Central London has received three batches of brand new buses recently, for routes 13 (72 and 183), 26 and 53. This post will cover all of these changes and whether they are a good thing or not. In chronological order, the 26 buses came first so that is where I'll start.
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| Tower Tranist VN36109 crossing Waterloo Bridge on the 26, two years ago. |
The 26 runs from Hackney Wick-Waterloo, serving Cambridge Heath, Liverpool Street, St Paul's and Fleet Street on the way. Despite it's low patronage, I've found the route very useful over the past couple of years as a handy alternative to the tube between Waterloo and Liverpool Street (most people are boring and choose the Waterloo and City Line). In 2011, First London won the 26 from Stagecoach along with the 25 and 30. First ordered a batch of Enviro 400s for the 26 and 30 (some are still on the 30, but others have moved on to the 69, recently won by Tower Transit) and some Gemini 2s from the 25. Towards the end of the contract, more and more of the 25 buses appeared on the 26 and I would always see one if I was somewhere along the route. However, no operator can keep the 26 for that long and First decided to leave London altogether, meaning that Tower Transit took over Lea Interchange garage. However, Tower didn't do a very good job running the 26 and CT Plus have been running the route since February, but the Enviro 400 H Cities weren't due until June so Enviro 400s had to be loaned from Tower until the new Cities arrived. What a fiasco and a half.
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| CT Plus 2511 at The Old Vic stand at Waterloo. |
The first bus, 2501, entered service on the 10th June in the evening rush hour. After that, the whole batch entered service in the coming weeks and the route is mostly 100% hybrid, with the occasional Scania from the 388 making it onto the route. The service has been pretty decent, despite a very rocky start. The only thing left to try out was the buses.
After a long day out in South East London, I arrived at the Waterloo Station stop feeling hot and disappointed that none of the buses I had boarded that day had working air conditioning. After giving someone directions, the 26 arrived quickly and I took the front seats, very dissatisfied that the air conditioning wasn't present. I had nearly finished two bottles of water already so I was hoping for a cool ride up to Liverpool Street. However, once the engine kicked in a blast of cold air was blown over me, which was extremely pleasant and made the whole experience ten times better.
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| CT Plus 2520 at Waterloo. |
2520 sped along Waterloo Bridge and navigated Aldwych with ease, before tackling Fleet Street traffic. The only disadvantage with new Hybrid buses having air-con, is that when the bus is stationary the engine cuts out and so does the air-conditioning, so ideally you need non-stop running if you want to make the most of the cool air. However, I didn't let this bother me and I thoroughly enjoyed the route through the City of London, passing many empty restaurants open only to working bankers and many other packed, warm buses. There was only one other person upstairs, making the whole experience even better. Feeling refreshed, it was a shame that I had to alight at Liverpool Street as going to Hackney would make me very, very late. After a break at Spitalfields, the sensible decision would be to take the Hammersmith & City Line home, but powerful air-conditioning got the better of me and I boarded another 26 which took me back to Waterloo. I had another fantastic experience with these truly brilliant buses. They are cool, fast, quiet, comfortable and have big enough windows to see out of (apart from the front). They are a much better alternative to the LT, very nice to ride all year round and a great edition to the 26.
The story of the 53:
The 53 runs between Whitehall, Horse Guards and Plumstead Station, via Lambeth, New Cross, Charlton and Woolwich. It is a very frequent trunk route which connects areas of South East London to Central London and it is very popular because the train service provided by Southeastern is very poor. Recently, the route was curtailed to Lambeth North and this caused an uproar because people from Charlton used the 53 all the way to Whitehall to get to work and they would have to get two buses to reach their final destination. The curtailment also put lots more pressure on the 453, which parallels the 53 from Deptford-Lambeth but continues to Marylebone via Whitehall. However, TFL actually listened to the public and the route returned to Whitehall on Saturday 23rd July.
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| Stagecoach London 13001 at Lambeth North on the 53 to Whitehall. |
The 53 has been with Stagecoach for as long as I can remember. However, the amount of new buses that have been put on the route will surprise you. Since 2010, new Scania OmniCity's, new Enviro 400's and new Gemini 3's have been used on the route. However, in 2016 another new batch of buses were ordered against the contract of the 53 and it was Enviro 400 MMCs. The first one entered service around a week ago and it was my duty to try them out, especially after my deeply unpleasant experience on the G3's two years ago.
I arrived at Waterloo hoping that one would turn up soon, seeing as they were all bunched together throughout the week. One was due in twenty minutes, so I walked down Lower Marsh (stopping at Ian Allan first) and found that 12371 was my bus. As it was a Saturday morning and I was heading East, I wasn't surprised that the bus was empty and I got the front seats. The first thing I noticed was that 12371 had very harsh acceleration and was capable of very high speeds, which made the whole experience even better. The buses definitely looked the part and the Lazzerini seats are well padded, ensuring the journey is comfortable and relaxing. The bus was flying down Old Kent Road (we did overshoot the bus stop at Bricklayer's Arms) and I would say that these buses are the best MMCs in London, so if you haven't already, please give them a try!
I alighted at Blackheath feeling very satisfied and the 53 is now a route which I look forward to riding, rather that one to avoid.
The story of the 13/72/183:
On the hottest day of the year, a random Gemini 3 appeared on the London Sovereign route 13. I had no idea where it had come from or why it was there. However, it was still a new bus so I went to Swiss Cottage and snapped it.
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| London Sovereign VH45189 at Finchley Road on route 13. |
I later found out that this bus was originally ordered for the 72, but due to Hammersmith Bridge works these Gemini 3's have been diverted to Edgware (BT) garage to displace the ageing Plaxton Presidents on the 183.
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| One of the VLPs that will be withdrawn soon. |
For now, the 72 will remain single deck and it's new buses have been sent away to Central London, as the 13 requires Euro 6 buses anyway in time for its next contract as it enters Zone 1. The 183 will now receive six Euro 5 Hybrid Gemini 2s from the 13's current allocation and that's basically the story of why these Gemini 3s are in North West London rather than in Roehampton.
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| VH10 will soon be seen on the streets of Pinner. |
Overall, I'm unhappy that the 13 has received a partial allocation of Gemini 3's, but I know it's good for the environment so there are some positive factors too.
This post sums up all of the changes in Central London lately, I hope you are now up to date on the recent changes to the London bus network and thanks for reading!
