Route 109 Observations

On the 31st of January, route 109 transferred to Abellio London from Arriva London, after a period of 63 years, 9 months and 21 days with Arriva and its predecessors. The route began on the 8th of April 1951 and was a circular route starting at Purley, running via Croydon, Streatham, Brixton, Elephant, Westminster, Kennington, Brixton, Streatham, Norbury and Croydon finishing at Purley. The route began as a tram replacement route, and was operated using AEC Regent's with the familiar code of RT from Brixton and Thornton Heath garages. By 1957, the Sunday extension to Westminster was withdrawn and the route ran to Blackfriars, and the Brixton garage Sunday allocation withdrawn, but by 1958, this was reintroduced. Later in 1958, the route was revised with the weekday service running between Purley and Victoria Embankment, and the Sunday service running to Horse Guards Parade via Westminster Bridge. The Sunday service to Blackfriars was withdrawn. The Sunday Brixton allocation was again withdrawn. In January of 1964, RTL's were introduced on the Saturday service run from Brixton, but by April 1964, RTW buses began to take over the duties. In 1966, the Sunday service was withdrawn all day bar some early morning journeys ran from Thornton Heath garage. In April 1966, the 109 was back to a fully RT operation. In October 1970, a Sunday service, using SMS type buses from Thornton Heath was introduced, using the one person operation method. By 1974, the service was ran using DMS type buses. In 1975, DM type buses were introduced on Saturdays from Brixton garage. In 1976, the Monday to Friday service from Brixton garage was converted to Routemaster operation, with the Thornton Heath Monday to Saturday service also converting to Routemaster operation the same year. By March 1978 the weekday service was converted to DM type buses, with Saturday service also converting to DM type buses in August 1978. In October 1978 a all day Sunday service was introduced, with changes to the route due to the withdrawal of route 59. Purley and Victoria Embankment was served Monday to Saturday and on Sunday AM journeys, and South Croydon garage and Brixton Station were served all day Sunday. By 1981 the Brixton garage allocation was back to RMs, due to the D type buses being cascaded to other garages. By 1982, Thornton Heath and Brixton were both running the route with RM's, and some routing changes were initiated. Purley and Victoria Embankment via Westminster were served Monday to Saturday and on Sunday AM journeys, with South Croydon garage and Brixton Station again being served on Sunday's only. Blackfriars was served on weekdays and Elephant on Saturday's only. In 1985, the route was again revised with South Croydon garage being served Monday to Saturday, Victoria Embankment via Westminster or Blackfriars weekdays and the Elephant again served only on Saturday's. The 109 was also withdrawn between South Croydon garage and Purley. The Sunday service was again withdrawn, and replaced with a new route 59. By 1986, the route was withdrawn between Croydon Town Centre and South Croydon garage. In 1987, the 109 was withdrawn from serving the Victoria Embankment loop and was diverted via Trafalgar Square. The operation was converted to OPO using Metro Cammell Weymann Metrobuses form Brixton and Thornton Heath garage. By 1990 the Brixton allocation was withdrawn and transferred to Streatham garage. By 1991, the Thornton Heath allocation was withdrawn and the entire route was run from Streatham garage. In 1992, the route returned to Purley once again, and as Streatham garage closed, the route was run from Thornton Heath and South Croydon and at weekends by Brixton, Thornton Heath and South Croydon. By 1994, the Brixton and South Croydon allocations had both been withdrawn, with the route being run entirely from Thornton Heath. In 1995, the London Transport South London operating unit was sold to Cowie plc, now known as Arriva. In 1996, a weekday allocation was introduced from Brixton using Metrobuses, with the main allocation using Leyland Olympians. In 1998, the 109 was again withdrawn between Croydon and Purley and Brixton and Central London. In 1999, the Brixton allocation was again withdrawn. In 2003, the route received new DAF DB250 bodied ALX400 buses known as DLA's as part of a contract renewal. In 2010, route 109 was retained with the DLA's, but by late 2010, new Enviro 400's from routes 198 and 250 were common occurences. In March 2012, Arriva had a bad tender round, and lost routes 19 and 455. To improve effecincy, a restructuring took place of Arriva London South, with Beddington Farm garage closed, routes 264, 403, 405D and 627 moved to South Croydon, routes 410 and 450 moved to Thornton Heath, and route 50 moved to Brixton, along with the 109. This saw DW's and DLA's become common occurrences. In April 2014, a shock tender round saw Abellio London win the route on the basis of new double decker hybrid vehicles. It was soon announced this was to be Enviro 400 vehicles, of the new MMC type and would be run from Beddington Cross garage and be Abellio London's flagship route, as well as their biggest. The buses started to arrive in December 2014, and were used on other routes before starting duties on the 109. I have to say, the buses look the part, but some of the promises by Alexander Dennis have been delivered, including zero rattles. However, the ride is quite smooth, and fast. The buses are equipped to a specification including Lazzerini Practico seating, a BAE systems series hybrid drive system and a Chapman Nova Urban drivers seat. The operation did seem to be suffering from some teething issues, with buses running closely, and curtailments. A Volvo Gemini from route 157, 9021 was also out, and I have attached a picture of it at Streatham Common. I do apologize for the poor picture quality of this bus. However, I wish Abellio ever success for the next 5 years. Thank you for reading this post.