TfL Rail #2

With the grand opening of Crossrail being only months away now, allegedly, some more noticeable evidence of progress has emerged over the past few months. In addition to the introduction of its rolling stock, the Class 345 Aventras, on the Eastern TFL Rail service between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, or the revealing of purple roundels at Custom House Station, some services along the Great Western Main Line have been taken over by TFL in preparation for Elizabeth Line services in West London. This means even more new trains for services from Paddington and the disappearance of Heathrow Connect, a name which became all too familiar throughout my childhood.

A GWR Class 387 is seen at Hayes & Harlington, during their short period of time operating the shuttle service.

Eventually, all bar two trains per hour on the relief line of the GWML will be Elizabeth Line services going through Central London. Whilst currently trains to Reading and Maidenhead are still operated by Great Western Railway, on Sunday 20th May TFL Rail took over both the half-hourly Heathrow Connect service and the Hayes-Paddington shuttle, operated for around 18 months by GWR. All the stations along this route, apart from Paddington and Heathrow, have also been under TFL Rail control for several months now. The new base for this operation is at Old Oak Common, although it is an entirely separate facility than the Heathrow Express and GWR units and will eventually be used to power the Elizabeth Line. It was planned for all the TFL Rail services to be operated with the Class 345 units, but for now the Class 360 units are being retained for use on the Heathrow Connect services (more on this matter later), which gives some stations on the GWML three types of train class to choose from at times.

The Heathrow Connect services have been around since 2005 and were run jointly on behalf of Heathrow Express and GWR. It was essentially a stopping service between Heathrow Terminal 4 or 5 (the terminal they went to changed so often I can't really give a definite answer) and Paddington, although for some reason it has never called at Acton Main Line. Not many people actually used them to get to Heathrow, given the extortionate fares and lack of oyster card allowance to the airport, although they were extremely popular in rush hour when 5-cars was a luxury compared to the inappropriate Turbo trains that used to run the Thames Valley services into Paddington. It's ironic that since the introduction of the Class 387s and later 345s I now moan whenever the shorter Class 360s turn up. It was also really reliable and so were the rolling stock - even though in the past two years the quality of services has deteriorated greatly with lots of cancellations, whilst the trains have become increasingly worn out and undependable. The service was meant to receive a whole new identity, with Class 345 Aventras taking over, although the signalling within the tunnels of Heathrow Airport is a bit old fashioned and non-standard, so the new trains are having a bit of trouble running down there, so for now the Class 360s remain on these duties. The trains were spotted sporting TFL Rail logos a few days prior to the changeover and the maps inside are completely different, being in the style of TFL. Although there is less new stock than anticipated, I'm really glad I've managed to keep these trains for a while longer - after all, losing what you grew up with is difficult. As the takeover date was a Sunday, when the Hayes & Harlington shuttle doesn't run, only these units were actually present, although the day afterwards was when things became interesting.

TFL Rail 345014 is seen at Ealing Broadway on a trip to Hayes & Harlington.

 Only two trains are required for the shuttle between Hayes and Paddington so despite the notorious unreliability of the Class 345s (which require an on-board engineer on every trip they make) the first day went quite smoothly. For now, seven car units which were originally on the Eastern route are being used, although eventually it is expected that these services will be upgraded to 9 cars in length. It's quite funny that less than two years ago Acton Main Line station was only served by 2 carriage Class 165, but now you have nothing but 7, 8, or in the future 9 cars. The station has really grown in popularity as a result. Although my proper photography session was in the evening, I couldn't resist deviating my regular commute to school slightly in order to sample the Aventras and really put them to the test - in rush hour. Inevitably, people marvelled at the emergence of new trains, with a few taking photos, although they are not proving too popular in the sense that passengers from certain stations have lost their free Wifi, plug sockets or (almost) guaranteed seats. Under GWR, the Hayes shuttles were busy in the morning but contained a high density transverse seating layout, so typically in the first and last carriages you'd only have around 7 or 8 standees, whilst in the middle (where there are no station entrances/exits) everyone would have a seat. However, the Aventras consist of a mostly longitudinal seating layout, with the front and back being fully this type, whilst in the middle (like the photo to your right) there are a few transverse examples. Whilst this is effective for the core section in Central London, people from Southall and West Ealing are not happy about having to stand until Paddington due to the lack of available seats - the train leaves Hayes & Harlington with no more available at the rear. Goodness knows what people will be feeling from Iver, Burnham or Taplow, when they are commuting into the City for around 50 minutes without a seat. Nevertheless, the trains are certainly different from the distinct GWR profile, whether that being the seat moquette or indeed the announcements, which are much more mainstream on the TFL Rail services and are in a minimalistic style, which some enthusiasts don't like at all, but personally I feel this is the most effective way at conveying information to passengers, which is ultimately what they're there for. One improvement I would make though, is that at West Ealing it simply says "change for National Rail services", although given that interchange onto services to Greenford is now one of the main purposes of this station, I think this should be recognised. After my brief morning experience, I was excited to return later in the day to sample them properly.

A GWR Turbo and a TFL Rail Aventra stand side by side at West Ealing.

One thing which has been noticeable about the 345s is their superior acceleration to the Class 387s and also their ability to spend hardly any time waiting at stations - before I could comfortably run across the bridge at West Ealing to the other platform upon alighting and take an offside photo, although this was not possible on the Monday evening. They've also been arriving at West Ealing Station really early in the morning rush hour, which results in a mass of commuters running down the tiny stairwell even though they still have a few minutes. The seats aren't as comfortable as those on the 387s either, although this emphasises how Central London and almost tube-orientated the design of these National Rail trains has been. Reliability of the TFL Rail has been quite decent so far - due to the nature of the GWML there are almost always problems and occasionally the Hayes shuttle has had to be abandoned completely, although one noticeable improvement is that the almost instant suspension of Heathrow Connect whenever there was a problem has stopped, which should hopefully mean a more trustworthy service for Hanwell, served only by the airport services. Interestingly, even though the Aventras have been the cause of many train failures on the East side, on one particular Sunday so many of the Heathrow Connect 360s needed attention that the 345s ended up saving the day and taking over the service, only as far as Hayes, with people having to use the 140 bus instead for reaching the airport.

A line diagram inside the TFL Rail Class 345s.

 The train times have remained broadly the same under TFL Rail, although now there is a slightly wider selection of trains later in the evening, with the Hayes shuttle continuing until around midnight, whereas previously it stopped at 2130. On some occasions, they leave Paddington 2 minutes behind a GWR service so are hardly useful in that respect, although on other occasions I bet they've been very handy for people travelling home. Additionally, since the introduction of TFL, oyster cards are now accepted on the stopping services (the Express will be implemented later) to Heathrow, which has been ridiculously lacking since the introduction of the Connect. There are now barriers at each of the stations at the airport, but even though you touch in if you just travel between terminals it still won't charge you anything. TFL Rail now also appears on the tube map, bringing with it five brand new stations and some neat links between existing ones. What it fails to mention though, is the premium fares in place for travelling to Heathrow Airport. Even though you can use oyster, an adult single costs something like £10.00, which is certainly not normal zone 6 pricing and would put many people off. The tube map though suggests that it costs the exact same amount of money as the Piccadilly Line, which is a rather cunning way of TFL gaining more revenue, but I'm sure people won't be happy at all when they touch out and find themselves drained of their oyster balance. They could've at least written special fares apply. Also, the tube map fails to mention that Acton Main Line, West Ealing and Hanwell lack a timetabled Sunday service of any sort, which I believe nothing else on the tube map does, so I'm sure people wishing to travel to these areas wouldn't be happy if they turned up at Paddington and there were no trains - again, footnotes would be appreciated. Hopefully, when the GWML becomes a four track railway again on Sundays, these stations can gain a service seven days a week, as the poor provision really is quite ridiculous given how populous the areas they serve are. In addition to the new trains, all the stations along the GWML are expected to receive a major refurbishment, but there has hardly been any progress since the contract was handed over to TFL and there's no way that this will be completed on time, so another disappointment on their behalf.


Overall though, despite Transport for London's shortcomings and deception, as well as the slight downgrade regarding seats and technological facilities compared to the Class 387s, the takeover of TFL Rail has been better than expected. Despite some angry passengers on the Eastern side in regards to the reliability of their service, over here it's generally been pretty good and even though the 345s aren't as luxurious as their predecessors on the Hayes shuttles, I personally don't think anything will be able to beat the magnificence of the GWR 387s, which remain my favourite trains on the National Rail network. It will be sad to only have 2 trains per hour of them from late 2019, even if train travel to Central London becomes easier and the Crossrail project develops and (hopefully) flourishes.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Quiet Routes, Loud Routes

April was a surprisingly quiet month within the enthusiast calendar, having only two contract changes in its entireity. There were lots of bus rallies out in the country to keep people busy, but I'm not really into those events, which meant for one particular change I was one of the only people who bothered. Chronologically, the first contract change occurred on Saturday 7th April 2018, consisting of two community routes within the Barnet area being offered to a different operator.

Go-Ahead London SEN23 is seen at The Spires on route 389 to Barnet, Western Way.

I've already written about the nature of the 389 and 399 in a commendable amount of detail here, so this post will focus more on the actual differences between the old and new contracts. The 389/399 are easily some of the quirkiest routes in London, sharing a bus between them to operate the two circular routes in Barnet which both take no more than twenty minutes, allowing an hourly service to operate between 1000 and 1500. Whilst in rush hour the Enviro 200 would work the 299, from Cockfosters it would morph into a 399 further down the road until The Spires, where the bus changed its blind to become the 389 and go around Underhill, before completing the 399 loop again and this practise continued until around 1500 where the last 399 ended at Hadley Wood Station. Go-Ahead London ran the service from Northumberland Park (NP) garage, usually with an SEN-class Enviro 200 but occasionally single door Wright Streetlites would appear on the service. The regular passengers who use this service were very friendly with the Go-Ahead crew, who even provided biscuits for them during their last day driving the service, Friday 6th April 2018. Even though there is no rush hour crosslink on Saturdays, the buses still only run in the middle of the day, whilst there is no service at all on Sundays.

Sullivan Buses SL96 is seen in Hadley Wood working the first ever 399 journey under Sullivan Buses.

The loss of these two routes wasn't particularly surprising given that the 299 also went to Sullivan Buses earlier in the year and the custom of using its allocation continues for the new contract, albeit in the form of a relatively new batch of Wrightbus Streetlites. These vehicles are based at South Mimms (SM) garage, although the crosslink comes instead from the 298 service between Potters Bar and Arnos Grove. As I had nothing better to do on a Saturday morning, I decided to make the journey up to Hadley Wood and catch the first ever service run by Sullivan Buses, mainly because it worked out conveniently for my later plans and didn't involve getting up at the crack of dawn. After stepping off the Great Northern service at Hadley Wood Station, which is very sparsely used, my walk to the first virtual bus stop consisted mostly of admiring the huge mansions that dominate this area - most places of residence have at least four or five cars in the driveway. After confirmation from the postman, I was successful in finding a suitable place to flag down the vehicle, SL96, which came by surprise seeing as there were issues with calibrating the iBus system. What I found rather lovely, however, is that in addition to the driver a member of the Sullivan Buses team was out there supporting him and essentially offering a welcome party to all the regular passengers, in an attempt to get to know them better for the next few years, who were delighted by the new bus and fancy moquette, a stark contrast to the Go-Ahead interior scheme. In total, we only picked up around five people before the bus morphed into the 389, although it was nice to be back in this rather extravagant part of London once again. Two bus enthusiasts, who also decided not to go into the depths of Kent, snapped my vehicle as it pulled into The Spires and surprisingly, even though we were heading away from the shops, a few more people boarded and started chatting to the new driver. I bailed at High Barnet in order to take a Northern Line, although I really enjoyed my experience on the two routes and it seems that Sullivan Buses are pulling out all the stops and embracing the nature of these two routes very nicely, which hopefully results in the communities who use them being just as satisfied as with the old operator.

Tower Transit VNW32430 is seen near Swiss Cottage on route 31 to Camden Town.

The contract change of route 31 on Saturday 28th April 2018 was a well-attended event, partially because the route is much more significant compared to the Barnet shuttles. It is one of my favourite services in the city, originating at White City and taking passengers on a lovely tour of inner North-West London to Camden Town, via Swiss Cottage, Maida Hill and Notting Hill Gate, with so much variety between the different places it serves. The night element of the 31 doesn't branch West to serve Shepherd's Bush, but instead goes via Kensington, Earl's Court and Battersea to terminate at Clapham Junction - this route also changed hands. Route 31 also a very useful service, not really paralleling any rail services for a substantial amount of time, particularly at the Camden end where buses are often very busy. Even though this route does enter zone 1, its allocation under First London and later Tower Transit certainly wasn't modern, predominantly using 04-reg Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini B7TL vehicles and I can't actually remember when they were first introduced onto the route as they've been the main allocation for so long. The buses were based at the temporary Atlas Road (AS) base during the Crossrail works which reduced the space at Westbourne Park (X) garage dramatically, but during the final few months the allocation has returned to the home garage. Despite the variety at this site, workings of other buses were infrequent on the 31, with only Gemini 2s occasionally appearing on the night service. Even though the former garage weren't really praised for running services well, the 31 had always been very secure, although during the past year the route suddenly became very unreliable and on the last day due to some sort of road closure the service was in pieces - at one point ten buses were bunched up at Notting Hill Gate! Despite the 31's decline, I was still upset that the route was changing hands - I've always associated the route with Westbourne Park (X) garage and the B7TLs and even though I'm sure the route is in capable hands, when something you grew up with changes it's not always easy to overcome.

London Transport RTW467 is seen on the last day of route 31 under Tower Transit.

Bus enthusiasts, especially those interested in vintage vehicles, were in for a treat on Friday 27th April, where Sir Peter Hendy decided to send out an RTW along the 31 service for a couple of hours in the late afternoon, as a sort of farewell to the route being operated out of Westbourne Park (X) garage. Although a ride on this vehicle was not possible, I'm really happy to have a photo marking this event as it certainly will be one to remember in a few years time and I must thank everyone who organised this road-run as I'm sure it was treasured by many people. However, the old contract did have a rather bitter conclusion, given that many enthusiasts who intended to ride the last ever 31 under Tower Transit ended up stranded at Camden Town as it didn't pick up any passengers for some reason (I don't know the full story), suggesting that the former company were a little resentful at losing the route. Nevertheless, Metroline kicked off just minutes after the final Tower Transit bus pulled in, with the first N31 service beginning just before 1am on Saturday 28th April.

Metroline Travel VW1385 is seen at Shepherd's Bush on route 31 to Camden Town.

Initially, Metroline were expected to receive brand new MCV B5LH EvoSeti vehicles for the 31, although these have been diverted to route 43 at Holloway (HT) garage, which is probably for the best seeing as none have entered service yet. The 31 uses existing vehicles instead, in the form of three batches of Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TL vehicles, sourced from a variety of garages. Some of them are from Holloway (HT) and Willesden (AC) garage, which were made redundant following the introduction of brand new Gemini 3 hybrids, having 62/13-reg plates. The rest of the allocation is actually made up of vehicles already found at Perivale West (PA) garage - where the 31 is now based - with this being in the form of 11-reg Gemini 2s officially allocated to the 105, although these will be made redundant following the loss of the route to London United in the coming months. Naturally, the transfers now appear on all other Perivale West (PA) garage routes due to the generally relaxed allocation system there, although none of the Scania Olympus double deckers have appeared on the 31 yet due to the absence of blinds for the service. Although the allocation for this route is a little messy for my liking, the fleet is still an upgrade from the worn out B7TLs that were used before and hopefully the rest of the VWs receive a well-earned refurbishment sooner or later.

Metroline Travel VW1186, a refurbished 11-reg example, is seen at Chalk Farm.

Interestingly, Metroline decided it would be necessary to add the qualifier "Bus Station" to the White City blind, which gives even more discrepancies as no other service displays this. On the first day, the company did struggle to run a good service at times, although curtailments were sparse and it was certainly far better than the wreckage on the last day of Tower Transit. Since then, there are still occasional hiccups, which is understandable for a route that is said to be a "nightmare to control" by staff, although the future does generally look positive for this service and there are days with no issues whatsoever. Unfortunately, as Metroline settle into the contract they will be faced with some difficulties as the 31 will be receiving another frequency cut in a couple of weeks, which I think is completely absurd given that the buses I've seen recently are already very well-loaded, especially at the Camden end, so it will be interesting to see if this has any bearing on the reliability of the service. However, with a reduced peak vehicle requirement perhaps the operation might become slightly easier, so even with overcrowding the service should be tolerable most of the time.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Go Away, Norwood Edition

In recent times Go-Ahead London haven't been particularly successful with tendering results in the South London area, losing three services within the Norwood and Herne Hill area to other operators, with all of the routes being quite substantial. The first two changes took place on Saturday 30th March 2018, involving routes 68 and 468.

Go-Ahead London PVL151 is seen on route 68 operating a short working

Despite being one of the most prolific services in London, the 68 change was rather unappealing for enthusiasts given that it was keeping the exact same batch of buses, those being the New Routemasters which in my opinion have completely ruined what was a good route. Before the conversion, Go-Ahead London treated the service just like any of the others at Camberwell (Q) garage, which meant that a wide variety of bus types appeared, including the Volvo President pictured above. Whilst conventional buses did appear occasionally in more recent times, on most occasions passengers would be lumbered with the LTs which lack character and have a habit of making bus trips miserable, so even when the service was lost to Abellio my only feeling was disappointment that I'd be missing out on what would've been a new batch of MMCs without the vanity project. Due to the necessity to transfer the existing batch of NRMs to Walworth (WL) garage in preparation for the new contract, the last few trips on the 68 were actually worked by conventional MCV EvoSeti buses, marking a somewhat appropriate end with Go-Ahead London. The route itself runs between Euston and West Norwood, via Holborn, Camberwell and Herne Hill, which makes it pretty similar to the plethora of routes that Walworth (WL) garage ran before the assumption of the 68.

Abellio London LT702 is seen at Aldwych on route 68

Apart from the introduction of Abellio London logos on the exterior bodywork, the buses are exactly the same as they were with Go-Ahead and since the new contract only one conventional bus, an ADL E40H MMC, has been used on the 68. These LTs do mingle with the batch allocated to the 3, but other than that there is nothing really interesting to report. Reliability has been decent so far, although this is to be expected given that the garage already operate a number of routes as challenging as the 68. Along with the daytime service, this garage also took up operation of the night service, which starts at Tottenham Court Road instead of Euston and continues beyond Norwood to serve Croydon, Purley and eventually Old Coulsdon, which is quite close to the edge of the Greater London boundary. However, the allocation for this service consists of ADL E40H MMCs currently allocated to the 45 and 196, presumably because the longer LTs are not appropriate for some of the tighter roads this route serves. In conclusion, whilst the 68 change could've been one of the biggest ones in 2018, due to its allocation remaining the same it seems pretty irrelevant compared to what else we're covering in this point, despite the other two routes barely skimming the edge of zone 1.

Go-Ahead London WVL262 is seen in Camberwell on route 468.

Route 468 was also based at Camberwell (Q) garage under the old contract and the changes on Saturday 31st March have actually resulted in the entire 68-group splitting up - whilst all three routes were originally under the same roof, the X68 has remained at Go-Ahead, the 468 is now with Arriva whilst Abellio run the 68. The 468 runs between Elephant & Castle and South Croydon, following the 68 through Camberwell, Herne Hill and Norwood, but after this point the 468 continues to go via Beulah Spa, Thornton Heath and Croydon Town Centre before terminating a few minutes further down at the Swan & Sugar Loaf. This route takes an incredibly long time from end-to-end, but this was no challenge for Go-Ahead London, who operated the route superbly considering the potential problems on route. There wasn't really a fixed allocation for this service, with anything from the latest E40H MMCs to older Wrightbus B7TL Geminis turning up even until the very last day, where many enthusiasts were disappointed to see some types disappearing from the route altogether, although there was a sense of excitement regarding Arriva London taking up the service from Norwood (N) garage.

Arriva London HV302 is seen in Croydon Town Centre on route 468.

Although people began to speculate whether the route would stand at South Croydon Bus Garage as it is operated by Arriva, the route still remains at South End for the time being. The demand for new vehicles on this contract produced a rather large batch of Wrightbus Gemini 3 B5LH vehicles being delivered for the 468, although this type was already familiar at Norwood (N) as there are slightly older examples allocated to the 2 - both routes now effectively share a common user pool between the batches of Gemini 3s. These buses have been praised by enthusiasts for their ability to tackle the steep hills on route 468 and they have been very dedicated to the service, with no appearance of any other types since the new contract, a stark contrast from the variety provided by Go-Ahead. The service has been good too - apart from a couple of natural slips on the first day there has hardly been any difference to that provided by Go-Ahead and it seems that despite this route being one of the biggest offered to a new operator this year, it's also been a very smooth transition. Hopefully Arriva can maintain this for the next few years and I wish them the best in doing so.

Go-Ahead London E14 is seen at Elephant & Castle on route 196.

On Saturday 5th May 2018, the 196 was also lost from Go-Ahead London, almost completely removing the company from the West Norwood-Herne Hill stopping service corridor, where they used to run all four routes, whilst the remaining service (the 322) is hardly an attractive option with its low frequency and short single deckers.The 196 was run from Stockwell (SW) garage with a batch of Trident Enviro 400s, coincidentally the first lot ordered by Go-Ahead. Appearances of other types like Wrightbus Gemini B7TLs were not uncommon, although the E400s have been the backbone of the service for many years. Whilst Norwood Junction and Elephant & Castle many not seem particularly far apart, the 196 still manages to take 80 minutes from end-to-end off-peak, as it travels through Tulse Hill, Herne Hill, Brixton, Stockwell and Vauxhall in the process, which is certainly not the most direct route, weaving between four North-South corridors instead of sticking to one. The service under the old contract certainly wasn't perfect, but Go-Ahead were still liked by enthusiasts because of the allocation and it was quite fitting that E1, the first ever Go-Ahead London E400, was the last 196 to operate under the old company. Over the last few days, some of the 196 buses emerged in the Go-Ahead commercial livery whilst operating the route to reflect their future destination, which basically involves a bit more grey and some gold lettering, which was a nice touch to end a pretty successful contract. Even though the 196 passes two garages on route (Stockwell and Norwood), the route was actually picked up by Abellio from Walworth (WL) garage, which is around 15 minutes away from the terminus.

Abellio London 2605 is seen at Norwood Junction on route 196.

Predictably, Abellio ordered a modest batch of ADL E40H MMCs for the service and these buses now work alongside the slightly older examples on the 45, although no other types have appeared on the 196 yet. On the first day the service wasn't brilliant, with many large gaps and a number of curtailments, but since then the route has been performing quite well and when I went and sampled the route there were almost perfect headways. As a route I find the 196 really interesting and I would definitely recommend it to you if inner South London is somewhere you'd like to explore as it takes you through so many contrasting aspects of it. These MMCs are also very fast and if you're lucky the driver will floor the bus for the entire journey which is what happened to me - the 18-reg 196 examples seem far superior to the sluggish ones on the 45. It seems that despite a shaky start, the 196 is in safe hands for the future and perhaps people will eventually get used to the drastic reduction in Go-Ahead buses around Norwood and Herne Hill.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!