Know Your Routes: Route E1

Skipping straight to Ealing, we bring you in today's edition: route E1. This short and nippy route takes about 10-15 minutes end to end, and runs between Ealing Broadway and Greenford Clifton Road. The route did get attention earlier this year as it was one of three routes that left Metroline, E1 having passed to Abellio London West (WS) from Hayes garage.

The route isn't all that interesting, but you can be guaranteed a decent and speedy trip around some of the best corners of Ealing if your bus is in the hands of a good driver. Leaving Ealing Broadway Haven Green it approaches Eaton Rise, where it takes a unique turn into Longfield Road before taking an immediate turn into Gordon Road. About 2 stops later and you approach the streets of West Ealing - note the bus doesn't serve the broadway, nor the station directly (although from the stop 'The Avenue', it takes about 2-4 minutes on average to walk to the station depending on your speed). The route then goes northwards on The Avenue, where there are no bus stops before turning into Sutherland Avenue, and skipping to Sutherland Road, where the next stop is. After, the route enters Drayton Green and stops on either side of the Greenford branch line railway bridge for Drayton Green station (this is one of few scenarios where the bus has a chance of being quicker than the train, trains taking 3 minutes to complete West Ealing - Drayton Green whereas the bus can take 2 minutes if you're lucky. Once it again it all is down to the driver). Speeding down Drayton Bridge Road, the E1 approaches it's relatively longer sibling, route E3 which it follows down Greenford Avenue, where they both terminate at Greenford Broadway.

Taking the route back to it's roots in 1968, where the route was actually E1 and today's E8 combined. It was a midibus route, run by London Transport from the now closed Hanwell (HL) garage. However, the section on route E8 only ran to Brentford County Court although on Sundays was extended to Syon Park.

The section to Syon Park was withdrawn at the low of spring 1979. Route E1 was withdrawn between Ealing Broadway and Brentford in 1990, this section giving birth to newly formed route, E8. In 1993, Hanwell (HL) closed and the allocation moved to Greenford (G).

In 2002, the contract was awarded to First, and new Trident Presidents were ordered for the route (TN) in which the route was converted to double-deck operation due to school loadings from Brentside and Drayton Manor High Schools with the PVR standing at 6 buses. Just 7 years later saw the PVR upped to 7, and in 2009 37 new Enviro 400s were bought for both routes E1 and E3.

However in 2013, a shock came to us when First decided to leave London. In the huge sale, Greenford (G) was sold to Metroline, under a new subsidiary (Metroline West). However, just before the takeover, First inserted their bids to retain routes E1, E3 and E10 which were not given contract extensions, however when Metroline took over, saw the loss of these routes to other companies respectively.



So come 2014, what an eventful year it has been. E1 was awarded to Abellio London from Hayes (WS) garage and on the 31st May 2014, route E1 became the second E-route to use hybrids as allocated workings (the first being E8, although it's buses were disliked and were sold off last year). Although there has been reliability problems on the route since takeover, Abellio will settle soon on the route. A huge cheque was written for Alexander Dennis as Abellio ordered over 40 hybrids, the first batch for route E1.

Here is a fleetlist for the new buses on route E1:

SK14 CTZ - 2444

SK14 CUA - 2445

SK14 CUC - 2446

SK14 CUG - 2447

SK14 CUH - 2448

SK14 SYY - 2449

SK14 SYZ - 2450

SK14 SZC - 2451

Here are some photos to round off this post:

In some way relevant, please fill out this form as route E1 parallels the Greenford Line for some section of it's route. Share with others afterwards! Thank you for taking your time to read this post and fill out the form, stay safe!