It's Back!
The London Bus game has always been a risky business. The words swings and roundabouts are always thrown around. Today we focus on one of London's most famous routes. Route 25 which runs between Holborn Circus and Ilford has made a Transit-tion (excuse the old joke) back to operation under Stagecoach London.
If you don't know about route 25, then you disappoint me - however do not fret as this post will cover it all.
Route 25 up until last year was the busiest route in London. It runs between City Thameslink Station and Ilford via St Paul's, Bank, Aldgate, Whitechapel, Mile End, Stratford, Forest Gate and Manor Park with a night variant running further from City Thameslink to Oxford Circus. This route no doubt makes it a vital artery of East London. To truly appreciate the story of the 25 we need to go through some history of the route.
Route 25 has its records lasting before 1934, no surprise considering it's a very old route and records of route history before then are far and few between. The route has generally run between East London and Central London, during this time it frequently fluctuated and at one point only being a Stratford to Goodmayes route. The route's history is so long that I'll probably bore you all if I go through it, however if you do want to see some information I'll point you in the direction of this wonderful page by Ian Armstrong.
Following privatisation in the 1990s, route 25 (now an Oxford Circus to Ilford route) was being operated out of Bow (BW) which fell onto the operation of Stagecoach London. However its tender in 1999 saw First winning the route out of Dagenham (DM), although later years saw it transferred temporarily to a base in Rainham (R). The reason for this is unclear as it was said to be a provisional move to prepare for bendy bus operation on the route. However all this ended up going down the drain anyway, as despite it did convert to articulated operation it moved back to Stagecoach out of a new garage in Waterden Road (WA). The type chosen was Mercedes Benz Citaro Gs, as was the standard order for London. Following London winning the 2012 Olympics, Waterden Road (WA) garage had to close as it was on the site of the Olympic Park and the route was transferred, coincidentally to a new base in Rainham (RM). This was actually exactly the same site First operated the route from ironically. Once West Ham (WH) was built the route was transferred there in 2008.
This arrangement continued until the route was tendered in 2010, with a new contract in 2011. Funnily enough the route transferred back to First operation, this time out of Lea Interchange (LI). Brand new Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TL buses were ordered for the route. 2013 saw the sale of First London and route 25 passed to Tower Transit. Re-tender in 2016 for a change saw the route being retained with the same operator, it was widely expected the route would have its fleet changed to a full Hybrid allocation due to the impending ULEZ in 2020. However, TfL instead put the route on a short term contract with the intention to re-tender it just before the ULEZ kicked in so it could have its fleet renewed then. In December 2018 route 25 was cut back from Oxford Circus to Holborn Circus.
Since then the date for the ULEZ was brought forward to October 2019, which posed a problem as the 25 now needed a mid contract upgrade. The Tower Transit win of the 262 and 473 came as a saving grace as new Hybrids were ordered against the contract to those routes and aptly swapped with the 25s own allocation to give that route a fully Hybrid fleet in the form of Wright StreetDeck HEV96 buses - being topped up with some buses from the 328s frequency reduction in West London (these buses went onto route 308 in return for some EvoSetis to go onto the 25). However as a short term contract had been awarded in 2016, there was no choice but to tender it again after the short term, although it got extended by a year. The existing allocation of Wright StreetDecks were planned to move to routes 262 and 473 upon the 25s new contract so a new fleet would be needed. Despite the 25 was retained on tender in 2016 that didn't hold true for 2020s tender, Stagecoach won it back again - along with route 425.
It was quickly confirmed route 25 would be returning to its traditional home of Bow (BW) and the new allocation under Stagecoach would consist of brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro400 MMC Smart Hybrids (11341-11375). This was the company's first win of a route in Central London since they won the 25 back in 2004 (Route 205 was however won by the ELBG in 2009). The buses were sighted in build in December, and the first buses were spotted being tested in Scotland in January. Everything seemed to be going well, however since then the Covid-19 pandemic had a massive impact on the whole UK economy, leading to Alexander Dennis to temporarily suspend production of buses, and some of the 25s buses which were on delivery were put into storage at one of Stagecoach's depots in Carlisle.
The new contract commenced on the 23rd of May, during a period of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Doubts had been cast over whether the change was going to take place as planned due to the disruption in deliveries and training however the change did go ahead as planned. Stagecoach took on the contract just after midnight on the 23rd of May, starting operation with route N25 which was 11359, in the morning they took on route 25 which was kicked off with 11369. This was not an easy change to cover, as I would have thought for a route which was pretty close to me. However joy-riding a bus route during times like this is not something to promote, therefore the best I could do is drive my car to see how the 25 was getting on during its first day back at Stagecoach.
I would imagine quite a few readers are already aware of how it feels like to ride an Enviro400 MMC so I don't think I'll be depriving you guys of content by not divulging too much into that because I couldn't ride the buses. However like all recent buses the batch for the 25 come with the latest trimmings. These include USB ports on the back of seats, rear view cameras instead of rear view mirrors and intelligent speed assist which limits the bus to the speed of the road that it is travelling on. Passengers in the East London area area already well accustomed to the Enviro400 MMC type as it's found on many routes already paralleled by the 25 - either as an allocation or as an unallocated working.
Routes have been known to suffer "first day syndrome" when they initially move to an operator, the chances of this being increased with the "difficulty" of a route to operate. However none of that was evident on the 25 on its first day, with operation already showing a decent standard. Maybe helped by the fact they used to operate the route and operate routes 8, 86 and 205 which share substantial parallel sections with the 25. The only notable issue spotted was a single turn at Bow Church, there might have been a few more that escaped me however. I'm also not quite sure how Stagecoach are dealing with running time and regulation, as you need to be able to ride a route to find that out. The route has been allocated the running numbers of BW1+ for the day service, funnily enough the exact same sequence it used when operating out of Bow prior to 1999.
Adjusting to the "new normal" is hard, and will no doubt affect the way us at the blog cover future changes. It won't be as easy to cover changes all around London for a couple of months but hopefully it won't be that long until we are once again free to do so. In a couple of weeks Stagecoach will also take on the operation on route 425, and soon electric buses will also enter service on route 323 so there are exciting times ahead for the company.
Until then, remember to stay away from using Public Transport non-essentially and to help save lives.
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| Two 25s stand at Ilford © EastLondoner |
Route 25 up until last year was the busiest route in London. It runs between City Thameslink Station and Ilford via St Paul's, Bank, Aldgate, Whitechapel, Mile End, Stratford, Forest Gate and Manor Park with a night variant running further from City Thameslink to Oxford Circus. This route no doubt makes it a vital artery of East London. To truly appreciate the story of the 25 we need to go through some history of the route.
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| DN33645 seen at Redbridge Central Library © EastLondoner |
Following privatisation in the 1990s, route 25 (now an Oxford Circus to Ilford route) was being operated out of Bow (BW) which fell onto the operation of Stagecoach London. However its tender in 1999 saw First winning the route out of Dagenham (DM), although later years saw it transferred temporarily to a base in Rainham (R). The reason for this is unclear as it was said to be a provisional move to prepare for bendy bus operation on the route. However all this ended up going down the drain anyway, as despite it did convert to articulated operation it moved back to Stagecoach out of a new garage in Waterden Road (WA). The type chosen was Mercedes Benz Citaro Gs, as was the standard order for London. Following London winning the 2012 Olympics, Waterden Road (WA) garage had to close as it was on the site of the Olympic Park and the route was transferred, coincidentally to a new base in Rainham (RM). This was actually exactly the same site First operated the route from ironically. Once West Ham (WH) was built the route was transferred there in 2008.
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| VN36162 seen on Regent Street © EastLondoner |
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| WH31114 seen at Woodgrange Park © EastLondoner |
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| MV38239 seen at Ilford Broadway © EastLondoner |
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| 11351 seen at Hainault Street © EastLondoner |
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| 11361 seen at Redbridge Central Library © EastLondoner |
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| 11369 seen at Redbridge Central Library © EastLondoner |
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| 11354 seen leaving the Ilford stand © EastLondoner |
Until then, remember to stay away from using Public Transport non-essentially and to help save lives.
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