As you may know, routes 54 and 75's contracts were awarded to Stagecoach London from late April. Metrobus have lost 6 routes in the past 5 months to Stagecoach, most of them quite high profile (for Metrobus anyway). For Stagecoach, routes like the 54,75 and 261 are just bog-standard Greater London routes, and aren't treated the same way as routes 15 and 205. Metrobus now only have a few double-deck routes remaining, and they aren't very happy at the moment. The 33 lovely Scania Olympus buses have transferred to Go-Ahead London, for use on lots of school routes in the Romford area, route 498 and route 474. Most of them are now in service, and now Go-Ahead London have got a whole new stash of newish buses at Rainham. Lucky them! At the moment, they are doing a lot better than their sister company, Metrobus.
Right, let's crack on with the main bit of the post now. Routes 54 and 75 were meant to receive Hybrid Gemini 3 buses, but these were diverted to route 53 at the last minute, meaning routes 54 and 75 received new Euro 6 Enviro 400 Hybrid buses instead. These are the first two non Central London routes to gain a full allocation of Hybrid buses, and I'm not surprised they got Hybrids. TFL is so concerned about pollution levels in London now, the majority of new vehicles being delivered in the whole of London are now Hybrids. Also, this is the first batch of Hybrid Euro 6 vehicles in London. Inevitably, these buses are 10cm longer than the Euro 5 ECWTVA spec E400s and 20cm longer than the UK Spec Enviro 400s. If Euro 23 ever exists (and if Alexander Dennis are still making the Enviro 400) these buses will theoretically be 12m long.
Some of the new Euro-6 vehicles arrived a month or two early, so they were tested on routes that terminated at their garage (like the 47 and 199). Clearly, Stagecoach was being careful with these new buses.
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| Stagecoach London 12262, at Canada Water Bus Station. |
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| 12268 arrives at Liverpool Street Station on a route 47 journey to Catford. |
Although the buses are now mostly on routes 54 and 75, they still do stray onto routes like the 47,136,199 and 208. Also, diesel Enviro 400s and ALX400 buses seem to be making daily appearances onto the 54 and 75. Since Stagecoach won the contract for the 54 and 75, the two routes have become extremely bunchy, as I experienced on Saturday 17th May on route 54. I saw two buses right behind each other, then a 28 minute gap!! Thankfully, I only waited 6 minutes for my 54. Most of the pictures have been taken in the area of Catford.
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| A brand new Hybrid gets ready to turn onto Catford Road. This route goes from Lewisham-Croydon, which is quite long for a London bus route nowadays. |
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| 12273 arrives at The Catford Centre, not far from it's terminus. |
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| There was bad traffic around Lewisham, which was probably the reason why the 54 was bunching so badly. Having said that, it seems to be bunching every day according to Countdown. Maybe the traffic in Lewisham is always bad. |
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This bus was racing along Lewisham High Street in a surprisingly quiet moment.
However, when I was on board my 54 I got caught in really bad traffic in Central Lewisham. Here is part of the bus jam. |
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| The rear of a new 75 bus. |
I personally think these new Enviro 400s are lovely buses. They are comfortable,smooth,quiet (but not so quiet that you can't even hear the engine) and fast. On Belmont Hill, the bus was probably doing over 40 miles per hour! These buses are certainly nicer than those claustrophobic, dark and boring Gemini 3's on route 53.
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| iBus on 12272. |
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| 12277 heads down Lewisham High Street, halfway between Woolwich and Elmers End. |
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| Here's 12286, starting a 75 journey to Croydon. |
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| 12267 stops on Belmont Hill. |
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| The rear of my bus. |
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| A 54 bus curtailed to Beckenham Junction.... |
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| ....and right behind it is another 54, going the full distance to Elmers End. Call this every 12 minutes Stagecoach? This is a diesel bus from route 136's allocation. Obviously, the 136 had a hybrid on the route that day. |
Thanks for reading!
