Go Ahead, but not yet

Crossrail, Crossrail. Everywhere you look it's Crossrail. TfL have been preparing for the opening of Crossrail for years, even before I was alive. Although unsurprisingly the opening date for the new line has slipped and unlike the initial December 2018 hope the new date is now well into the third quarter of 2019 subject to confirmation. 

E192 at Manor Park
© EastLondoner

As part of Crossrail many bus changes were proposed, one of them was the splitting of route 104 into two routes. One which would run between Manor Park and Custom House, which would be renumbered 304 and one which would run between Stratford and Beckton Bus Station and would retain the 104 number. This split would coincide with an operator change of the 104 from Stagecoach London at West Ham (WH) to Go Ahead London at River Road (RR). However the delay of Crossrail also resulted in the delay of any related bus changes, therefore the 104 moved to Go Ahead in its current form

A 104 seen among other routes at Stratford Bus Station
© EastLondoner

19861 at Stratford on the last day of Stagecoach operation
© EastLondoner

The route doesn't have a particularly interesting history. The route was born in 1989 as a replacement for the S1 and it ran between Manor Park and Stratford Bus Station via East Ham, Lonsdale Avenue, Upton Park and Portway. At this point anyone already familiar with the route will have realised this is the exact same route that the 104 still follows today. The route started its operation with East London which later became Stagecoach and it continued under the operator until its move to Go Ahead London. Its most recent allocation under Stagecoach saw it allocated with a mix of Alexander Dennis Enviro400s and ALX400 bodied Dennis Trident 2s, an allocation shared with the 158. Although in practice the Enviro400s would tend to stick more to the 104 while the Tridents would stick to the 158, although there was still a lot of intermixing. Other bus types which would be found on the route every now and again would include Scania Omnicities from the 97/262/473 allocations and Enviro400 MMCs from the 241/330/474 allocations. 

11033 seen at Stratford showing off its LED blinds
© EastLondoner

When Go Ahead won the route the allocation stated was "existing 2011 buses". There was some initial confusion over this as to what existing 2011 buses Go Ahead actually had which could meet the whole PVR of the route. In practice what actually turned up to operate the route consisted of Es from all over the Go Ahead empire, along with a few Gemini 2s which were drafted in. The buses allocated to the route are E127, E128, E130, E136, E186, E187, E189-E193, E212, E228, E276-E280, WVL276 and WVL332. This is quite the mix but no surprise when you start scraping together all the spares you have in order to make a bid work, especially in an era where there is increasing pressure to drive costs down. 

E128 seen at Stratford Bus Station
© EastLondoner

Stagecoach wrapped up their phase on the 104 with the last buses being 10109 and 19868. The first day under Go Ahead saw an allocation full of Enviro400s, except for the sole appearance of WVL332 in the morning for less than an hour. Operation on the first day of the route left a lot to be desired. Gaps of over 20 minutes were evident throughout the route and bunchings of the service in other locations. This was not helped by the traffic along West Ham Lane heading into Stratford and the extra traffic caused by Stratford Broadway now being two way. On top of this you had the usual "First Day syndrome" meaning the controllers and drivers still needed to get used to the route and the various challenges that it presents. 

E72 seen on stand at Manor Park - This bus is allocated to the school routes at RR
© EastLondoner

The service on the Monday was in a far better state than it was during the first weekend, however there were still signs of a poor operation with many buses not taking their scheduled stand time and with a few turns being given out by controllers to help drivers make up lost time. However the service seems to be improving from Go Ahead's first day and hopefully soon it will be of a good standard for the next 5, or even 7 years.

E192 seen in East Ham
© EastLondoner

As for the 304, what happened to it? It's still coming, but not yet. It's a bit pointless to have a route terminating at Custom House when there's going to be nothing there besides a three car DLR train to help people continue their journey. It'll soon get the Go Ahead, but not yet.