Route 157 Observations

Yesterday, it was the turn of route 157 to pass to Arriva London South. Route 157 runs between Morden and Crystal Palace via Croydon, and began in 1934 running between Morden and Wallington. In 1935, it was extended to Raynes Park. In 1959 it was extended to Crystal Palace, as a replacement for Trolleybus route 654. In 1970 it was curtailed to terminate at Morden, with the exception of some afternoon journeys. In 1973 the route was converted to one person operation. In 1988 the route was reallocated to Sutton fully, and the Thornton Heath and South Croydon allocations were withdrawn. In 1997, as part of the Sutton area retendering scheme, the route gained 14 brand new Volvo Olympains with Northern Counties bodywork, replacing older MCW Metrobuses. In December 2001, Connex won the contract to run the route. They ordered 16 new Dennis Tridents with ALX400 bodywork, and ran it from their Beddington Cross depot. In 2004 Connex sold the London bus operations to National Express, who rebranded it as Travel London. In 2006 Travel London retained the contract for the 157 for another 5 years, on the basis of the existing Tridents being refurbished. In 2009 National Express sold the Travel London operation to NedRailways, who shortly after acquiring the business rebranded as Abellio, which is known as a goddess of apple trees. The Travel London operation was rebranded Abellio London. In 2011 Abellio retained it with Volvo B7TLs with Wright Eclipse Gemini bodies formerly used on route 188. These have proved problematic on the route, which has resulted in older Tridents being used often. The 157 has long suffered from poor reliability, due to its low PVR, long length and the fact it serves several bottlenecks. It therefore, it wasn't particularly surprising to hear in May 2016 that Arriva had won the contract for it from December 2016, on the basis of existing Enviro 400s from route 133. The route will be run officially from Thornton Heath, with drivers, the entire Sunday allocation, and 2 of the 17 vehicles based there. The remaining 15 vehicles will be stationed at Norwood garage. Yesterday, there was the usual teething troubles, with bunching quite frequent, but no doubt things will soon get better. I wish Arriva every success over the next 5 years. I hope you enjoy reading this post.

South East Bus Festival

On Saturday the 2nd of April, the annual South East Bus Festival took place at Detling. The theme this year was 100 years of East Kent and two vehicles repainted in a commerative livery were present. A diverse mix of vehicles were present, and there was also heritage cars as well as the buses. It was an enjoyable event and I look forward to next years. I hope you enjoy reading this post.

Route 367 Observations

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.

Route 229 Observations

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.

Route 469 Observations

On Saturday 23rd of January, Route 469 transferred from Stagecoach Selkent to Arriva London North. Route 469 runs between Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich and Erith and began in 1988 run by Bexleybus and ran largely to the same route, although continuing to Bexleyheath. This replaced a section of route 269 which was withdrawn. In 1991, Bexleybus lost its work and sold its only depot Bexleyheath (BX) to London Central who had won the 469. Therefore the 469 was ran by London Central. In 1999 the route received new Dennis Dart SLF's with Marshall Capital bodywork and was rerouted slightly between Plumstead and Abbey Wood. In 2009 the route passed to Selkent from their Plumstead (PD) depot and the route received new Optare Versas and was cut back to Erith from Bexleyheath. In 2013 it received Enviro 200s from Barking (BK), with the Versas heading the other way to centralise the Versa fleet within the Stagecoach London fleet. In July 2015 the route was awarded to Arriva on the basis of new buses, however this was changed to existing vehicles and the route now uses existing E200s displaced from route 499 and T31. I hope you enjoyed reading this post.