A Transit-ion in Plaistow

West Ham (WH) hasn't been doing too well as of late. A recent string of losses continues with the move of route 262 and 473 to Tower Transit at Lea Interchange (LI).

Those of you who know me will know very well I don't share much enthusiasm for Tower Transit, so I was not pleased with this result when it was released. Especially as the 262 is one of my local routes, however there is no use crying over spilt milk and I had to accept the result. The route runs between East Beckton, Sainsbury's and Stratford with route 473 running between North Woolwich and Stratford. Both the routes share a large parallel section between the Custom House exit of the A13 and Stratford Bus Station.

Both routes 262 and 473 were awarded to Tower Transit with vehicles that were to be confirmed at a later date. A couple of months later it was announced that the routes would actually get the VN class buses which operated on route 25, with route 25 getting brand new StreetDeck Hybrids which were ordered against the contracts for the 262 and 473. In order to not flood this post with too much information I'll be covering the StreetDeck Hybrids in a separate post, and this post will focus on the change that the 262 and 473 have undergone. 

15095 seen at Stratford Bus Station
© EastLondoner

Like I usually do in these posts I'll briefly go over the history of the routes before moving onto details about how the change underwent. Starting with the 262, it initially started in 1966 as a replacement for a withdrawn section of route 26 between Leyton and Stratford, and running further to the Albert Docks via Beckton and Connought Bridge, 1968 saw a weekday and Saturday extension to Chingford, however this extension to Chingford was cut back to Walthamstow Central in 1973, a reroute in 1986 saw the route terminate at the Beckton District Centre, close to where Asda is today. In 1988 the route was extended to Canning Town, Hermit Road during shopping hours however this move was reversed in 1991. 1988 also saw the 262 cut to Stratford, with the bit to Walthamstow being replaced by route 257. In 1993 the route was extended from the District Centre to Savacentre, to those younger readers Savacentre used to be the name of certain Sainsbury's stores. Today it's now just plainly Sainsbury's. In 1997 after the AM peak buses would run to Showcase Cinema, however in 2008 due to roadworks the route was "temporarily" cut back to East Beckton, Sainsburys. This has since become permanent and formed the 262 which is still in operation today. 

18270 seen at Beckton Station
© EastLondoner

The route's latest allocation saw it running with Scania Omnicity buses, which were previously allocated to route 96 at Plumstead. These Omnicities were supplemented by three Enviro400s (19743-19745) although these buses seemed to prefer being on the 238 more than the 262, with the 262 using Tridents or other Omnicities that were available in the garage. Those Enviro400s were initially meant to be brand new Hybrids, however for type training and fleet commonality purposes it was decided to send those buses to Plumstead. However Enviro400s still did appear on the route from time to time, and in the final few weeks of the 262 with Stagecoach Enviro400s were slightly more common along with the MMC variant which had joined the garage in 2017. More than likely down to the diminishing Trident population at West Ham (WH). 

10106 seen at Gallions Reach, Shopping Park
© EastLondoner

15078 seen at Stratford Bus Station
© EastLondoner

Route 473 has a much shorter history than the 262, it was created in 1993 as a replacement for a part of the 173 and 276 and ran between Stratford and North Woolwich Ferry via Plaistow, Prince Regent and London City Airport. Those of you familiar to the route will probably have realised this is still the exact same route that is followed by the route today. Like the 262 its final stint with Stagecoach saw it allocated with Scania Omnicity buses which were made free from route 96 down in South London. Like the 262 it frequently saw workings of other bus types as well that were found at West Ham. Types including the Trident ALX400, Enviro400 and Enviro400 MMC. 

18212 seen at Stratford on the final day of WH operation
© EastLondoner

VN36152 seen at East Beckton on the first day
© EastLondoner

The first day of Tower Transit was overshadowed by the RT running day that took place locally in Barking however Tower Transit took over the 262 and 473 as expected. Both routes were fully operated by VN class buses. Due to the running day I didn't have time to catch up with both of the routes on their first day with Tower Transit however me and a few other enthusiasts did find some spare time to pop over to East Beckton to see how the 262 was doing, unsurprisingly the route was filled with curtailments and large gaps in service which was no doubt worsened by the fact West Ham were playing at home and those of you local to the Stratford area will know that it results in a lot of displaced traffic which sends Stratford into meltdown. Route 473 wasn't performing much better either, at one point more of its service was curtailed than actually managing to complete the full route. 

VN36143 at Stratford
© EastLondoner

Sunday was relatively uneventful, although service was still on the tipsy side. I went out on the Monday to see how the two routes were doing under their new operator. The service was still very much "in development" to put it nicely. There were no 262s at all in the vicinity of Stratford after one left just a few minutes after I had arrived. The 473 was doing slightly better, although long gaps were still evident on the route, with one bus getting swamped with passengers due to the huge gap ahead of it heading towards Plaistow - something you very rarely see on the route outside of the peak. However apart from the obvious issue with the service all the buses on both the 262 and 473 were presented immaculately, which is probably Tower Transit's strongest strength as an operator. We already know service levels aren't!

VN36119 seen at Gallions Reach
© EastLondoner

At this point in the post I'd usually say that I hope the new operator improves their service and exceeds, or at least matches that of the previous operator. But I have to honestly say that I don't hold much hope with this operator. It's no secret that many of the routes that they have taken over as of late haven't been performing to a good standard. The 13 is probably the best example, however routes like the D8 and 452 have both seen service levels dip as opposed to their previous operator Go Ahead and Abellio respectively. The 425 has also been putting on a poor display for passengers ever since it was extended to Ilford back in September 2018. 

VN36160 seen at Stratford Bus Station
© EastLondoner

As a local to the 262 especially, all you could want as a passenger is a good service. That's the basic, you need a service to get from A to B. Anything above that is a luxury, not a necessity. Tower Transit have wonderful buses, you cannot fault them there however the necessity is the service which hasn't been their strong point. However in fairness they do deserve a chance to prove themselves, maybe the 262 and 473 could be the two routes which show a change however unfortunately I'm going to believe that they are guilty until they prove innocent.