Old Street to New Road

Seen in Provost Estate is T12 (LJ08 CVG) on route 135 awaiting a trip to Crossharbour on the last ever day of Arriva's service. ©LondonBuses72

Liverpool [Street] to Canada [Square], Old Street to New Road. Recognise these names? You probably would've if you have travelled on one of the best routes that London has to offer, the route 135. It circles around the humbug life of our capital's financial hub: Canary Wharf, Aldgate, Liverpool Street and Old Street.

The 135 is one of London's youngest routes, the current number only dating back to May 2008. Running between Crossharbour, ASDA and Old Street, Moorfields Eye Hospital, this route ran from Arriva Barking (DX) using Enviro 400 buses with bonnet numbers T12-T26.

The 135 had a peak vehicle requirement of 13 buses, DX #131+ (DX #135 was allocated to 135). Although it's a city route, it's one of the less frequent services, being one every 10 minutes Monday through to Saturday, and every 15 minutes all day Sunday and all evenings. The 135 was TfL's more modern version of former route D10 that had only lasted a mere matter of months in the early 1990s.

When the route was introduced, if you've seen it yourself or online, route branding had made a return! Well, almost......buses carried a special advert promoting the new route. The type ordered was a new type for Arriva London: The Enviro 400. A strong batch of 50 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s had been ordered for Palmers Green (AD) route 102, a couple of South Croydon (TC) routes, and on top of that, an additional 15 for Barking (DX) when it was announced that route 135 was awarded to Arriva. 

102 and 135 were the first to introduce the buses to Arriva London's ever growing fleet. They were specified without the Arriva 'cow horn', but still retained the yellow band around the skirt. As the interior shots show, they had Urban Circlo seats with Arriva's older moquette (the buses are being refurbished with the new ones).

©LondonBuses72

©LondonBuses72

To be completely honest, I'm having a hard time stating any facts about 135.....the route doesn't have much history to it because it is so young. It's more based on one's experiences with this route. All bloggers that have done the 135 have stated that the route is incredibly quick and useful, my own experience saw me do Liverpool Street - Crossharbour in 23 minutes at around 1pm! I guess it's fair to say the vast majority of us preferred and grew a liking to Arriva on the 135 over Go-Ahead, and then came disappointment when the results about 135's fate was revealed that Arriva had lost it.

©LondonBuses72

Soon enough came the last day of route 135 at Arriva, and the route has seen a fair share of odd workings, VLWs (pre-2012) and VLAs, of which many were doing shifts towards the end of the contract. Here is VLA134 at Provost Estate on the last day of Arriva on 135. The drivers were transferred to Go-Ahead, so luckily nobody was made redundant from this loss.

©LondonBuses72

An interesting twist was announced by Go-Ahead, which by now it had been confirmed the route was to run from Docklands Buses' Silvertown (SI) base. The twist was that a new breed of buses was to run 135. The popular Volvo B5L engine, which we all know, was to be fused with the brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMC bodywork, which we have seen popping up on many routes during 2015. The buses were numbered EHV1-16.

However, on the first day of Go-Ahead operation, the buses were still not delivered or even ready. Stagecoach had ordered a similar batch of vehicles for route 177 from Plumstead (PD) and theirs was delayed too. Go-Ahead was suppose to be the first company to introduce the state-of-the-art vehicles, although in the same week, Stagecoach introduced their counterparts first, by about 2 days earlier. 

Many enthusiasts decided to compare the two batches, and from what we've got, the better batch seems to be on 135. The current 177 buses are often too sluggish, although we have heard that they can be fast when put under the test. Go-Ahead have impressed us all with their brand new buses. I certainly have!

EHV6 (BL15 HBJ) is seen at Old Street terminus ready to start a trip to Crossharbour. ©LondonBuses72

EHV10 (BL15 HBX) is seen at Crossharbour on stand. ©EastLondoner

Upper deck interior of the new MMCs. ©EastLondoner

We didn't mention what was the loaned buses - Go-Ahead had to do a Domino effect in order to have spare buses for route 135. Route 12 had converted to Borismaster operation in April. The WVLs went to form the new allocation on route 432. The WHVs were originally suppose to go to route 135 according to the Rumour Mill, although that bag of flour has since expired. Instead, the WHVs were diverted to route 436, so 436 could have a 100% hybrid allocation consisting of both Volvo and Enviro types. The diesels from route 436 were released to go to Silvertown (SI) and formed the allocation with 135 temporarily. 

We have provided two shots here, both of E215 at Old Street (former) and Crossharbour (latter). 

©LondonBuses72

©EastLondoner

The buses have since left Silvertown (SI) and the allocation on route 135 has strictly been EHVs. The Es are moving to Metrobus Croydon (C) for routes 119 and 127 as you read, as they have finished their time on the Wimbledon Tennis shuttles. 

That's the 135 done, let's hope that Go-Ahead's great service continues as it is!