguably the most notable change of the trio was to that of route 69, which was the only route to get new buses. Unlike the 28 and 328, this route has managed to bounce around operators quite a bit. It still feels like yesterday when I wrote the post about route 69 making the move from Stagecoach to Tower Transit and it's already changed operator once again.

DN33653 seen at Walthamstow Central
© EastLondoner

Route 69 under Tower Transit was often a route that left a lot to be desired, bunching all over the place and unreliable service made the route very infamous among the local demographic. Therefore despite coming at a time when Tower Transit were suffering many route losses, it was probably a very welcome award. Fittingly, the move to Go Ahead was to bring brand new electric buses to the route, following on from the virtual electric buses that the route used to have a partial allocation of under Tower Transit. As expected, the preferred order was to be ADL BYD Enviro400 City EVs, a type that is becoming increasingly common in London. Currently as I type this the orderbook for that type alone exceeds 150 across all operators for London alone. Alongside the virtual electric buses, the majority allocation were standard Alexander Dennis Enviro400s. These buses have now been predominantly withdrawn from the TT fleet, although two are expected to remain at Lea Interchange (LI) for spares. 

DH38503 seen at Canning Town
© EastLondoner

Ee50 seen at Canning Town
© EastLondoner

The new garage operating route 69 was given the code DS, and is being referred to as Henley Road, presumably to avoid confusion with other garage a few units down. Prior to the announcement of River Road's downsizing, the intention was for Henley Road (DS) to actually be a fully electric operation, although that's no longer happening, planning documentation says the intention is for it to have a fully electric fleet in the future which makes it London's first purpose built garage for electric bus operation. This shows us increasingly where the future of London buses now lies, despite fully electric routes were once a pipe dream, they are now very much a reality and route 69 is just one addition to a growing number of routes. The buses themselves are not too different from the other electric BYD double deckers in London, although for some reason they have the middle seat at the rear of the lower deck blocked off. Other than that there's nothing special about the batch compared to other Go Ahead examples. 

Ee56 seen at Walthamstow Central
© EastLondoner

While these three routes all show promising future at their new operators, what does the future hold for Tower Transit? Every operator has its ups and downs, we only need to remind ourselves of the time when Stagecoach lost the 5, 15 and 115 all on the same day to Go Ahead just to bounce back a couple of years later taking on the 25 and 425 from Tower Transit. Arguably Tower Transit are having a far rougher patch, due to their small size. Routes 212, 444, 25, 425, 28, 328 and 69 have all been lost since the start of 2020, with only the C3 coming in as a result. Although route 414 will be making a move to Westbourne Park (X), it doesn't make up for the losses faced by the company. Routes 308 and 488 have been welcome retains for the company since the start of this year, however routes W15 and 13 are both due tender results over the next few weeks. Can they keep a hold of them and maybe win some additional work? Time will only tell.