The 147 gets the Go-Ahead

Following on from a recent trend of service changes in East London, route 147 which operates between Ilford and Canning Town Bus Station is the latest route to have a change.

A line of 147s stand at Canning Town Bus Station
© EastLondoner

On the 7th of October 2015 it was announced that route 147 would lend its long standing with Stagecoach London and move onto a new life with Go Ahead London. The contract was awarded to the Docklands buses subsidiary. This was quite a shock to many, especially me as for my whole life I had known route 147 as a route operated by Stagecoach London and as a route operated by Tridents.

17490 is seen at East Ham
© EastLondoner

The 147 route itself is a very popular route, providing very unique links through the places that it serves. However this does make it slightly indirect serving places such as Ilford, East Ham, Newham University Hospital, Prince Regent Lane, Royal Victoria and Kier Hardie Estate before finally entering Canning Town from the south. 

Route 147 is quite well known among enthusiasts and regular users for being a regular victim to diversions and curtailments due to Crossrail works. Quite often the route has been cut back between Canning Town Bus Station and Prince Regent due to Crossrail works taking place at Custom House Station. This has affected the 147 4 times in the past 5 years!  

17889 is seen at Ilford during the time the route was cut to Prince Regent
© EastLondoner

Stagecoach London had operated the route from their West Ham (WH) garage which was fairly near to the route (whenever it served Canning Town). Go Ahead London were going to run the route from a brand new garage which was situated along River Road in Barking Riverside, hence it receiving a garage code of (RR). They had won the contract using existing Enviro400 buses which had been displaced from Camberwell (Q) garage following the conversion of route 68 to New Routemaster buses.

E182 is seen at East Ham on the first day of Go Ahead operation
© EastLondoner

The route moved operator on the 7th of May 2016, and there probably couldn't have been a worse day for the change to take place. With a sinkhole opening up in Barking Road, West Ham playing home and the Lodge Avenue flyover closure all causing endless mayhem in East London. The 147 was placed on a diversion as well as being severely affected by traffic. I had a ride on E182 from Newham University Hopital to East Ham on the first day. The bus was refurbished, not that you'd be able to tell as the buses still looked new prior to their refurbishment. A lot of the public were commenting on how there was a new bus, as expected for a first day the service was dreadful however that should eventually improve as time goes on. 

Below you will find a fleetlist of the buses that are now allocated to the 147 for the next 5 years, or maybe 7 years of its life with Go Ahead London. 

E163 SN61BGF
E164 SN61BGK

E165 SN61BGO

E166 SN61BGU

E167 SN61BGV

E168 SN61BGX

E169 SN61BGY

E170 SN61BGZ

E171 SN61BHA

E172 SN61BHD

E173 SN61BGE

E174 SN61BHE

E175 SN61BHF

E176 SN61BHJ

E177 SN61BHK

E178 SN61BHL

E179 SN61BHO

E180 SN61BHP

E181 SN61BHU

E182 SN61BHV

E183 SN61BHW

E184 SN61BHX
E185 SN61BHY

E181 seen in East Ham on its way to Canning Town
© EastLondoner

E178 seen in Ilford heading to Canning Town
© EastLondoner

It will take me a couple of weeks to get used to this service change as I have known the route to be under Stagecoach operation for my whole life. The quality of service is still fluctuating as can be expected with many operators on the first few weeks of a new contract on a route. But overall there isn't much to say about this service change as it is just your average operator change so there isn't actually much to say except wishing River Road garage good luck with operating London buses and maybe they can win many more routes in the future.