Busageddon: Elephant, Lewisham, Isle Of Dogs, Morden, Croydon, Ilford, Upminster

The original plan was to have all of these Busageddon posts published separately, although some posts would be over 5 months late if I stuck to it. This post should summarise all of the significant service changes and I hope you enjoy it.

Go-Ahead London MHV40 works route 63 to Honor Oak.

 Route 63 has been given a full allocation of Hybrid buses upon contract renewal and Go-Ahead London chose MCV EvoSeti's for the route. The 63 is a very frequent commuter route which can be really busy, so the 59-reg Gemini 2's that used to work the route are fairly worn out now. However, I'm not sure if the commuters will enjoy the rock hard seats these EvoSeti's have! The Gemini 2 vehicles have been displaced to other routes, which will be covered later.

Go-Ahead London EH67 works route 363 to Elephant & Castle.

Unfortunately, the powerful Plaxton President buses that used to work the route were too old to last for another five years, so new buses were ordered for route 363. The 363 isn't as busy as the 63 and doesn't venture into Central London, although it does go further than Honor Oak and terminates at Crystal Palace. It provides a valuable link between Peckham and Sydenham/Crystal Palace and is well used in the peak hours. The route has to contend with lots of hills and the E40H MMCs climb them with ease, confirming that they were a suitable choice for this particular route. The buses themselves are nice (I prefer them to the ones on the 35/40) and I enjoyed riding the route very much, despite waiting 20 minutes for the bus to show up! However, I won't blame Go-Ahead for this as the traffic in Peckham was terrible. If you enjoy residential, fast routes with lots of hills, the 363 is for you!

LT851 stands at Lewisham whilst on route 21 duties.

At the moment, the 21 is converting to New Routemaster operation, knocking it out of my top 10 with the 180 taking its place. The conversion has been really slow and most of them aren't even in service, even though the first examples have been around for almost a month! The 21 is a very long trunk route linking North and South London and if you like routes which pass lots of sights, but are over 90 minutes in length, this one is for you. However, if you don't like New Routemasters, make sure you catch a Gemini 2 soon, they're probably not going to be around for much longer. Some of the Gemini's will stay for route 321, whilst others will transfer to Belvedere (BV) garage, enabling the withdrawal of the VWL and PVL class buses currently allocated to route 180.

VWL9 will be withdrawn within the next month or so, with a Gemini 2 displaced from routes 21/63 taking its place.

If you read my last post, you would know how much I love route 180! However, I will miss these Eclipse Gemini's, as they are far superior than the examples that were allocated to route 1. They are fast and powerful and the Gemini 2's won't bring as much character to the 180, although I am grateful that the route hasn't been poisoned with MCV EvoSeti's with stupidly large pillars at the front! VWL9 represents one of the last 02-reg Gemini's in London; they will be sorely missed!

Go-Ahead London SE147 works route 152 at South Wimbledon.

The 152 is a busy single deck route running across South London, from Pollards Hill-New Malden. Before the contract was announced, the 152 was run very badly. Large gaps were a common occurrence and Abellio frequently put out Mini Pointer Darts on the route, which didn't help with the crowding at all! In terms of reliability, Go-Ahead are doing a fairly decent job with the route, although there is certainly room for improvement. The allocation is strict (although one double decker sneaked out a couple of weeks ago), which means that higher capacity existing ADL Enviro 200s and Optare Esteem vehicles work the route full time, from Merton (AL) garage. Overall, a successful operator change!

Arriva London T108 stands at Morden, working route 157.

The 157 is an extremely long and indirect route from Morden-Crystal Palace, running via Croydon. The total journey time can be over 2 hours on a bad day, making it very hard to run. Abellio London tried their best when running the route, although large gaps and bunching were frequent. Arriva London were very brave and submitted a bid for the route, with existing Enviro 400 vehicles displaced from route 133. Buses are parked up at Norwood garage, although the route is based at Thornton Heath. The route used to run with a mixture of ALX 400s, Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 1 vehicles and a couple of E400 MMCs from route 109. The E400s haven't been refurbished and are fairly worn out after their seven year stint on the 133, although they are a suitable replacement for the ageing Tridents. The reliability has been reasonable, considering the length of the route and the amount of traffic hotspots it serves. I wish Arriva success for the next 5 years!

Quality Line MCS08 stands at Bushey Road, working route 413.

Small operator Quality Line managed to win another route from Go-Ahead, which should partially make up for the loss of route X26. The 413 is a short route from Morden-Sutton, serving the houses around Gander Green Lane in the middle. The route stands outside Go-Ahead's Sutton garage, much to the annoyance of all the staff working there, watching another operator intrude on their property (although the 413 stands outside now)! Quality Line were brave enough to order non-standard vehicles for the new contract. The Mercedes Citaro K vehicles are lovely buses, with an interesting moquette, comfortable seats and an interesting interior design, including bells which literally wrap around your hand. The route is running reliably and on the whole, this is a successful operator change. However, Quality Line have given the route far too much running time, meaning that the drivers are being forced to regulate at every stop, making the journey much longer than it needs to be! The extra running time has helped the reliability, although it can be frustrating for the passengers.

Arriva London SLS14 terminates at West Croydon on route 450.

Route 450 has received brand new buses, to replace the Dart Pointers that used to work the route. The 450 runs from West Croydon-Lower Sydenham, through various side roads around Crystal Palace. Wrightbus StreetLite vehicles are currently my least favourite single deckers in London, although they do suit the route quite nicely. However, there have been complaints that some of the buses are quite unfit already, struggling to climb the hills this route has to contend with. The reliability has always been substandard and in order to improve the service, I would curtail the route to Crystal Palace, meaning that it would no longer run between there and Lower Sydenham. However, a route that Transport For London want to axe could make a suitable replacement, with an obvious increase in operating hours and frequency.

Abellio London 8211 at Lewisham Centre.

Although I covered this route in great detail previously, I just want to remind you guys that this route will be axed within the next couple of months, so if you have a spare Friday, please make the most of it and ride the 931! Coming back to the 450 idea, I think that this route could replace the section of the 450 between Crystal Palace and Lower Sydenham, running via Hillcrest Estate and Sydenham. From Lower Sydenham Sainsbury's, the route could run through Catford and up to Lewisham, perhaps every 10 minutes as a starting frequency. It would significantly improve the reliability of route 450 and give Hillcrest Estate and Sydenham Hill the bus service they deserve!

The next set of changes are about the results of a consultation TFL published a few months ago, concerning changes to the bus network around Isle Of Dogs. In short, these are the changes that took place:

• Route 135 was re-routed between Mudchute and Crossharbour, to serve Spindrift Avenue and Cubitt Town, replacing route D3 on this section.
• Route D3 was withdrawn between Canary Wharf and Crossharbour and extended to Leamouth via Billingsgate Market, replacing route 277 on this section.
• Route 277 was withdrawn between Canary Wharf and Leamouth and re-routed to Crossharbour via Westferry Road, following the former 135 routeing. All of these changes were to bring additional capacity to the Westferry Road corridor.
• Route 108 was re-routed between Poplar and Bow Church via Devons Road and sent to Stratford International through the Olympic Park, instead of running to Stratford (main) Bus Station. 
• Route D8 was re-routed away from Devons Road and sent to Stratford (main) Bus Station via the A12. It was converted to double deck operation.

Two changed bus routes stand at Crossharbour Asda.

The re-routeing of the 135 has been successful, with the extension into Cubitt Town proving popular with the locals, assisting route D7. The 135 now almost serves the whole of the Isle Of Dogs, making it even more scenic and a better route in my opinion. The 277 extension has also been popular, with Westferry Road benefiting from a more frequent bus service with vehicles that have a higher capacity! The lightly used Leamouth-Canary Wharf section now has a bus service more suited to the small demand on this section and the D3 is more reliable now that it is shorter. For these three routes, it's been a great success! It's a shame the same can't be said for the other two routes involved...

MEC10 departs North Greenwich, in the middle of a tortuous journey on route 108.

Since the re-route, the 108 is now an exceptionally long trunk route, taking over 2 hours end to end. Bearing in mind this route has to use one of the most incident-prone roads in the country (the Blackwall Tunnel) and it has to deal with significant crowds, given that it is the only route linking North and South-East London, sending it through a dense housing area was never going to be a good idea, considering the route doesn't run North of the river when the Tunnel is closed (at least once every day). As a result, the residents of Devons Road have an extremely unreliable bus service which doesn't turn up regularly. When the bus does show up, it is often crowded following the long gap. Given the extended journey time, the route is now unappealing for passengers travelling between North Greenwich and Stratford, as well as the fact that is does not serve Stratford Town Centre anymore. People of Devons Road are starting to use the DLR and commuters travelling from North Greenwich-Stratford are using the Jubilee Line, as I have noticed the buses aren't as crowded as there were a couple of months ago. Transport For London are now receiving more money following the move to the tube, and it's a win win situation for them. In other news, the route has been upgraded to 12m Citaro buses displaced from routes 507/521, which are being fitted with additional seats during refurbishment. Overall, the refurbishment has been overlooked and the 108 change has been a total failure!

The D8 change has also been unsuccessful, but for completely different reasons. Since the re-route, it now doesn't serve any housing in Devons Road, but it goes through a couple of industrial estates with barely any passengers needing a bus service along this section. A busy route like the 108 was well-suited to this section, as crowded buses could speed past the bus stops and reach Stratford quickly. However, many links have been broken and people from Canary Wharf have no choice apart from to use the DLR. The double deckers are not carrying any passengers, and a driver said that the most amount of passengers that boarded his bus in the evening peak was 14. For a bus that can carry 87 passengers, that is ridiculous. The route now has no purpose and could easily be withdrawn, which just goes to show that these two changes were a big mistake!

CT Plus 1224 works route W19 to Walthamstow.

 The W19 is a busy single deck trunk route running from Ilford-Walthamstow, providing many key links between town centres and residential areas. Go-Ahead London ran the route terribly, with huge gaps and extremely short buses working the route. However, it was a shock to all enthusiasts when CT Plus managed to win the contract for this route, from a brand new garage in Walthamstow. However, the length of the buses was a disappointment to everyone, especially as 10.8m had worked this route in the past. 9.6m vehicles aren't big enough for an overcrowded route like the W19 and people are being left behind frequently. The frequency has been increased to every 12 minutes, but the decrease in capacity has not done the route any good. The service has been pretty poor, with lots of bunching and gaps, but the "classic" E200s do look very smart in the TFL interior. On the whole, not a great service change, but I wish CT Plus success for the next five years.

Go-Ahead London 232 stands at Upminster Station.

The operator change on route 346 was neglected by most enthusiasts, as it is a very quiet route running on the outskirts of London, and the contract change coincided with the Isle Of Dogs changes. However, I got a chance to ride the route over Christmas and I was very impressed. It is a 20 minute shuttle service between the tube station and the estates at Cranham/Upminster Park and Arriva London managed to lose this service to Go-Ahead. Three Optare Esteem vehicles were drafted in from Orpington and have been the main allocation of the route since October. They have excellent manoeuvrability and are well-suited to a residential route like the 346, which has to contend with some very tight roads. The bus drivers are very experienced and have no problem with thrashing the bus at 40mph and even accelerating whilst turning round a corner! The service hasn't been great, with the two buses running the route bunching quite frequently! However, the 346 certainly has more character now and has scored highly for a single deck route on my ratings page!

Now, we have finally caught up with the service changes at the end of 2015 and I hope I don't have to cram all of these posts into one again! Thanks for reading!