Busageddon: Harrow Edition

Bus enthusiasts have invaded the area of Harrow recently, as numerous routes there have been given brand new vehicles, and London's first new route in six years happens to serve there. Routes 114, 140 and 182 have all received Gemini 3 vehicles and the 340 has been given Streetdeck's. New route 483, running between Harrow and Ealing Hospital, has been the centre of attention for all bus enthusiasts this month, unless you're one of those people who doesn't care about a new route starting service. A much more detailed post of the 483 can be found here, if you want to find out more about how it's been coping recently.

Chronologically, the first change in Harrow was the 340, retained by Arriva The Shires with Wright's new integral vehicle, the Streetdeck.

Pictured during a blind change, SW7 on the 340 to "Queensbury Morrisons". Unfortunately all of my other 340 shots didn't come out too well, so this is the best I've got. Sorry.

What's odd is that these buses have blinds for "Harrow" and different ones for "Harrow Bus Station", but they mean exactly the same thing. Drivers did not stick to a particular one when I rode the route, so I saw a mix of blinds heading Westbound, which is slightly confusing. The 340 is Garston's flagship route, seeing as it's the only one that doesn't see single deckers frequently (the 142 from Brent Cross to Watford does, ironically), but I can see why as it gets very busy and has quite a lot of end to end riders, with the only other route between Harrow and Edgware being very unreliable (the 186). I didn't expect the 340 to be an amazing route, but the real test here was the buses, this being my first ride on a Streetdeck which had a diesel engine instead of the B5LH one (although they're Gemini 3's, it's very confusing).

After a fifteen minute wait my bus was off. The interior was very clean and everything was working properly as far as I could tell. From Harrow-Wealdstone the route is quite interesting, as it's really two town centres connected by a consistent high street. It's a bit like Lewisham and Catford, with Lewisham being Harrow with a large shopping centre and many streets full of clothes shops and places to eat and Wealdstone boasting only a few shops and the Wealdstone Centre. The only difference between there and Catford is the Catford Centre has a massive cat on top of it, which I've always found mildly amusing.

After stopping at Harrow and Wealdstone Station, the terminus of the grim section of the Bakerloo Line, the 340 stops outside Harrow Weald garage, owned by Metroline, who probably aren't particularly happy that two routes run by Arriva pass by, the 258 being the other one. To save heading out of London, the 340 takes a right turn into quite a rural area, with the centre being Uxbridge Road, which isn't the one that goes to Uxbridge. The next stop is Stanmore, which has a fairly substantial broadway and a clear market for Italian cuisine, with a Pizza Express and Prezzo minutes apart. However, the 340 isn't particularly useful if you need to visit the Jubilee Line station, as it takes a right turn onto Marsh Lane, where my driver decided it was the right time to absolutely floor the vehicle, easily hitting 40mph and not stopping anywhere until Canons Park, where the SW encountered traffic. The run to Edgware was laboriously slow and it would've been much quicker to walk, but the comfortable seats allowed me to relax after the exciting thrash earlier on.

Overall, I think the 340 is a nice route, much better than I expected it to be. It also has wonderful buses, that are comfortable, cool and are capable of a very high top speed, which will be useful on routes such as the 258 from Watford to Harrow.

Metroline VWH2214 on the 140, to Heathrow Airport.

 I think we all know that Metroline aren't very good at entering new vehicles into service on time and this point has been proven once again with the conversion of routes 140 and 182 to Hybrid operation, which has been painfully slow and still isn't complete, even though it started a month ago. However, it is a welcome service change and the vehicles themselves have been praised by enthusiasts, even though some of them do love the crusty old VPs that still work the route. The 140 definitely needed Hybrids and new buses, it is a trunk route and it enters Heathrow, which is very, very polluted for obvious reasons. I'm sure the passengers are grateful for the air con, comfortable seats and quieter journey, even if it does mean visibility is reduced because of the slim windows. However, no change can go without an oddity and this time it's down to the blinds again. All buses terminating at Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3 have stated Heathrow Central on the front, which is the correct name for the bus station. However, the 140's VPs and VWs (there were only six, they can now be found on the 483) always displayed Heathrow Airport, which is very vague as it does not serve Terminal 4 or Terminal 5. This has always been an issue and I was expecting it to be rectified, so when pictures emerged of new-style Heathrow Airport blinds I was very confused. Why does the 140 have this special treatment? Nobody knows...

VWH2217 showing the wrong blind on route 182 to Harrow Weald, Oxhey Lane.

 The other route that's been given new VWH-class buses from Harrow Weald (HD) garage is the 182, another trunk route running from Harrow Weald, Oxhey Lane to Brent Cross through Harrow, Wembley and Neasden. It's outdated VPs are in the process of being replaced and once again, I think this is a change for the best, as it significantly enhances the experience on board for non-bus enthusiasts, unless they like noise and heat, in which they will have to go on the 260 to look for VPs.

However, what's odd about the photo above is that the blind states Harrow Weald, which is the blind for route 140 rather than the 182. Unless this bus was curtailed, then the driver was showing the wrong blinds. To avoid confusion, I think the blinds should state Harrow Weald, Bus Garage for the 140 rather than just plain old Harrow Weald, it's more confusing than you think.

The correct blinds are shown here, on VWH2190.

The other new Gemini 3's in Harrow can be found on the 114, a win for Metroline from London Sovereign. It now runs from Uxbridge garage and has a full allocation of new buses, but an Enviro 400 from the 607 did stray recently. The 114 runs from Mill Hill Broadway to Ruislip, through South Harrow, Harrow Town Centre, Queensbury and Burnt Oak and it gets very busy. Unfortunately, the service under London Sovereign was pretty poor, with very large gaps of over 30 minutes being considered common, which really isn't ideal for a route such as this. However, the one thing which the route now lacks is variety, as you could find Plaxton President's, Vyking's, Scania OmniCity's and Gemini 2 B5LH's on the old 114. An E200 worked the route once. Although I'm grateful that the horrible service has stopped, it was a shame to see LS lose the 114 as they did give the route some character. I'm not sure if Uxbridge garage will be able to live up to BT's standards just yet.

VWH2180 on the 114 to Ruislip.

The first day was full of bunching, gaps and turns but now the service has vastly improved and is much better than it was before, even if the first day might've been even worse. Although I'm not particularly happy about Metroline stealing this route from London Sovereign, the terrible service couldn't be ignored and I'm happy for the residents along this route who can now live in peace, especially as they won't have to hear roaring Vyking's passing their houses at 1am. A welcome service change for them.

Even though I've now covered every thing in Harrow, this is a busageddon post after all and one major part of it was the 483 (written about in detail on a seperate post that I linked at the top), so here's a picture of one for clarity.

Metroline VW1774 on the 483 to Ealing Hospital.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and thank you very much for doing so!