It's no surprise that TfL are trying to reduce bus flow through Central London - in fact this concept is now starting to move to Town Centres in the suburbs, with Croydon being the first in the firing line. The latest stage in all of these cuts involve the withdrawal of a route many of you will know - route C2.
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9529 and 9534 seen near Oxford Circus
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9527 seen at Great Portland Street Station
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Route C2 is known quite well throughout London, being the only route with a letter prefix to travel through Central London. Initially it started service in 1987 running between Regent Street, Conduit Street and Parliament Hill Fields via Camden and Kentish Town to replace the withdrawn section of route 53 between Oxford Circus and Parliament Hill Fields. The route remained in the Regent Street to Parliament Hill Fields form until 2009, although during this time the route fluctuated between garages to the North and South of the route, eventually landing at Holloway in 1994. In 2009 the route was extended to Victoria via Berkley Square in order to replace a part of a lost section resulting in the withdrawal of route 8 between Victoria and Oxford Circus - However the 8 was unique in serving New Bond Street which the C2 didn't.
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2413 seen on stand at Conduit Street
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This extension brought it close enough to Abellio for them to win the route upon retender - something which came as quite a shock to many people. In April 2017 however the whole Victoria extension was reversed with the route reverting back to running between Parliament Hill Fields and Regent Street. This provided quite the odd situation where Abellio who was a south London operator ended up running a route from Oxford Circus to North London. This led to many people believing that its tender would result in Abellio struggling to retain it, however its tender would never come around as it was planned to withdraw the C2 upon contract renewal and therefore the decision was taken not to tender the route. The buses that were allocated to the route were used for a bid on route 207 instead which is making a move to Abellio the week after the C2 was withdrawn.
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LT457 seen on stand at Camden Gardens
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The C2 was born to replace a route which was withdrawn between Oxford Circus and Parliament Hill Fields so therefore the replacement for the route which TfL are pursuing seems somewhat ironic as it's an extension of another route. Route 88 which ran between Camden Town and Clapham Common was to be extended along the C2 route. This included a rerouting between Great Portland Street and Camden to follow the C2's old route as opposed to the 88 running via Warren Street and Mornington Crescent. However route 88 was operated by New Routemaster vehicles, a type which cannot navigate around the Parliament Hill Fields terminus. Therefore the decision was taken to convert route 87 to New Routemaster operation with the 87s Enviro400H buses and Enviro400H MMC buses going to route 88 instead, with some extra MMCs coming from route 176 as top ups for the increased PVR. Route 176 would also gain a partial allocation of New Routemasters.
The last few weeks of route C2 under Abellio saw the allocation switched to Hybrid buses in the form of 2401-2413 which were spare around the company. This was to allow the allocated Enviro400 buses to head off for a refurbishment ready for the uptake of route 207 the following week.
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2418 seen turning onto Conduit Street on the last day of C2 operation
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Abellio wrapped up their phase with 2413 forming the last C2, even though it wasn't meant to as Abellio didn't run the last bus for whatever reason. Go Ahead followed shortly however with the first 88 to run into Parliament Hill Fields which was performed by EH37.
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EH35 seen on Albany Street, a new part of the 88
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Since then the 88 has settled well into its extension, operation seems to be relatively what you'd expect from a route running from South London to North London via the traffic hotspots of Central London, so not exactly good but a perfectly usable standard. Many locals have also been quick to switch to their new service, although they probably wouldn't have had much choice. As I mentioned earlier the 88 is now too tight to use New Routemasters, so it's returned to using its old allocation of Enviro400 bodied E40H buses. These buses seem to never manage to stay allocated to one route. They were initially ordered for route 87 in 2013, then switched to route 88 as that route was deemed to be more worthy of them only for them to end up back on the 87 when the 88 converted to New Routemaster operation, and now they're back on the 88 with the 87 taking the New Routemasters.
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EH308 seen displaying its new destination
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Enviro400 MMC buses also now make up the official allocation as there aren't enough old style E40Hs from the 87 to make up the full PVR of the extended 88. As I mentioned earlier these have been borrowed from the 176, which got a partial allocation of New Routemasters instead to replace its lost MMCs. The MMCs from the 176 can end up on the 77 as well, and in turn the 77s MMCs can also end up on the 88. You're not going to notice much of a difference between the two buses as a passenger, although mechanically the 77s buses use Ultra-capacitors as opposed to batteries to capture the regenerated electricity from the braking mechanism. These are hoped to last a lot longer than standard batteries.
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LT41 seen on a Congested Strand
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The LTs have since found homes on the 87 and 176, they should theoretically be a full allocation on the 87 although since the route has converted to using those vehicles it tends to be topped up with conventional Hybrids which are found across the garage. The 87 can often be found using either the 88s old batch or some of the older batch which are found at Stockwell garage and are allocated to the 11. The 176 only uses about 4 or 5 LTs at a time with its allocation still being predominantly made up out of conventional Hybrid vehicles. Like the 87 can use buses from the 11, the 176 can also be found using buses from fellow Camberwell route 12's allocation.
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LT435 seen along a congested Charing Cross Road
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Go Ahead seem to be coping well with the changes, although for how long this extended 88 could last in an ever changing traffic timetable, nobody knows. As for Abellio, they'll soon be back in North London when they take over operation of route 24 from Metroline, and to a lesser extent when they take over the 27 from RATP.
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