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 In 1991, the Route was awarded to Selkent and withdrawn between Bromley North and Chislehurst.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.
Hello Tom,
ReplyDeleteNice post! Just a few things; firstly the reason that I have been lead to believe for the strange blinds is that McKenna (the usual manufacturer) were full with orders, so STG had to find another company to print the blinds which uses a different technique. Secondly, are these buses any good? They look excellent but that can't tell everything (look at the VLEs on the 114).
Typical Citaro for a blind to fail.
Lewis
Oh I didn't know that, they are quite nice and fast.
Delete