Know Your Routes: Route 305

LJ03 MUW (3515) is seen at Kingsbury Circle on route 305. This bus is allocated to 305.

Sorry for the lack of Know Your Routes posts, today's focus lies on route 305. The short, boring, yet useful route that quickly links Burnt Oak and Kingsbury, and then from Burnt Oak continues to Edgware.

Starting at Edgware, this route goes via Station Road and Hale Lane and then leads itself into Deans Lane, the only bus to serve Deans Lane before making a dash into Orange Hill Road. After it takes a right to reach Burnt Oak Station and then, this route, like routes 114 and 302, it doesn't serve Burnt Oak Broadway, it leaves Watling Avenue and directly turns into Stag Lane before going into a 'Hail & Ride' mode around Roe Green on Princes Avenue before terminating at Kingsbury Circle, taking about 20 minutes end to end, with the length of 4 miles.

This route has a peak vehicle requirement (PVR) of 4 buses, usually the oddities in the Arriva The Shires fleet, who operate the route from their Garston (GR) garage. 

The choice of the number was it's relations with route 302, which the 305 is a relief route around Burnt Oak, for most of the routing in fact. But also the 305 replaced route 292 between Mill Hill Broadway and Burnt Oak, helping out in the Burnt Oak area, whilst the 303 helped with the Mill Hill link.

Route 305 started in 1993, running it's current route between Edgware and Burnt Oak, and then went via Edgware Road to terminate at Colindale, ASDA. Make sure you aren't confusing this route with route 303, which also ran and still runs between Colindale, ASDA and Edgware, is also operated using the same buses as 305 and started a year before in 1992. Sorry, I know there are too many 300' routes in the Edgware and Burnt Oak areas! The PVR was 3.

If Enviro 200s existed in 1993, or if 305 still went to Colindale for that matter,
3815 demonstrates what it'd look like during a blind scroll.

However, just under half a year later after route 305 started, it was withdrawn between Colindale and Burnt Oak, and made a new link on Princes Avenue to Kingsbury, creating the current routing today. It hasn't changed for over 20 years. To fund the extension, route 305's PVR was boosted to 4 buses, as it is today.

Metroline were operating the route out of Edgware (EW) garage using midibuses until 1996 where brand new EDR Pointers were ordered. However, in 2002, route 305's allocation was moved to the now defunct North Wembley (NW) base, where the allocation was changed to Plaxton Pointer 2s (DLDs) before Metroline lost the route in September 2006, to Arriva The Shires. 

Brand new Wright Cadets were placed on order, which still run the route today, numbered 3704-3728. However, in 2012, 3715 (YE06 HRG) had a massive fire and therefore was written off. This bus was then replaced by LJ03 MUW (3515). Also two Plaxton Pointer Darts were ordered as spares at the time, however these Darts are now officially allocated to route 305.

In 2012, routes 268, 288, 303, 305, H18 and H19 were all retained by Arriva The Shires resulting in a massive refurbishment of all Wright VDL SB120 Cadets excluding LJ03 MUW, and Darts 3704 and 3705, and also the refurbishment and transferal of Enviro 200s 3811-7 to replace elderly buses. Some of these buses were V258 HBH/V260 HBH which were Wright Crusaders, allocated to the 305 as well, and S-reg Darts.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to manage to photograph the Wright Crusaders, which by the way were on the Volvo B6BLE chassis - They sounded like Metroline's MMs in some way - as they were gone too quickly for me. However, I was lucky to photograph the S-reg Darts. 

I decided to include the better photo of the S-reg Dart, pictured here is S318 JUA (3221) on it's last days of TfL operation whilst on route 305. Sister bus S317 JUA had royal red moquette on it's bench style seats. Not sure why, but I thought I'd point that out. This bus has since been withdrawn from London service.

There are still Pointers, unfortunately the horrid Pointers, 56-reg, known as 3804 and 3805 (SN56 AXH/G) which are on the 305 very frequently. These were refurbished last year, and so I have photos of them too. Here is 3805 ready to perform a service to Edgware.

Whilst we are on the topic of refurbishments, here is an interior of a typical Wright Cadet that has been refurbished. The job was done very well.

Enviro 200's 3811-3817 also appear every now and then on route 305. Here, 3814 (LJ58 AVY) demonstrates on a chilly Winter's afternoon, ready for a service to Edgware. Buses never seem to stand at Kingsbury Circle though but in compensation they get a 15-20 minute break at Edgware.

Then there are the proper odd workings - double deckers. 305 can take double deckers, in fact any single decker route at Garston (GR) that isn't part of the Hampstead Network (631/H1, H2, H3) can take double deckers. 305 is included and I have photos, except 5448, 6100 and 6101 (Check my Flickr, you never know, one could come on tomorrow and I happen to snap it!) of all possible types that can appear on the 305 (That are part of a large batch). 

The first type I'll show is the Alexander Dennis ALX400 bodied DB250LF (DLA), which is a type allocated to route 340. Sometimes they do stray, and this is the most common type of double decker to appear on the route. Here pictured is 6016, KL52 CXH, ready to leave Kingsbury for Edgware.

The next type is the Alexander Dennis ALX400 bodied Volvo B7TL (VLA), which is a larger batch allocated to routes 142 and 642. Here is Arriva's 6177, ex-Arriva London VLA177, seen at Kingsbury Circle on route 305. These buses look smart on the outside, but to be honest, most of them are generally horrible.

And the last one, but not the very least, is the rarest type to get onto the 305, is the Wright Pulsar Gemini bodied DB250LF. I have been trying to catch this one for ages and I have finally managed to get it after weeks, this paid off. This batch is allocated to route 258, in my opinion Arriva The Shires best route, others would think elsewhere, like one of our members here (Hint: Starts with an L) and the 640, and shown here below is 6029 (YJ55 WOC) at Kingsbury Circle. Note the newspaper at the front doors that must have been crunched a billion times every time the door opens/ closes.

I'll round off this post with the fleetlist. I'll put the 'regular fleetlist' showing buses that you can find almost everyday on the 305, and then the normal fleetlist.

Regulars:

LJ03 MUW - 3515

SN56 AXG - 3804

SN56 AXH - 3805

+ Random Cadet

= Usual allocation

Normal Fleetlist:

LJ03 MUW - 3515

SN56 AXG - 3804

SN56 AXH - 3805

YJ06 LFE - 3704

YJ06 LFF - 3705

YJ06 LFG - 3706

YJ06 LFH - 3707

YJ06 LFK - 3708

YJ06 LFL - 3709

YJ06 LDK - 3710

YE06 HRA - 3711

YE06 HRC - 3712

YE06 HRD - 3713

YE06 HRF - 3714

YE06 HRG - 3715 - Written off, replaced by 3515.

YE06 HRJ - 3716

YE06 HPA - 3717

YE06 HPC - 3718

YE06 HPF - 3719

YE06 HPJ - 3720

YE06 HPK - 3721

YE06 HPL - 3722

YE06 HPN - 3723

YE06 HPO - 3724

YE06 HPP - 3725

YE06 HPU - 3726

YE06 HNT - 3727

YE06 HNU - 3728

Thanks for reading this post, we apologise for the long wait for a Know Your Routes, stay safe and we hope you enjoyed!

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