(Tower) Transiting to StreetLites
When someone tells you to think of any 5 bus routes in Shepherd's Bush, chances are route 228 isn't one of those that you seem to remember. We all remember the big guns such as the 207, 607, 94, 148 and 49 - perhaps with a few others.
Route 228 is one of that district's quieter, and newer, bus routes weaving in and out of the streets of Ealing, Brent, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea.
It runs from Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal, to the more trendier area of Maida Vale sharing a terminus with Central London route 414 at The Chippenham Pub. Having only been created in 2009, a mere 10 years ago, 228 takes a unique approach at linking Harlesden, White City and Maida Vale.
It goes via the back end of the Jubilee Clock in Harlesden, before taking a right turn onto Acton Lane, going through the developing neighbourhood of Old Oak Common and entering itself into the streets of East Acton. Interestingly, it doesn't serve Du Cane Road but instead dives ahead past Savoy Circus, turning left onto the Uxbridge Road, and then transversing the Commonwealth Estate from south to north before abruptly ending up at the foot of White City Bus Station. Running around the now redesigned Westfield Shopping Complex through to Shepherd's Bush before taking to the leafy streets of Holland Park and then the home of the carnival, Ladbroke Grove. It crosses the Harrow Road before ending at The Chippenham.
It was created as a new route to cover some new roads previously unserved by buses along Old Oak Common Lane and Holland Park Avenue. The route may initially come across as lacking any major significance in our bus scene, with the odd enthusiast that I have come across so much so has suggested to scrap the route as it currently doesn't provide much.
However as aforementioned, Old Oak Common is an up and coming new settlement and major transport interchange which is planned to be serviced by several flagship rail links including the new Elizabeth line, the HS2 rail link between London, the Midlands and the North of England, the local London Overground network, Great Western Railway services to the West Country and even a potential terminus for Chiltern Railway services to and from Birmingham. As you can tell from this rather lengthy list, this area is planned to be one of the best connected interchanges in the whole of the UK, more so than the likes of Clapham Junction, Birmingham New Street or Stratford.
Between January 2009 and January 2019, the route was based out of Willesden Junction (WJ) garage. It's now on its third contract, running from 2019 to at least 2024, but the first one which ran for a length of five years with no performance extension exercised saw First London win the rights to operate the route. They ordered brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro 200s in a mass order with other tender retains such as the 226 which operates in the same area. Interestingly, their blinds were ordered with incorrect destinations, showing 'Maida Vale, Shirland Avenue' of which Maida Vale is not served by route 228 and Shirland Avenue is a non-existent road! (There is a road called Shirland Road, however)
The 228 had a lot of operational struggles throughout its ten years, but perhaps they were the worst during the first year of operation particularly, as the route in 2010 (just a year in) was identified to be in the top 10 worst performing bus routes across the whole of London, according to Transport for London (TfL) statistics. Route 262 in East London took the lead for worst performing, but that route is subject to its own, probably interesting for all the wrong reasons post later this spring....
However the 228 being a new route didn't make it exempt to seeing older buses. Marshall Capitals are no strangers to the route, and in particular, two familiar faces DML41772 (X772 HLR) and DML41419 (LN51 DXC) were frequent visitors to the route particularly in 2012.
The year 2012 also bought the first StreetLite onto the 228, and into the streets of London - something two of our bloggers here remember very vividly. This was during an era when demonstrators seem to roam London far and wide, demonstrator and prototype buses of practically almost every bus model you could think of, so Wrightbus sent First London a StreetLite to test out on various Willesden Junction (WJ) routes. The bus had an Irish registration plate, DRZ 6181 (it was registered late 2011, so in GB terms would constitute a 61-reg), but spent most of its days split between route 226 and 228.
2013 saw First London run into financial difficulties, and to offset some of their debts, they sold their London operations to Metroline, new starters Tower Transit (who we will get to later) and Go-Ahead London. Willesden Junction (WJ) was included in the sale to Metroline West Ltd, which saw route 228 and its buses transfer along with the company from 22nd June 2013. Metroline renumbered their newly inherited fleet of buses from the cumbersome DML-class system to be standardised in line with their own 10.2m Enviro 200s, to the DE-class buses.
Given the poor operation of the route in 2014, and an operational performance bonus not being granted to Metroline, the route was put out to tender. It came as a bit of a shock to most enthusiasts at the time that Metroline had bidded well enough to keep the route despite the poor performance by them and First on the route - it may have helped to have existing 5 year old buses to place onto the contract. These were subsequently given a refresh, with an all over red paint job and an interior refresh into Metroline colours. New blinds were also ordered for most buses, with the correct destination of 'Maida Hill, The Chippenham'.
In 2018, as TfL were providing cuts in spades to their bus network, decided that route 228 should have a major frequency cut from its once every 12 minutes (5 buses per hour) service that it once basked in, to once every 20 minutes (a mere 3 buses per hour) during the week and scaled back to half hourly late evenings and all day Sundays. This allowed for a PVR cut back to 9 buses.
It was also re-let for tender again, with Tower Transit announced as the new custodians of the 228 bus route with part new and part existing buses to be used on the route. The route would operate from Westbourne Park (X) garage, which lies only about three minutes from the Maida Hill terminus. This tender win would see the Wright StreetLite return to the route in mass this time round, with 4 brand new door front variants and 6 existing buses pulled from a PVR cut from route 236 and a part hydrogen conversion of route 444 at Lea Interchange (LI) garage to form this new allocation.
Tower Transit so far have done quite well on the route, with a schedule that is padded out as to not cause severe reliability problems on a low frequency route. What remains to be seen is the future of the 228, and how it will play an important role in the upcoming Old Oak Common redevelopment scheme.
The fleetlist can be seen below:
SK17 HGU - WV46215
SK17 HGX - WV46216
SK17 HGY - WV46217
SK17 HGZ - WV46218
SK17 HHA - WV46219
SK17 HHB - WV46220
SM68 ESF - WV46221
SM68 ESG - WV46222
SM68 ESN - WV46223
SM68 ESO - WV46224
Thank you for reading this post and please do stay safe! Since the last post, we've also turned six years old - thanks to all those that have supported us through the years. We're committing to bringing more quality posts for time to come.
Route 228 is one of that district's quieter, and newer, bus routes weaving in and out of the streets of Ealing, Brent, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea.
It runs from Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal, to the more trendier area of Maida Vale sharing a terminus with Central London route 414 at The Chippenham Pub. Having only been created in 2009, a mere 10 years ago, 228 takes a unique approach at linking Harlesden, White City and Maida Vale.
It goes via the back end of the Jubilee Clock in Harlesden, before taking a right turn onto Acton Lane, going through the developing neighbourhood of Old Oak Common and entering itself into the streets of East Acton. Interestingly, it doesn't serve Du Cane Road but instead dives ahead past Savoy Circus, turning left onto the Uxbridge Road, and then transversing the Commonwealth Estate from south to north before abruptly ending up at the foot of White City Bus Station. Running around the now redesigned Westfield Shopping Complex through to Shepherd's Bush before taking to the leafy streets of Holland Park and then the home of the carnival, Ladbroke Grove. It crosses the Harrow Road before ending at The Chippenham.
It was created as a new route to cover some new roads previously unserved by buses along Old Oak Common Lane and Holland Park Avenue. The route may initially come across as lacking any major significance in our bus scene, with the odd enthusiast that I have come across so much so has suggested to scrap the route as it currently doesn't provide much.
However as aforementioned, Old Oak Common is an up and coming new settlement and major transport interchange which is planned to be serviced by several flagship rail links including the new Elizabeth line, the HS2 rail link between London, the Midlands and the North of England, the local London Overground network, Great Western Railway services to the West Country and even a potential terminus for Chiltern Railway services to and from Birmingham. As you can tell from this rather lengthy list, this area is planned to be one of the best connected interchanges in the whole of the UK, more so than the likes of Clapham Junction, Birmingham New Street or Stratford.
 |
| ©London Bus Breh. |
The 228 had a lot of operational struggles throughout its ten years, but perhaps they were the worst during the first year of operation particularly, as the route in 2010 (just a year in) was identified to be in the top 10 worst performing bus routes across the whole of London, according to Transport for London (TfL) statistics. Route 262 in East London took the lead for worst performing, but that route is subject to its own, probably interesting for all the wrong reasons post later this spring....
 |
| ©London Bus Breh. |
 |
| ©London Bus Breh - embedded hyperlink preferred: https://flic.kr/p/dubKR8. |
2013 saw First London run into financial difficulties, and to offset some of their debts, they sold their London operations to Metroline, new starters Tower Transit (who we will get to later) and Go-Ahead London. Willesden Junction (WJ) was included in the sale to Metroline West Ltd, which saw route 228 and its buses transfer along with the company from 22nd June 2013. Metroline renumbered their newly inherited fleet of buses from the cumbersome DML-class system to be standardised in line with their own 10.2m Enviro 200s, to the DE-class buses.
Given the poor operation of the route in 2014, and an operational performance bonus not being granted to Metroline, the route was put out to tender. It came as a bit of a shock to most enthusiasts at the time that Metroline had bidded well enough to keep the route despite the poor performance by them and First on the route - it may have helped to have existing 5 year old buses to place onto the contract. These were subsequently given a refresh, with an all over red paint job and an interior refresh into Metroline colours. New blinds were also ordered for most buses, with the correct destination of 'Maida Hill, The Chippenham'.
 |
| Metroline DE1670 stands at White City on the last day of Metroline operating 228. |
In 2018, as TfL were providing cuts in spades to their bus network, decided that route 228 should have a major frequency cut from its once every 12 minutes (5 buses per hour) service that it once basked in, to once every 20 minutes (a mere 3 buses per hour) during the week and scaled back to half hourly late evenings and all day Sundays. This allowed for a PVR cut back to 9 buses.
It was also re-let for tender again, with Tower Transit announced as the new custodians of the 228 bus route with part new and part existing buses to be used on the route. The route would operate from Westbourne Park (X) garage, which lies only about three minutes from the Maida Hill terminus. This tender win would see the Wright StreetLite return to the route in mass this time round, with 4 brand new door front variants and 6 existing buses pulled from a PVR cut from route 236 and a part hydrogen conversion of route 444 at Lea Interchange (LI) garage to form this new allocation.
Tower Transit so far have done quite well on the route, with a schedule that is padded out as to not cause severe reliability problems on a low frequency route. What remains to be seen is the future of the 228, and how it will play an important role in the upcoming Old Oak Common redevelopment scheme.
 |
| Tower Transit WV46222 (SM68 ESG) at White City Bus Station during 1st week of operation. |
The fleetlist can be seen below:
SK17 HGU - WV46215
SK17 HGX - WV46216
SK17 HGY - WV46217
SK17 HGZ - WV46218
SK17 HHA - WV46219
SK17 HHB - WV46220
SM68 ESF - WV46221
SM68 ESG - WV46222
SM68 ESN - WV46223
SM68 ESO - WV46224
Thank you for reading this post and please do stay safe! Since the last post, we've also turned six years old - thanks to all those that have supported us through the years. We're committing to bringing more quality posts for time to come.
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