On Saturday the 19th of March 2016, Route 367 transferred to Abellio London from Metrobus. Route 367 runs between Bromley North and West Croydon and has a PVR of 9. The route began in 1990 and ran between West Croydon and Beckenham Junction and was run by South London from their Streatham depot. In 1994 the contract was awarded to London & Country and the route was extended to Bromley North. The route used Mercedes 811D's from their Beddington Farm depot. In 1995 Beddington Farm became part of londonlinks so the route was run by them. In 1999 the operation was rebranded as Arriva London South. In October 2000, due to staff shortages Arriva subcontracted 7 vehicles to Blue Triangle of Rainham in Essex. This continued until March 2001 when Metrobus won the contract from their Orpington depot and used brand new MPD's on the route. In 2005 the route was rerouted between East Croydon and Shirley to replace withdrawn route 494 and transferred to Polhill depot whilst Orpington was being rebuilt. In 2006 the route was retained with new Darts with ELC Myllenium bodywork and the route transferred to the new Croydon depot in Beddington Lane. In 2008 the route once again was transferred back to Orpington and in 2011 was retained with existing vehicles. In 2014 the route transferred to Croydon to replace route 54/75 there which had been lost to Stagecoach Selkent. In July 2015 TfL awarded the new contract to Abellio London on the basis of new Euro6 single deckers beginning in March 2016. Abellio have decided to lease 10 brand new Enviro 200 MMC's with Lazzerini seats and Allison gearboxes and are rather nice vehicles to ride on. The route however is twisty and turny and takes a long time to get anywhere. The service yesterday did not seem great and I had just missed a 367 and had to wait for 45 mins for one, not good for a route that should run every 20 mins on a Saturday. I wish Abellio every success with the route and hope you enjoyed reading this post.
On Saturday the 23rd of January, Route 229 transferred from London Central to Arriva London North. The route runs between Thamesmead and Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup via Bexleyheath and has a PVR of 20. The route began in 1951 running between Wren Road in Sidcup and Sidcup bus Garage before being extended to Orpington later that year. In 1952 it was extended to Bexleyheath. In 1959 it was extended to Woolwich. In 1977 it was curtailed to Erith but extended to Farnborough at the other end. In 1982 it was cut back to Green Street Green. In 1986 the route was cut back to Sidcup Garage and in 1988 was again cut back to Foots Cray upon the closure of Sidcup Garage. In 1991 it was rerouted to Queen Marys Hospital. In 1994 it was extended to Thamesmead. In 2000 it was converted to low floor operation using Volvo B7TL's with Plaxton President bodywork coded as PVLs. In 2016 it was awarded to Arriva Kent Thameside with new vehicles, which are Euro 6 Enviro 400's which were originally meant to be coded in the Arriva Kent Thameside double decker series of 64** but due to a group restructuring which saw Dartford depot, which runs the route, transfer to Arriva London North, these vehicles were instead coded T301-331. These vehicles are Euro6 Enviro400's and are likely to be the last old style E400's for London. I wish Arriva London North every success with the route over the next 5 years. I hope you enjoyed reading this post.
