Tower Transit Rise

Out in West London we find our next operator change, route 452 has moved from Abellio London at Battersea (QB) to Tower Transit and Westbourne Park (X).

9417 was one of the buses originally ordered for the 452
© EastLondoner

Route 452 has a short history, the route only started operation in 2006 making it just over 12 years old. Its first form consisted of it running from Kensal Rise to Wandsworth Road Station like today's route running via Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill Gate, Knightsbridge, Sloane Square and Queenstown Road. In November 2016 the route was extended from Wandsworth Road Station to Vauxhall Bus Station alongside a diversion of route 436 to Battersea Park in order to better serve forthcoming housing developments in the area. This formed the Kensal Rise to Vauxhall route which is in operation today. When the route started ALX400 bodied Tridents were temporarily used until Enviro400s which were ordered arrived. These Enviro400s remained the staple allocation through the 452s time at Battersea (QB), initially under Travel London ownership and later Abellio London ownership.

9499 seen at Ladbroke Grove, Sainsbury's
© EastLondoner

The tender result for the 452 was released on the 23rd of March 2018, Tower Transit had won it using existing Alexander Dennis Enviro400 buses which were to be made free from  the loss of route 30 to Metroline later in the year. So it was a big surprise when following the loss of the 30 the Enviro400s were decommissioned and returned to the lessor. This begged the question, what would the 452 use? TfL soon afterwards announced the as part of the Crossrail related bus changes route 25 was going to be cut back from Oxford Circus to Holborn Circus on the 1st of December and not long after that it was announced that the 452 would be using the VNs released from the 25s cut, alongside a few other VNs released from other routes at Westbourne Park (X) which will have PVR reductions.

9488 seen at Vauxhall shortly after being extended
© EastLondoner

VN37988 at Vauxhall
© EastLondoner

Abellio wrapped up their phase on the route with 9417 being the last bus. Tower Transit transferred all of the buses required for the operation of the 452 almost overnight, this was accomplished by reblinding the buses while they were at LI then keeping them route bound to the 25, as that route is found on X blind sets anyway. The buses which had transferred over from the 25 were VN36101-VN36115, although VN36104 and VN36112 remained at LI. Operation on the first day was hit by the famous "first day syndrome" where the route tends to collapse as the drivers and controllers need to get used to the route and it would be unfair to expect a decent service from the get go. Turns were certainly prominent and at 11am in the morning there were only two buses heading towards Kensal Rise of which both were south of the river. I headed to Vauxhall in the evening to see how the route was going and it was in a complete state. There were no buses in the area and when one finally did arrive it left immediately without taking any stand time, no surprise as the bus ahead was at Sloane Square.

VN37957 at Vauxhall
© EastLondoner

I decided not to even bother further with the route on Saturday morning and instead went out again on Monday to get a better idea of the changes that Tower Transit provided compared to Abellio. Funnily as I arrived at Vauxhall there was a single 452 there and while I managed to photograph it, it then proceeded to leave the bus station without picking up anyone at the first stop. The bus behind was ages away and unwilling to wait due to the heavy rain I decided to head to Sloane Square on the Underground. As I arrived there was no sign of the rain clearing, and for some reason the area was standstill with traffic, which might have been a factor into the abysmal operation of the 452. I decided again that it wouldn't be worth my trouble to actually try to board a bus just to not go anywhere for ages. 

VN36124 seen at Sloane Square Station
© EastLondoner

At this point I decided to give up trying to do the route and proceeded with other business I had in the area. About two hours later I decided to attempt to cover the route, although this time from the Kensal Rise end. However LVF wasn't working and with no guarantee that the mess from earlier in Sloane Square would have cleared I wasn't in much of a mood to bother covering the route.

Tower Transit VN36102 seen at Kensal Rise
© EastLondoner

No doubt this has been one of the less smooth operator changes of the year, with poor service from the new operator very prominent. However it is a new route for them and no doubt service will improve as the drivers and the controllers at Westbourne Park get used to the challenges that the 452 presents.