One year we will all certainly remember throughout our lives will be the year of 2020, when everyone was trapped inside, unable to ride buses as frequently as we did and unable to go about our normal lives. However while we were stuck at home, advised against public transport use many operator changes did take place. I managed to get the 25 covered as I live local to it so could get to it without using public transport, however relaxation of restrictions meant that I could finally catch up with a few changes in North London.
 |
| © LondonBuses72 |
Routes 67, 106 and 230 have made a move from Arriva London to Go Ahead at Northumberland Park (NP) while route 191 has made a move from Go Ahead to Arriva at Enfield (E). Route 191 is using Wright Pulsar Gemini 2 buses made free from Arriva's losses while Go Ahead have added to their growing fleet of electric buses at Northumberland Park. The changes all initially had different contract start dates, with the 67 and 106 due to move to Go Ahead on the 25th of April, route 191 due to move on the 1st of May and the 230 due to move on the 20th of June. However due to the pandemic the changes on the 25th of April and the 1st of May were both postponed to take place on the 6th of June instead.
 |
LT236 seen at Dalston Junction
© EastLondoner |
Route 67 was no doubt going to be the quietest change out of all the routes that changed in this round. Under Arriva it had received an updated allocation of New Routemaster running out of Stamford Hill (SF) buses around a year before the contract change. This meant that the route would continue with a similar fleet of buses under Go Ahead, although the buses would move garage and would now bear the logos of Go Ahead as opposed to Arriva. Route 67 was introduced in 1961 running between Northumberland Park and the London Docks (just near Aldgate). In 1966 the route was extended from the London Docks to Wapping and in 1971 the route was withdrawn between Northumberland Park and Stamford Hill which remained the case until 1979 when the route was cut back from Wapping to Aldgate Station and extended from Stamford hill to Wood Green. The route then remained like this until 2019 when the route was cut back from Aldgate to Dalston Junction as part of the Central London bus changes.
 |
LT172 seen on stand at Wood Green
© EastLondoner |
The changes the 67 had weren't too noticeable on the date of contract change. It was just like most other changes that were underwent bu routes operated by New Routemaster buses. A few logos were changed on buses and that's pretty much all that was changed to the public eye. The most unique feature about this change was the fact that the new Go Ahead logos applied to the buses were yellow, like the ones initially found on the LTs for route 11 as opposed to being fully white which became the standard for New Routemaster buses afterwards. Other than that there's not much to say about the route change apart from the fact I hope Go Ahead have a successful five, or maybe seven years on the route.
 |
DW520 seen on stand at Whitechapel
© EastLondoner |
The only change on the 6th of June that called for new buses was route 106 which ran between Finsbury Park and Whitechapel. This route has an extremely long history, dating back records beyond 1934. In 1934 it was a route that ran between Finsbury Park and Chittys Lane in Becontree running via Clapton, Roman Road, Mile End, Burdett Road, Canning Town, Barking By-Pass, Movers Lane, Barking Town Centre and Longbridge Road. The route remained in that state until 1971 when it was withdrawn between Becontree and Poplar and then in 1989 cut back to Mile End apart from a few journeys which would continue to the Isle of Dogs. In 1993 the route was rerouted from Mile End to Whitechapel where the Royal London Hospital was and has remained like that since.
 |
Ee6 seen at Finsbury Park
© EastLondoner |
The previous allocation of the route under Arriva saw it with the early 2010s standard of Wright Pulsar Gemini 2s on the VDL DB300 chassis with the route running out of Ash Grove (AE). These buses have now moved to route 191.The new allocation under Go Ahead was to be brand new electric buses in the form of Enviro400 City Electric buses on Alexander Dennis' E40H City body on BYD's electric chassis. This type was previously already seen on route 212 which operates out of the same garage and also come with similar technology installed including the Intelligent speed assist system which limits a bus to the speed limit of the road it is travelling on along with new cameras instead of wing mirrors which are designed to improve the visibility for the driver and reduce blind spots.
While route 67 and 106 went from Arriva to Go Ahead on the 6th of June, route 191 which runs between Edmonton Green and Brimsdown went the other way from Go Ahead to Arriva operation.
 |
EN15 seen on the 191
© LondonBuses72 |
Route 191 started off very different to what it is today. The route was introduced in 1954 running between Chingford Hatch and Lower Edmonton, 1966 saw the route extended from Edmonton to Enfield Town running via Ponders End and Nightingale Road. In 1981 the route was withdrawn between Chingford Hatch and Chingford Station, with that part being taken over by route 212 and in 1982 the route was withdrawn between Chingford and Lower Edmonton. 1985 saw the route being extended to Brimsdown from Enfield. The most recent change to the route happened in 1998 when the terminus in Lower Edmonton was shifted to the bus station at Edmonton Green.
 |
WVL359 seen on stand at Edmonton Green
© EastLondoner |
Its last contract saw the route running out of Ex First Garage Northumberland Park, when Northumberland Park garage was sold by First to Go Ahead in 2012 route 191 was one of the routes included in the sale, as a result its allocation was predominantly made up out of Ex First vehicles, although refurbished into the Go Ahead variation of the livery upon the contract renewal of the route in 2015. However alongside the Ex First vehicles standard Go Ahead vehicles would also regularly stray onto the route so I've included pictures of both types in this post. Route 191 also was the last full time route Go Ahead operated in Edmonton, previously having a huge presence in the area. Route 616 is now their last route in the area which itself will be moving to HCT Group in the future.
 |
DW567 seen at Edmonton Green
© EastLondoner |
The new allocation under Arriva is made up out of Wright Pulsar Gemini 2 bodied VDL DB300 buses, which were previously found on route 106, these have also been topped up with examples from elsewhere in the fleet Arriva operate the route out of Enfield garage in Ponders End which the route passes and who also operated the route in the early 1990s up until around 1996. Route 191 has a challenging nature to it, crossing the major A10 road a couple of times in its convoluted route which in the past which certainly made Go Ahead's operation on it rocky, and it will no doubt take Arriva some time to get used to the route and the challenges that it presents. I wish Arriva all the best of luck with it as it's something that they are certainly going to need over the next five or maybe seven years operating the route.
 |
DW573 seen turning into Edmonton Green Bus Station
© EastLondoner |
 |
DW545 seen at Tottenham Hale
© EastLondoner |
The final operator change in this round wasn't due to take place the same day as the others, instead happening two weeks later on the 20th of June. Route 230 which runs between Upper Walthamstow and Wood Green made the move from Arriva London to Go Ahead. Route 230 was introduced in 1973 running quite a different route to what it does today between Manor House and Stratford via Leyton, Tottenham Hale and Seven Sisters. In 1981 the Stratford terminus was adjusted to become Whipps Cross alongside an extension to Finsbury Park and in 1982 the route was extended to Leytonstone. In 1987 the route was diverted to terminate at Wood Green, this remained the case until 1996 where the route was diverted to terminate at Upper Walthamstow instead of Leytonstone forming the same route in operation today.
 |
Ee38 seen at Wood Green
© EastLondoner |
The most recent tenure of the route at Arriva saw it allocated with Wright Pulsar Gemini 2 bodied VDL DB300 buses, much like the 106. The route was operated out of Tottenham garage (AR) which it passed. There's not much else to say about this change, effectively being a repeat of the 106 and 212 changes which had taken place prior with pretty much identical buses now on the route, as a result this bus mixes and matches the bus type with routes 212 and 106, alongside recent convert route 357 as well. Like most other routes in this round of operator changes, route 230 poses a challenge to operate being susceptible to traffic along Hoe Street and Ferry Lane approaching Tottenham Hale however so far Go Ahead have proven themselves well on the route and offering a reliable service.
 |
The rear of a BYD Enviro400 City
© LondonBuses72 |
Overall these changes have been good news for Go Ahead, one loss in the form of route 191 was cancelled out by the gain of three routes. It's also nice to see the rapid shift towards electric buses on newly gained routes as well as the ever growing fleet at Northumberland Park (NP). Sadly Arriva fared much worse with this round of changes, losing three routes and only gaining one in return. The company has in the past few days just announced the closure of Stamford Hill garage to reduce overall operating costs in order to remain competitive in an ever more increasingly competitive market.
As for the electric fleet in London, this is now only going to grow. There's a few more Hybrid buses to trickle into service on various routes however more electrics are soon expected later this year for routes 173 and 174 at Stagecoach and route C3 at Tower Transit so there's plenty more to look forward to over the forthcoming months.
0 comments: