London Bus News Roundup - Week Starting 24/05/21

Abellio London

Saturday the 29th of May marked the final day of Abellio operation on routes E1 & E9, the final bus on the E1 being 2450 and the final bus on the E9 being 9428. The E1s Enviro 400 Hybrids should be transferring over to Battersea (QB) over the next week for the 414, where they'll displace its existing diesel E400s off lease, and will eventually move to the 156/344 when the 414 is lost to Tower Transit in November.

Transfers of the week:

2444 WL(u) > QB (Returning from fire damage repairs)

2455 WS > QB


Arriva London

Transfers of the week:

ENX28 DT > DX


Metroline

Further Hydrogens into service this week are WHD2712, 2715, 2718 & 2724, also of note is that ex Tower Transit Van Hool Hydrogens BH63101 & 63102 are now with Metroline and will be based at Perivale East (PV) for the V226 school workings. They are currently stored at Willesden Junction (WJ).

Former fleet members TE828 & 905 are now with Warrington's Own Buses.

On the 29th May Metroline kickstarted their operation on route E9 again after a 5 year absence when it spent time at Abellio. VMH2566 was the first bus on the route. The new allocation, mainly transferred from Potters Bar (PB) consists of TE1443-1448 & VMH2541-2543.

Transfers of the week:

TE1443-1448 PB > G

VMH2542 PB > G

VMH2543 PB > G

VW1195 EW > PB

VW1198 HD > PB

VW1199 ON > PB

VW1200 AH/SG > PB


RATP Group

A further ex Tower Transit DN here is DN33638, now numbered ADE40478 and also based at Tolworth (TV)

Saturday 29th May saw the first day of operation by London United of route E1, this was kickstarted by ADH45031, although the first day of operation was not very smooth and had a very troubled first day.

The 29th May also was the formal end of the BL3 (Lunchtime shuttle from Bedfont Lakes to Staines) and the H1 (Epsom Hospitals service)

Transfers of the week:

ADE40305-40307 TV > HH

ADE40460 HH > BT

ADH45033 V > AV

ADH45289 BT > SO

VH45124-45126 FW > TV

VH45136-45138 V > FW


Tower Transit

OE34032 entered service this week, leaving just 34016 & 34033-34037 left to enter service now over at Westbourne Park (X)


Rare working of the week:

VMH2448 - Route 186

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Streetdeck vs The Gemini 3 - Which is better?

Image
The Streetdeck vs The Gemini 3 - Which is better? Background on the Gemini 3 : Back in late 2013 the Gemini 3 was born, initially on a Volvo B5TL chassis, there was only 4 ever in London, all of which were demonstrators and were the following: V6 BF63HFE (Demonstrator for Go Ahead) VGD1 BF63HDE (Demonstrator for Arriva) VW1469 BF63HDG (Demonstrator for Metroline) V6 (2) BJ14KTL (Second Demonstrator for Go Ahead) Of these VGD1 & VW1469 remained in London after they finished their spells with Arriva and Metroline and headed off to Go Ahead by summer 2015 where they were renumbered WVL509 & 510. The B5TLs were quickly followed with the B5LH hybrid equivalent, which saw no more B5TLs ordered as London was heading towards a more hybrid based fleet at the time. The first set of B5LHs to arrive was Stagecoach's 13001-13032 for Plumstead (PD) depot for their flagship route 53, this was quickly followed by Metrolines VWH2001-2023 for Perivale [East] garage, where they were destined ...
Read more

Route 240

Image
  Route 240  Introduction to the 240 The 240 is a very quaint little route running through the quieter suburbs of North West London, it also happens to be Londons oldest, least changed route, having not had a single routing change since introduction in 1934. Routing The 240 takes the following routing: Edgware Station Hale Lane Mill Hill Broadway Station The Ridgeway (Also referred to as Mill Hill Village) Mill Hill East Station Holders Hill Hendon Brent Street Golders Green Station Brief History Whilst the routing for this route has always remained the same, it was initially split into 2 sections due to a low bridge at Mill Hill Broadway. The split saw the Mill Hill Broadway to Golders Green section of the route use double deck AEC Regent III RTs, whereas the Edgware to Mill Hill Broadway part used single deck Leyland Tiger TDs. The latter section was initially numbered the 240a and was extended via Page Street & Copthall Sports...
Read more

The Optare Fiasco

Image
Intro On Friday the 22nd May a fire broke out at Metroline Potters Bar [PB] depot, with the bus going up in flames being an Optare Metrodecker, this has since led to the grounding of every fleet of these vehicles in the UK since, however this is not the first time the Metrodecker has faced an issue... Route 134 Back in 2019, the 43 & 134 were the first 2 double deck routes to go electric upon tender, both were to get different batches of vehicles. The 43 received 37 Enviro 400 City EV vehicles (BDEs) at Holloway [HT] garage and the 134 received 31 Optare Metrodecker EV vehicles (OMEs) at Potters Bar [PB], as seen below: OME2663 & OME2667 by VP500 However, from the very start the 134 was plagued by issues. The batch of buses began arriving very late, however the 134 had already gained a temporary allocation of hybrids due to the ULEZ coming into force in April 2019, which affected the 134 at the time due to it terminating at Tottenham Court Road, which was within the zone. The t...
Read more