Fading Away

It's quite rare that a little route running in the outskirts of London is well known among the bus enthusiast community, however route 193 which runs between Romford, Queen's Hospital and County Park Estate in Hornchurch is arguably very well known. This route has just completed a move from Go Ahead London to Stagecoach London.

37522 at Queen's Hospital
© EastLondoner

Known very well for its very interesting allocation the route was the last route in London to be allocated Marshall Capitals, although many other types were found on the route such as Pointers and an Enviro200 making it very interesting to ride.

DMN7 seen in Romford
© LondonBuses72

ED22 on stand at Queen's Hospital
© EastLondoner

The route has a surprisingly interesting history, serving places that today form some of the busiest corridors in East London, very weird considering the fact its last tenure saw it allocated predominantly with 8.9m buses. It started off in August 1959 running between Barking and Roneo corner going via Ilford Lane, High Road, London Road and Roneo Corner which is today's EL1, 86 and 248. November 1959 saw it extended to Thames View Estate. More change came in 1963 when the section to Thames View Estate was withdrawn and the route was extended to Upminster Park Estate. In 1970 the route was withdrawn between Upminster Park estate and Hornchurch. No further change came for 12 years until in 1982 the chunk between Barking and Romford was withdrawn, a rerouting in 1986 saw the Hornchurch terminus change to County Park Estate forming much of today's route which is still in operation. In 1996 the route was extended in Romford to terminate at Oldchurch Hospital and in 2007 when Oldchurch Hospital was closed it was extended to the new Queens Hospital which had opened on Rom Valley Way.

SEN38 seen in Romford
© EastLondoner

In terms of operators the route has had a lot of changes since privatisation with Eastern National, Thamesway, First and most recently Go Ahead London. The route was part of the split of old First London operations in 2013 when it, along with the 368, 498 and all the school routes at Dagenham (DM) were moved to Go Ahead London operation at Rainham (BE). Although since then Go Ahead have managed to lose all three full time routes which they gained in that round with the 498 moving to Stagecoach in 2015 and the 368 moving to Arriva in 2016. 

Route 193 was announced as going to Stagecoach on the 1st of March, alongside the retain of former Dagenham (DM) routes 165, 179 and 252 which were all retained by Stagecoach. The 193 was going to get an upgrade from its 8.9m allocation to a full 9.6m allocation under Stagecoach. However this extra capacity is balanced out by a reduction in the overall frequency of the route to every 10 minutes compared to it being every 8-9 minutes under Go Ahead London - although routes being reduced in frequency has become really common as of late. Go Ahead wrapped up their phase on route 193, funnily enough with SEN38 as the last bus. You could say that's somewhat fitting considering the general state of the 193s allocation for the last few years. 

37522 seen at Hornchurch
© EastLondoner

Stagecoach took over on the 29th of September, producing a full allocation of 18reg Enviro200 MMCs on the route. When I went to have a quick ride it was nice to see people paying attention to the new bus type on the route. The new buses also are also designed to TfL's latest specification, which includes a larger wheelchair space. This allows more buggies to fit into the space, during my journey three buggies managed to comfortable fit in the space and there was even some space left over. Like almost every bus delivered to London these days the buses also contain start stop technology which stops the engine when it is not in use in order to reduce emissions. Although whether this actually does any good to the bus itself is another topic entirely. 

37520 showing off the dual door allocation
© EastLondoner

Operation on the first day certainly did not go smoothly, while waiting at Hornchurch for just 10 minutes multiple 193s passed in the other direction heading to County Park, of which two were turned to Hornchurch Town Centre, both of which then blinded to Not in Service and then headed back to Romford. Although hopefully as time progresses Stagecoach will get used to the various challenges the 193 presents and the standard of operation starts to increase. During my ride I also noticed that many people still alighted using the front door, after presumably getting used to that following the many years of single door operation on the route, although hopefully it won't be too long until everyone gets used to the presence of the second door on the buses!

36602 passes 37516 while on the 499
© EastLondoner

There's not much else to say about the change itself, it's just a case of one route continuing as it is with another operator, although the buses are in a far better state which probably pleases the passengers. It will certainly feel different in Romford not having the 193 running around with its entertaining allocation anymore. It'll probably just start to fade away as another suburban single decker route with a generic allocation.