Fun or Safety?

August has been a big month for Go Ahead London, so it only makes sense that it ends with another takeover of a route by them. Route 197 which operates between Croydon and Peckham has been the latest takeover by the company. 

The tender for the 197 certainly caused a lot of stir, as the route goes through Croydon competition was no doubt going to be high, especially as the area has three different bus garages belonging to three different bus companies, Go Ahead Croydon (C), Abellio London Beddington Cross (BC) and Arriva London South Croydon (TC) where the route was based at the time. In addition to this Stagecoach London had set up a new garage in lower Sydenham (KB) not to mention Go Ahead also had Camberwell (Q) and Peckham (PM) garages near the route leading to the competition certainly being very high.

When the tender was announced in January 2019, the first tender of the year it turned out that Go Ahead proved the victorious company opting to run the route out of its Metrobus division which meant that the route would run out of Croydon garage (C) with brand new EuroVI Hybrid buses, soon afterwards it was announced that the bus type that Go Ahead had opted for was the E40H MMC, although this came as no huge surprise as the company had been ordering nothing else for their double decker orders since the 44 in May 2019 and the Metrobus division had just taken delivery of a similar batch for route 208 a month ago.

T284 seen at Peckham
© EastLondoner

Route 197 itself is a very old route, starting a long time before I can find a record on it. The earliest records of the route which date back to 1934 show it operating between Norwood Junction Station and Katherine Street in Croydon, later in 1939 it was extended to Whytleafe and Caterham Valley and this remained the case all the way until 1987 when the route was cut back to Katherine Street except for evenings, however in 1991 this was standardised to be the case with all journeys at all times. The next major change came in 2005 when the route was extended through Sydenham and Dulwich to Peckham replacing the withdrawn section of route 312 which formed the route that is in operation today. 

DW515 seen at Peckham
© EastLondoner

The award to Go Ahead marked a huge change for the route, it has had an element based at South Croydon garage since 1936 -  a whopping 83 years. The 197 at the same time also took the crown of being the last route in London operating Wright Pulsar Gemini bodied DB250 buses as an official allocation, a type that once was numerous in the Arriva fleet within London and South London especially. Although during the last few weeks of Arriva these buses were not frequently put on the route, with them opting to use Gemini 2 buses and Enviro400 buses on the route instead. These buses are usually used on other routes based at South Croydon garage and should therefore remain based there. I did however have a photo of the 197 using the type from 2014 and it would be pretty inappropriate not to include it in the post even if it's not of the best quality.

DW115 seen in Sydenham on a short working to Peckham Rye
© EastLondoner

Go Ahead took over as planned on the 31st of August using the Enviro400 MMCs. There were a few reported issues on the first day, with one bus reportedly having to be subbed off due to a fault with the ISA system. I didn't have time to cover the change over the weekend so I headed out on Monday to see how the route was doing. 

EH333 seen at Peckham, the blinds are scrolling
© EastLondoner

Upon arrival at Peckham Bus Station I saw a 197 leaving, that was not a huge issue though as I had a lot of time to spare. EH333 soon arrived and headed to park in one of the bays, however something that sounds so simple didn't quite go smoothly. The bus managed to line up with the bay, however when the driver tried to reverse into it the bus didn't reverse at all. This led to the bus blocking the exit to the bus station, a neighbouring 177 couldn't depart although that driver didn't seem to fussed as he seemed to be enjoying the scenario unfolding in front of him. A 345 and 37 also needed to leave and these drivers weren't as patient as the 177 one, who was now also blocking the bus station as a result of the stuck EH. Eventually the 177 driver left using the designated entrance and the 345 and 37 followed suit. The 197 driver admitted defeat and headed towards the bus stop, although he couldn't remain there for long as other buses struggled to get past. At this point he let us all board and we headed off a lot earlier than planned. 

WHV56 seen at Wood Vale
© EastLondoner

This funnily enough didn't actually lead to a lot of regulation along the route. I mentioned the term ISA earlier, this stands for Intelligent Speed Assist. This is some software in the bus which limits the bus' speed to the speed limit of the road it's on. In the 197s case this means a lot of the time the bus won't be exceeding 20mph. This does lead to a very slow journey. As I had already done the 197 a lot of times before I got off at Forest Hill and was going to take the Overground down to save myself some time. During this time I also came across WHV56 heading the other way, these buses are also blinded for the route so will be prone to appearing on the route. How frequently this will happen I do not know - we'll have to wait and see!

EH340 on stand at Fairfield Halls
© EastLondoner

I didn't quite save myself much time on the train as the service to West Croydon only runs every 15 minutes during the day. Upon arrival at Croydon I had myself some lunch and headed to the Fairfield Halls stand to take some more pictures of the route. As I arrived WHV56 had made its way back and was on stand, however it was subbed for EH340 for some reason, I'm not too sure why. I wasn't going to ride the 197 back to Peckham - I didn't have the patience to cruise all the way back on a 20mph speed limit on a route I already know relatively well so I just headed elsewhere and then made my way back home. As you've probably been able to tell from the photos these buses, like those on route 209 do not come with mirrors but digital cameras instead. All future buses will now come with technology, like the implementation of ISA this is also a very controversial move.

The new Smart vision camera on EH332
© EastLondoner

Has this been an upgrade for the 197? Arguably. The buses are brand new and come equipped with all the latest technology although the factor of fun you once had with Arriva has been completely drained with this change. Although we must all appreciate that safety comes on top of fun and I'd always rather a safer bus than a fun one.

I'd like to credit www.LondonBuses.co.uk for being a reliable source of information during the writing of this post.