Know Your Routes: Route 7

SEL741 works route 7 whilst in Paddington.

The 7 is a rather interesting route. It runs from the suburban back streets of East Acton all the way deep into Central London via Scrubs Lane, Ladbroke Grove, Portobello Market, Paddington, Edgware Road and Oxford Street just before the route terminates at the famous British Museum in Russell Square.

The route is operated by Metroline from their Perivale West (PA) garage using an uncommon breed of East Lancashire Olympus's which are on a N230UD chassis.

The route also has a night equivalent of N7 which runs the sane route as 7 just until East Acton station but instead of heading to Brunel Road, it follows the 70 to Acton, High Street, goes straight until Ealing Broadway before following the E9 until Target Roundabout and following the 140 to Northolt station where N7 terminates.

The route used to be with First Centrewest operated from Westbourne Park (X) garage using a bunch of TNA's. However in 2007, when the 7/ N7 went for re-tendering, the fight for route 7 was no match for Metroline as they had scooped the award for route 7 operating it from Perivale East (PV). However, instead of what many enthusiasts thought thinking that Metroline were going to order Alexander Dennis Enviro 400's 2 years after the launch, the company went for a unusual type of double-deck which isn't common: The East Lanc's Olympus.

However, when the company ordered these vehicles, the buses came extremely late due to weight distribution issues. So this meant that the time for Metroline to operate the route came and the buses still hadn't arrived. The quick-thinking company decided that the TP's/ TPL's that ran the 297 (Ealing Broadway - Willesden, Bus Garage) would be moved onto route 7 temporarily whilst Metroline took on loan a few First TNA's to work the 297.

Eventually, the buses came numbered SEL739-764 releasing the loan buses on the 297 and allowing the TP's to return to 297. However there were still weight problems on the buses so slowly, the buses had to go out of service to have their Esteban Civic seats to be removed to be replaced with uncomfortable, light, plastic seats that had no or little cushioning. 

Bringing us to 2012, Metroline announced they would shut down Perivale East (PV) garage after losing several routes such as the 70  and 206. What they'd decided to do was to transfer route 232 to Cricklewood(W) where it was actually on route and could save mileage. Then routes 7 and N7 would transfer with the SEL's to local Perivale West (PA) garage where the Central Engineering Logistics Facility (CELF) centre is located. Route 232's MM's also transferred to Perivale West with 79's VW's.

Metroline having another batch of SEL's, a smaller one that runs the 297, at Perivale West (PA) meant the two batches were now going to be mixed so SEL803-9 could be seen on 7 whilst SEL739-64 could be on 297. This also happened to route 79, 105 and 297 where VW1175-1204 (105/297) and 1205-1216 (79) were mixed up.

As of 2013, the route is almost to go for tendering so who knows if Metroline will retain these vehicles.....

EPTUG has made a proposal for route 7 that it should be re-routed to terminate at Acton Main Line station instead of Brunel Road. Whether these plans go ahead or not, only time can tell the future of route 7.

Fleetlist:

LK07 AZV - SEL739

LK07 AZW - SEL740

LK07 AZX - SEL741

LK07 AZZ - SEL742

LK07 BAA - SEL743

LK07 BAO - SLE744

LK07 BAU - SEL745

LK07 BBE - SEL746

LK07 BBF - SEL747

LK07 BBJ - SEL748

LK07 BBN - SEL749

LK07 BBO - SEL750

LK07 BBU - SEL751

LK07 BBV - SEL752

LK07 BBX - SEL753

LK07 BBZ - SEL754

LK07 BCE - SEL755

LK07 BCF - SEL756

LK07 BCO - SEL757

LK07 BCU - SEL758

LK07 BCV - SEL759

LK07 BCX - SEL760

LK07 BCY - SEL761

LK07 BCZ - SEL762

LK07 BDE - SEL763

LK07 KAU - SEL764

Which is then mixed with:

LK07 KAX - SEL803

LK07 KBE - SEL804

LK07 KBF - SEL805

LK07 KBJ - SEL806

LK07 KBN - SEL807

LK07 KBO - SEL808

LK08 DVY - SEL809

Thanks for reading this post and I hope you've enjoyed it - Remember to stay safe!