Route 465 Observations

Today, it was the turn of Route 465 to be awarded to Quality Line. Route 465 runs between Kingston and Dorking. In the mid 90's the Route was operated by London and Country until it was awarded to Telling's Golden Miller, and at this time it continued to their garage in Fulwell. In May 2006 the Route was curtailed to Kingston and replaced by a less frequent Route called the 481, which runs between West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth to Kingston. The Route was and still is operated by Abellio London from their Fulwell garage ( TF ).On 30th June 2007, Route 465 was awarded to Arriva Guildford and West Surrey with 5 E200's from their Warnham garage. A few months into operation with Arriva, one of the E200's was involved in a severe incident. A van crashed into the bus and the bus later continued into a house. A spare Dennis Dart was loaned from Dartford ( DT )whilst the bus went for repairs but after the bus was repaired Arriva realised they would still need a spare bus. They therefore used a another Dennis Dart from Dartford ( DT ). In October 2009, Metrobus bourght the Warnham garage, and all Routes their, inlcuding Route 465 transferred to the company's headquaters in Crawley ( CY ). The Route then had the longest dead run across the entire TFL network, a staggering 24 miles from Kingston to Crawley. In August 2011, Route 465 was awarded to Quality Line with 6 Optare Versa's. The 6th bus will be a bus from Route 411 which was won in October 2010 and runs between West Molesey to Kingston. Today the service change took place, and the service was good, with on time buses and friendly service. There was also a poster saying about the new service. I hope you enjoy reading this post.

Route 227 Observations

Today, it was the turn of Route 227 to get new buses. Route 227 began before 1950 running between Penge and Chislehurst from Elmers End garage. In 1951 the allocation changed to Bromley Common garage. In 1972, the Route was altered to run Chislehurst to Crystal Palace. In 1991, the Route was awarded to Selkent and withdrawn between Bromley North and Chislehurst. In 1992, Kentish Bus operated the Route from their Dunton Green garage. In 1997 Stagecoach won the Route back from Kentish Bus and the Route was in the hands of Bromley Common garage ( TB ). In 2000, Route 227 gained brand new super Pointer Darts, which were the first and last of their type in London. These buses were 11.4 metres long and all Routes that pass under the low bridge at Shortlands have to use longer buses to ease capacity on the Routes. In 2011, Route 227 was retained by Stagecoach and they ordered Citaros, as ADL do not do a 11.4 metre Enviro 200. The SPDs that operated the Route were unique in many ways, such as being 11.4 metres in length, having a different type of light and having gear buttons instead of a lever. The Citaros have strange looking blinds for some reason, and no Mercedes Benz badge on the front. Today the service change was good with buses being regular but the blinds were faulty on 23102 which you may notice. Many thanks to the nice driver who let me take pictures of the cab. I hope you enjoy reading this post.