An Attack on the Tower

It's amazing to think that five years ago that we had a huge array of changes on the last day of April. We had the 345 going to Abellio, the 368 going to Arriva, the 35 and 40 going to Go Ahead while there were many new retains throughout London. It's often forgotten that during that time of huge change, among the changes were renewals to routes 28 and 328 by Tower Transit while they also started a new contract on the 69, which got advanced to February due to other circumstances and it ended up missing out on all the attention at the end of April it probably would have got. 

Two brand new electrics at Canning Town
© EastLondoner

5 years is either a short time, or a long time depending on how you view it. Things can change very quickly, but then it can also only feel like a day has passed. But I think Tower Transit would have wished otherwise. While they saw great success in 2016, retaining the 28 and 328 and winning the 69, 5 years later in 2021 it was a disastrous sequence of events for them. The summer of 2020 was certainly not a good time for them, losing two major contracts of routes 25 and 425, but a few weeks following the 425 loss they got further blows. A tender announced in July saw routes 28 and 69 both lost in a single round, with the 28 making a surprising move to RATP while the 69 was lost to Go Ahead from a new expanded base in Silvertown. Most notably, route 328 was missing from this announcement, prompting speculation about major alterations to the route, alongside a possible loss following on from the 28 and 69 awards. 4 long months later, the worst was confirmed for them, with an award in November seeing the 328 awarded to Metroline out of Cricklewood. 

This blow was not softened by the fact that the 28, 69 and 328 were all going to leave on the same day, the 1st of May 2021. While it was clear soon after the 328 award that the route would be heading to Cricklewood (W), there was some doubt over the 28 and 69 awards. RATP did have a garage not too far from the 28, in the form of Park Royal (RP), but the award was actually to RATP: London Sovereign, suggesting Edgware (BT) were the garage taking it on. Although a couple of months passed, and it was made public that the Original Tour depot (operated by RATP) in Wandsworth would be re-opening to TfL services following a reduction in tour buses following the pandemic. This garage however is no stranger to TfL services, operating the 337 many years ago for Arriva, when they owned the Original Tour garage under the code of WD. Although times have changed now, RATP are at the helm and with it comes a new code, JE for Jews Row. This wasn't the only new garage here though. Go Ahead had been on the lookout for new land in East London, following the news that half of River Road garage was being taken over by the council for redevelopment into a multi-purpose business centre. A new site was scouted out not far from the current Silvertown (SI) garage and would be home to the 69, there was some doubt initially over the garage opening on time, but that problem seems to have been overcome. 

VN37953 seen at Wandsworth
© EastLondoner

Starting off with route 28, a route which has a huge amount of history with Westbourne Park (X) was no doubt a major shock to many enthusiasts. The route's history goes back beyond 1934, with Westbourne Park (X) playing a role in the route's operation since 1938 when it had a partial allocation out of the garage as a Wandsworth Bridge - Golders Green route. A couple of years later, the route was extended further into Wandsworth Town Centre, forming a Wandsworth to Golders Green route which would last an extremely long time until 1999, when route 328 took over the section to Golders Green and the 28 was cut back to Harrow Road. Although in 2006 the route was extended from Harrow Road to Kensal Rise which formed the current route in operation today. In 2011, the route had to temporarily move out to a base in Park Royal (AS), although this was only temporary due to building works at Westbourne Park, the route returned there in 2017. The latest change of operator from Tower Transit to RATP marked the first time that the route would not have an allocation out of Westbourne Park (ignoring the phase AS had) since 1938. The last contract under Tower Transit saw the route allocated with Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied B9TLs, supplemented by a few Wright Gemini 2 bodied DB300s. 

I went out a couple of days following the takeover to see how the 28 was doing under RATP. The new allocation was made up out of Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B5LH buses which were previously found on route 139 before that route was lost to Metroline in 2020. These buses were known to be in a notoriously poor state during their time on route 139, they had since undergone an extensive refurbishment. Although interestingly the refurbishment was carried out to different standards on each bus, some buses were fitted with completely new poles which can be easily identified with the new turquoise colour, while some buses continued with their orange poles which were resprayed. While initially confusing, it was later revealed that the refurbishment contract of the buses were split between two companies, Hants&Dorset and Thornton Brothers who each carried out refurbishments to a different standard. Both sets of refurbishments involved fitting of new moquettes to seats along with a deep interior clean. From my experience, the buses rode like new buses following their refurb. Certainly a major improvement from their previous state, I wouldn't even be surprised if people would mistake it for a completely new bus.

VH45119 is seen at Kensal Rise
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VH45192 at Kensal Rise
©EastLondoner

The new allocation, as mentioned earlier comes out of Wandsworth (JE), which operates as an outstation for Stamford Brook (V), which as a result means any heavy maintenance is carried out there alongside any checks the buses will require. As a result buses may rotate between the two garages, and there's one allocated journey each day which goes back to Stamford Brook garage at the end of the day as opposed to Wandsworth to allow for routine maintenance. For this reason, some of Stamford Brook's own allocation will often appear on route 28. The day I did the route there were quite a few Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 buses out on the route. These buses are likely to appear on route 28 every couple of days should any of its own allocation require maintenance that results in it being out of action for a few days. Service on the route so far has been of a good standard, and all that's left is to hope that this good standard of service continues over the next 5, or maybe 7 years for this route!

VH38132 seen at Chelsea
© EastLondoner

As I mentioned, the lost section of the 28 to Golders Green was replaced by route 328 which was introduced in 1999, making this route a lot younger compared to its sister. It was introduced in 1999 as a Chelsea to Golders Green route and has remained as such ever since. The route was based at Westbourne Park (X) since inception, although it too did move out to the temporary site in Park Royal during the building works at Westbourne Park in 2011 before returning in 2017. Its most recent contract saw it allocated with Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 bodied Volvo B5LHs which were brought for a retained contract in 2016. These buses are similar to what it will eventually be allocated at Metroline, although currently they are on route 7 as that route waits for the introduction of Hydrogen buses. 

A loaned TT bus on the 328
© EastLondoner

However, due to a delay with the Hydrogen buses, Metroline found themselves in a sticky situation where the buses the intended to use on the route would not be ready. Due to spares not being available elsewhere in the fleet, the decision was taken to loan the buses from Tower Transit in order to start the service out of Cricklewood (W), with them gradually being replaced by the intended allocation of native Metroline Gemini 3s as the buses became available following the introduction of the Hydrogen buses. When this will happen at the moment is unclear, the pandemic has delayed the Hydrogen programme considerably and it could range from just a few weeks to many months until the buses are ready. Despite the loaned buses are the exact same allocation as Tower Transit, the move to Metroline did mean that native Metroline buses kept at Cricklewood (W) can appear on the route. Workings of native VWHs, TEHs and MMC TEHs have already happened on the route.

TEH2087 seen at Elgin Avenue
© EastLondoner

Arguably the most notable change of the trio was to that of route 69, which was the only route to get new buses. Unlike the 28 and 328, this route has managed to bounce around operators quite a bit. It still feels like yesterday when I wrote the post about route 69 making the move from Stagecoach to Tower Transit and it's already changed operator once again.

DN33653 seen at Walthamstow Central
© EastLondoner

Route 69 under Tower Transit was often a route that left a lot to be desired, bunching all over the place and unreliable service made the route very infamous among the local demographic. Therefore despite coming at a time when Tower Transit were suffering many route losses, it was probably a very welcome award. Fittingly, the move to Go Ahead was to bring brand new electric buses to the route, following on from the virtual electric buses that the route used to have a partial allocation of under Tower Transit. As expected, the preferred order was to be ADL BYD Enviro400 City EVs, a type that is becoming increasingly common in London. Currently as I type this the orderbook for that type alone exceeds 150 across all operators for London alone. Alongside the virtual electric buses, the majority allocation were standard Alexander Dennis Enviro400s. These buses have now been predominantly withdrawn from the TT fleet, although two are expected to remain at Lea Interchange (LI) for spares. 

DH38503 seen at Canning Town
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Ee50 seen at Canning Town
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The new garage operating route 69 was given the code DS, and is being referred to as Henley Road, presumably to avoid confusion with other garage a few units down. Prior to the announcement of River Road's downsizing, the intention was for Henley Road (DS) to actually be a fully electric operation, although that's no longer happening, planning documentation says the intention is for it to have a fully electric fleet in the future which makes it London's first purpose built garage for electric bus operation. This shows us increasingly where the future of London buses now lies, despite fully electric routes were once a pipe dream, they are now very much a reality and route 69 is just one addition to a growing number of routes. The buses themselves are not too different from the other electric BYD double deckers in London, although for some reason they have the middle seat at the rear of the lower deck blocked off. Other than that there's nothing special about the batch compared to other Go Ahead examples. 

Ee56 seen at Walthamstow Central
© EastLondoner

While these three routes all show promising future at their new operators, what does the future hold for Tower Transit? Every operator has its ups and downs, we only need to remind ourselves of the time when Stagecoach lost the 5, 15 and 115 all on the same day to Go Ahead just to bounce back a couple of years later taking on the 25 and 425 from Tower Transit. Arguably Tower Transit are having a far rougher patch, due to their small size. Routes 212, 444, 25, 425, 28, 328 and 69 have all been lost since the start of 2020, with only the C3 coming in as a result. Although route 414 will be making a move to Westbourne Park (X), it doesn't make up for the losses faced by the company. Routes 308 and 488 have been welcome retains for the company since the start of this year, however routes W15 and 13 are both due tender results over the next few weeks. Can they keep a hold of them and maybe win some additional work? Time will only tell.