Route 233 Observations

Today the 233 went back to Metrobus from Arriva Kent Thameside, who operated the route for 5 years from their Dartford ( DT ) garage in Kent. The buses used on the 233 were E200's, 8.9 metre length, the same buses Metrobus will be using. The Route can take 10.8 metres and in the past I have seen a 10.8 metre bus on the 233 get busy, so it must get very busy with an 8.9 mtre bus. Metrobus previously operated the route from 1997 to 2008 with a bit of everything, a few double decks from time to time but mostly standard Dart's. Arriva also oacasionlly used Dart's and Cadet's from the 126 and B12/B13/B15. This is not the first lot of Enviro's between now and the 23rd March! The 126, 138 and 284 will be recieving brand new Enviro 200's of the 8.9 and 10.8 metre lentgh. Route 126 has also been gained at the expense of Arriva. Today acording to LVF the buses remained on the route with no odd working's. Hopefully an Omnicity or Omnidekka will go out on the route! Also if you are wondering why I have included a shot of saying ' 233 Swanley ' I took it to show how it is misrepresenting as people will think it terminates in Swanley Town Centre, when it actually continues to Beechenlea Lane, near the M25 Interchange. I hope you enjoyed reading this post. The route will be run from Orpington ( MB ) where it was previously run from.