Wright from Wrong

Route 137 is now London's tenth 'New Routemaster' convert, Arriva London introducing LT317-356 from Brixton (BN).

A route that dates back to 1925 but with a numbering that has remained unchanged since 1934, route 137 is one of two routes linking the West End to Streatham, the other route being the famous 159. While the latter has a terminus at Marble Arch, route 137 starts at Oxford Circus. An interesting perplexity with both longstanding Arriva London routes is that they both serve each other's terminus going to Streatham in the opposite directions along Oxford Street: from Marble Arch, the 159 heads southbound towards Oxford Street before turning into Regent Street towards the West End traffic whereas the 137, from John Princes Street off Oxford Circus, heads northbound towards Marble Arch before joining the Mayfair traffic from Park Lane.

Route 137 more or less adjacently runs the full course of Hyde Park as it becomes a momentary standee of the infamous Knightsbridge congestion. An optimistically rewarding left turn onto Sloane Street inevitably leads to the affluent Sloane Square. After the Belgravia area, route 137 speeds through into Battersea, passing the Lister Hospital and Battersea Power Station before introducing you to the easily remiss location of Queenstown Road Station. There are a variety of opportunities for speed as the route soon enters Clapham Common, avoiding the attention of the nearby station crowds by serving residential roads directing the route to its Streatham Hill terminus at Telford Avenue and, of course, Brixton Bus Garage.

With a parent-child-like shared allocation of Wright Pulsar Gemini bodied DAF DB250LF (DW) and Wright Gemini 2 bodied VDL DB300 (DW) buses, route 137 was selected to have these buses successed by 'New Routemaster' hybrids. Now, in my opinion, the boisterous older DWs were in dire need of replacing or transfer away from central London with their air and noise polluting engines, and very weak and sometimes even jolt-producing acceleration. I would have preferred Volvo B5L hybrids for the route, this preference sourcing from the rare privilege bestowed upon me to board one of the route's uncommon last service hybrid duties. If only I had the time to take HV146 to full extent of the route: the bus was just perfect for the 137. However, with no more production of the Gemini 2 for London, I wonder if a Gemini 3 bodywork on the same chassis would work, both aesthetically and with the same calibre of performance as HV146, a Gemini 2.

LT349 (LTZ 1349) on route 137 ahead of another LT on
London United route 148 in Marble Arch, Park Lane.

Nevertheless, due a phased conversion from 6 December 2014, 'New Routemasters' entered service on route 137 on 2 December 2014. A small number to start off with, the conversion made a gradual but faster conversion than the previous on route 453. I started off at Marble Arch, seeing no point in exerting myself down the all too familiar, understandably speed limited Oxford Street to the route's terminus. The bus was LT319 (LTZ 1319), and I was not in the best of moods beforehand. However, self-disciplined to objectivity at all times, I did not allow this to determine the outcome of this review, although the unreliable service of route 137 seemed to want my moody self to determine the outcome of this review. With an average to slow start, the 137 really was not helping itself and improving my mood, either as we nonchalantly roamed around a traffic-free Mayfair. Knightsbridge was also free of its usual congested argy-bargy, not that this was much of a worry as the route ducks into Sloane Street, anyway.

Hoping for a bit more speed down the long stretch of Sloane Street, I decided to make use of the a new speedometer app I recently downloaded that has only been inconveniently deciding to work when I no longer require it. That was until today, when it worked almost immediately in response to the driver's sudden interest in exerting his right foot upon the accelerator to record a maximum speed of 27mph before having to lift off the accelerator to safely manoeuvre parked cars and through zebra crossings before inevitably entering Sloane Square.

Once out of Belgravia, we were on the Chelsea Bridge Road, crossing the obstruction-free Chelsea Bridge on approach to Battersea with less speed than Sloane Street, abundant in parked cars and street furniture, hence a disappointing consequent enhancement to my tedious mood. My enthusiasm ventured away from the 'New Routemaster' review and instead took interest in the inattentive location of Queenstown Road Station. If I have ever passed the station in my life before, in which I am almost certainly sure this was the first time I had been in the Queenstown Road area, it is not at all surprising I cannot recall it. Its facade reminisced a pub that had been there for a couple of centuries, hiding away from attention in between what must have been two small shops almost as spacious as the exterior view of the station.

Nevertheless, my enthusiasm returned to route 137 as we caught up to another LT on the route (LT341, LTZ 1341) at Queenstown Road Station (a bit of a walk back from the actual station due to the curves of the road which disables a more suitable location for the stop). Somehow, rather than providing the worst case scenario of driving slower to regulate service, the driver enabled the possibility of speeds faster than 27mph on approach to Clapham Common. But as fun seemed to finally want to maintain its present aboard this journey, another problem decided to arise. Guess what this was? The air-conditioner!

Yes, we all though the air-conditioning issues had been fully resolved after the Malaysian desert temperatures inside the 'New Routemasters' on route 24. However, aboard LT319, it was the reverse: whilst we may have been circumnavigating Clapham, the air-conditioning made it feel as if we were circumnavigating the Arctic Circle! It seemed to create a minor but slightly annoying tendency to replicate the cold weather of the outside rather than neutralise outside temperatures with inside temperatures of the bus, which it is supposed to do to maintain a perfectly cosy temperature. The AC also seemed to have a set time to turn off, creating false hope that that was the end of a brief chilly spell, before turning back on again to blow in more blizzards.

This was a minor, though, as the driver finally decided he wanted to maintain the speed as we avoided the crowds from the various stations in Clapham to serve residential roads en route Streatham. We made a neat overtake on LT341 as we picked up good pace towards Streatham Hill, however, in hindsight, I can say this was merely a precautionary compensation for having to soon queue up at the short-lasting traffic lights before Streatham Hill / Christchurch Road, in which were forced to stare at the rear of a route 49 outcast on route 57 in the form of VE10 for a good five minutes. By augmenting our wait, when the traffic lights finally decided to go green, VE10 made a slow get off but as the lights abruptly returned to red, the driver picked up the pace and jumped the lights, holding us back for a few more minutes at the front of the queue.

Before deciding to become dependent on the beautiful natural anaesthestic that is sleeping, we finally escaped the queue onto Streatham Hill for a fast last stint towards the route's terminus at Telford Avenue, home to Brixton Bus Garage.

Wright from wrong, but the right successor?

Despite what can be an unreliable service, the conversion was much faster than the previous of route 453 and the routing possibly suffices what would have been quite an unhappy review.

This, therefore, makes the 'New Routemaster' performance hierarchy quite competitive, as routes 8 and 453 both had their minor faults but were equally great for different reasons, the 8 having arguably the best batch of LTs and the fastest routing and the 453 being its great batch and arguably the best drivers. With the 137, from an enthusiast point-of-view, it is not what your high expectations expect. However, for the general commuter of the route, route 137 with its new buses is everything you can ask for: a quiet, smooth cruise, speeds coasted to nothing faster than 30mph, routing scenic and tranquil.

If ever, the new Volvo B5L hybrids at Brixton (BN) will
only be in service for route 137 for the last duties of the day,

Plus, with drivers, you generally expect them to be moody, but there are a lot of friendly drivers; the 137 not only has friendly drivers, but they know how to distribute information productively and provide the best customer service I have ever seen from bus drivers. And this is just based on two of three journeys I had on the 137 that day.

As routes 148, 38 and 9 remain the top three 'New Routemaster' routes, the very competitive completion of the top five sees the 8, 453 and 137 follow the top three only because of when they were converted because it is simply too difficult to order them based on performance and service, with very similar reviews albeit for different reasons. Route 11 is shunted down to seventh to make way for the new convert route 137 as routes 10, 390 and 24 complete the bottom of the hierarchy.

So, to answer the previous Borismaster Watch article's question, does the 137 have a chance to knock the 453 off the top five? Yes, but it is yet to do so. New question: was this the Wright choice of vehicles for the 137?

(No, that was not a typo.)