Sainsburys' Sovereign

Although most of the activity on Saturday 8th December 2018 was centered around South-East London, and there should've been a lot more due to Crossrail, two routes in the North-West also swapped operators, with these being the 79 and 292.

A Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TL is seen at Edgware Bus Station, representing the old.

Metroline Travel haven't operated the 79 for that long, with First London being responsible for the service before 2011. Since then, the route has switched between Perivale West (PA) and Perivale East (PV), with the latter garage being used for the final part of the contract. At this base the typical diet consisted of Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TL vehicles, although Gemini 3 B5LHs (smiley and frog-face) were also common. At the previous garage, the much more interesting Scania Olympus vehicles also made regular appearances, but now they stick to the 90 and 297. Running between Alperton Sainsbury's and Edgware, the 79 has a fairly average route length of 7 miles and a reasonable frequency of every 12 minutes from Monday to Saturday, with a slight reduction to every 15 minutes on Sundays and during the evening. A PVR of 11 vehicles is required for this fairly busy service, which passes through Wembley, Preston Road, Queensbury and Canons Park en route. An end-to-end journey takes around an hour to complete. Generally, Metroline provided a reliable service, but with many garages close by there was always going to be close competition in the tendering process, with London Sovereign undercutting them this time, a trend which has become all too common lately.

The new look of the 79, seen at Alperton Sainsbury's.

Rather controversially, the new allocation for the 79 consists of Scania OmniCity vehicles, which are ever so slightly older than their predecessors under the old contract. The plan for the allocation of this route under London Sovereign has changed regularly, with ADL Enviro400H MMCs, ADL Enviro 400s and Wrightbus Gemini 3 B5LHs all considered. A brand new batch of the latter type was ordered against the 79 contract, but due to the Chiswick High Road low emissions corridor these have been diverted to the H91. A swap has occurred, with the Scania OmniCitys previously allocated to

this route transferring to Edgware (BT) garage and they now work the 79. Regular users generally consider this to be a downgrade given the uncomfortable seating, although I'm delighted that a dying breed is being given more work and I feel these buses suit the 79 perfectly. As usual, the vast pool of double deckers at the depot all intermix with one another, so regular Enviro 400s, MMCs and Gemini 2 B5LHs have worked the service already, with the former type being almost a daily occurrence. Although this operator haven't made a particularly good impression in Edgware lately with their dominance and banditry, the 79 buses have all been presentable and so far the service has been decent - hopefully they can keep this up for the future. Originally, the contract changeover date was Saturday 24th November, but as the route couldn't physically fit at the garage due to overcrowding, Metroline were given two extra weeks to run the service and it passed to London Sovereign on Saturday 8th December instead, where space was made available due to the loss of route 292. I wish them the best for the next five years, hopefully with Scanias for the remainder of the contract!

A Scania OmniDekka is seen on the 292, a type now extinct within London.

 The 292 runs between Colindale Superstores and Borehamwood, Rossington Avenue, being one of a handful of services which leave the Greater London boundary and travel into Hertfordshire. Intermediate destinations include Edgware, Apex Corner and Elstree, with end-to-end journey times taking around 50 minutes in average conditions. A peak vehicle requirement for 10 vehicles satisfies a 15 minute frequency, which drops to 3 buses per hour on Sundays and half-hourly during the evening. TfL propose to reduce the usual frequency to every 20 minutes once the 384 is extended to Edgware. Under the old contract, London Sovereign operated the service from Edgware (BT) garage, which is conveniently in the middle of the route. A wide variety of types could appear, ranging from modern Gemini 3 B5LHs, common ADL Enviro 400s and its official allocation, Scania OmniDekkas. The route became rather famous in the final months of the contract as it was the home to London's final batch of SLE-class N94/UD Scanias and even though appearances reduced significantly as time went on, they were still going strong on the last day. The type is now extinct within the capital, although a couple are still sitting in a yard near Canons Park looking sorry for themselves - ironically this can be viewed from the 79 service. Reliability was decent under the old contract despite the problematic A1 dual carriageway which this route uses, with this operator being very familiar with the 292 having operated it for a number of years. However, Metroline can hardly be considered an outsider when their garage is basically next door to the old depot.

The new, Wright look.

Saturday 8th December saw Metroline Travel commence operation of the 292, from Edgware (EW) garage. Predictably, a batch of existing vehicles were sourced for the new contract, but interestingly these are in the form of Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TLs, which did introduce a brand new type to the base. However, they have settled in well, working other services too and more are expected to show up next year for the 240 retention. An overnight transfer was necessary to push these vehicles into service since they've come from the 79, although one example (VW1199) did leave prematurely for

type training. In addition to the Gemini 2s, existing vehicles at the garage have started to work the 292, usually in the form of Enviro 400s and occasionally MCV EvoSetis. The first few days proved challenging for Metroline, with the unfamiliarity of the service combined with roadworks making operation difficult, but since then the service has become much more reliable and to the same standard as under the old contract. One bizarre feature of the new contract is the scheduled driver changeover time at Edgware Bus Station heading Southbound - usually a couple of minutes is manipulated into the timetable to allow for this, but in the case of the 292 buses on the London Vehicle Finder are shown as having up to 8 minutes of just sitting around. This usually isn't fulfilled, so the whole service runs around 5 minutes early for the remainder of the trip. I suppose it does help to improve reliability and allows recovery time, but it was rather infuriating when trying to snap 292s as buses would turn up much earlier than expected and I'd miss them! Apart from this trivial matter, Metroline seem to be doing well and I wish them all the best for the next five years.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!