Route 126 Observations

Yesterday amid the awful weather I decided to go to Bromley to see the brand new Enviro 200's for Route 126, which was won by Metrobus back in the May 2012 tenders. This route had been run by Kentish bus for nearly 17 years, using a variety of buses, though towards the latter end of the contract, Y reg Dart Pointer's and 07,58 and 09 reg 10.8 metre Enviro 200's were used. The route runs from Eltham, High Street, to Bromley South via Grove Park. I think the reason the 126 was lost by Arriva Kent Thameside was due to the distance between Dartford depot in Kent and the Westmoreland Road terminus in Bromley, the distance relates to 17 miles! However the Green Street Green base that Metrobus operates the route from is around 4/5 miles away from Bromley South Station and around 9/10 miles from Eltham, High Street. The buses that were used on the route, Dart Pointers 3291 - 3303 have been repainted up to 3 times! They started off in a appealing green and cream livery, then into red livery with cow horns, the in to all over red. Today there was 1 unallocated working, 172 which is a 8.9 metre mini E200 from the Roundabout routes at Orpington. I really hope you've enjoyed reading this post.

Route 82 Observations

On 31st March 2012, Route 82 received a new contract specifing new buses. Many thought these new buses would be Hybrids, but this proved to be wrong. It was then announced that Route 82 would be getting brand new state of the art E40D buses in early 2013. The older TPLs will be sold on to other operators. It's a shame because the TPLs are quite nice buses. Route 82 runs between North Finchley and Victoria via Golders Green, Edgware Road, Park Lane and Hyde Park Corner and is run from the lengthy Potters Bar garage in Hertfordshire. The route is 10 miles ( 16 kilometres long ) and will be one of the last routes to receive buses with yellow on black blinds, buses from now on having to use white on black blinds. I hope you enjoy reading this post.