Busageddon: Arriva Central South, In The City

This is another catch-up post, containing lots of quick paragraphs about some recent service changes that have taken place in the Central & Inner South London areas, mostly involving Arriva! I'm going to go through the changes in chronological order, so our first stop is the 25th February and the Liverpool Street area.

Arriva London DW234 on route 48 to Walthamstow Central.

The 48 runs from London Bridge-Walthamstow Central, passing through Shoreditch and Hackney along the way. It runs every 8 minutes and is generally a busy route, providing assistance to the 55 and giving Walthamstow a bus link to Central London. Stagecoach used to operate the route with Scania OmniCity double deck vehicles, but unfortunately (in my view) they lost the contract to Arriva. The conversion of the 48 meant that no more routes in Central London were allocated Scania vehicles, which is a shame as they provide lovely views for admiring London's architecture and sights. The 48 will convert to New Routemaster operation eventually, but these will be existing vehicles, following the curtailment of route 73 to Oxford Circus. Having said that, four NRMs have already transferred over from the 38, following its PVR reduction. For now, the 48 is using Wrightbus Gemini 2DL vehicles, meaning that it still scores highly on my route ratings until summer.

A New Routemaster on the 48.

So far, the 48 has been doing very well since the contract change, with Arriva providing a decent service that is no different from what Stagecoach originally offered. In general, I love the 48 as a route, as it passes through a wide variety of urban areas, but also the almost 'rural' Lea Valley, home to an Ice Centre and some marshes. I haven't ridden the route under Arriva yet, but hopefully I will get the chance while the Gemini's are still around, they are nice buses too! I wish Arriva good luck for the next five years, especially with the new vehicles that are coming in August...

Arriva London HV230 on route 242 at Homerton Hospital.

At the moment, the 242 is a high frequency route running from the depths of Hackney to the West End, through Dalston, Liverpool Street and High Holborn. This route was retained by Arriva on February 25th, with some brand new Wrightbus Gemini 3 B5LH vehicles, compliant with the new specifications for buses entering the Ultra Low Emission Zone. Not all of these vehicles have entered service yet, so a few of the old Wrightbus vehicles are clinging onto the 242 until they arrive. This route has always been run well and Arriva have continued to provide an excellent service, with some brilliant new Gemini 3 vehicles which really suit the route. The narrow streets that this route has to traverse in Homerton are very interesting, as well as the lovely section in the City Of London, where the 242 passes lots of tall skyscrapers and workplaces. Unfortunately, in July this route will not run between Tottenham Court Road and St Paul's, due to insufficient loadings on this section in the off-peak. Although the capacity will be appreciated elsewhere and I can understand why this route is getting cut back, one of the best sections of this route is lost and I will now have to use the number 8 bus between Liverpool Street and Holborn, which uses dreadful New Routemasters. However, this has been a successful service change and hopefully the curtailment can make the route even more reliable than it is now.

Arriva London HV213 on route 259 to King's Cross.

The 259 runs between Edmonton Green and King's Cross, along the busy A10 corridor from Tottenham-Edmonton. It is a very popular method of travelling to Central London quickly from North London, taking around an hour end to end via the most direct route. Go-Ahead London used to run the route with worn out Wrightbus Gemini 2 vehicles, although they lost the contract to Arriva with new Gemini 3's (sorry, there's going to be a lot of them in this post!). Arriva are running the route very well, with better service levels than what Go-Ahead used to provide. The buses themselves aren't anything special, but they're not bad at all and are functional for their purpose, to transport crowds to Central London from Tottenham and Edmonton. When I used the route on a Saturday afternoon a crowd of around 30 people boarded at the bus station and all of them went upstairs, on a family outing. The front seats were already taken, so I had to settle for one in the middle as they were few and far between. By Bruce Grove we had a standing load and the bus was forced to leave people behind between Tottenham and Manor House, especially as this already busy route had an extra load of passengers on that journey. My bus had made remarkable progress, but as soon as I got the front seats at Finsbury Park, the dreaded announcement played that stated that my bus would terminate at Holloway Nags Head instead of travelling all the way to King's Cross. I did ride to the end on a different vehicle and I enjoyed my experience on the 259, despite the non-availability of the front seats!

Go-Ahead London LT929 on route 76 to Tottenham Hale.

 The 76 runs from Waterloo-Tottenham Hale, running through Bank, De Beauvoir Town,  Dalston and Stoke Newington on the way. This route has been converted to New Routemaster operation, under a new contract, where Arriva lost the route to Go-Ahead London from Northumberland Park garage, filling in the void left by the loss of the 259 there. The 76 was meant to convert towards the end of January, but the contract was pushed back until March 25th, so that all of the LT vehicles could arrive on time. The 76 used to be one of my favourite routes in London, but the new vehicles have ruined the experience for me. So far, the operation has been questionable but I think that Go-Ahead will get used to running the route eventually. Another blind discrepancy has appeared here, with these vehicles randomly displaying "Tottenham Hale BUS STATION", which seems unnecessary as there are no other termini in Tottenham. The iBus announcement has changed too, although these changes may be rolled out onto other Tottenham terminators in the future, such as the 41 and 192. I wish Go-Ahead good luck for the next five years and I hope that they provide a decent service for users of this route!
                                                                                     

Arriva London HV309 on route 2 to Marylebone.

The conversion of the number 2 was a straightforward one, with the old Volvo B7TL ALX400 and Gemini 2 vehicles being replaced by, you guessed it, Wrightbus B5LH Gemini 3's! These buses are decent and will provide a strong service for the next contract period, which is just as well for this busy route. The 2 is very popular for providing links from Norwood and Brixton to Central London and is not  frequent enough at rush hour! I'm wondering if these vehicles will be the main allocation of the 2X this August, as that route mainly used vehicles from the allocation of the 2, which was ALX400's at the time. The 2X runs during the Notting Hill Carnival and is extremely overcrowded, providing Brixton and surrounding areas with a link to Notting Hill Gate, so hopefully these vehicles will provide comfort for the Carnival-goers.

Arriva London HV311 on route 249.

The 249 runs from Clapham Common-Anerley Station, offering a fairly direct route through Balham, Streatham Common and Beulah Hill. Before the contract change, Go-Ahead London ran the route with Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TL vehicles, although the route was downgraded to Volvo Preisdent vehicles when the Gemini's were needed for the expanded East London Transit network. However, the 249 has now gained the new buses it rightly deserves, on a new contract won by Arriva from Norwood (N) garage. The Gemini 3 vehicles intermix with the ones found on the 2, so both routes have been replenished with these excellent vehicles. The 249 is a very scenic route, passing through lots of greenery such as Clapham Common, Streatham Common and Tooting Bec Common, as well as some interesting residential areas and urban town centres, which is my cup of tea! I thoroughly enjoyed my 249 experience and I highly recommend that you ride this route, especially with the new vehicles.

Arriva London HV274 on route 19 to Battersea Bridge, South Side.

The 19 is a very long route, taking over 90 minutes at peak times, running all the way from Finsbury Park-Battersea Bridge, through Islington, Clerkenwell, Shaftesbury Avenue and Knightsbridge, meaning that it is very popular with tourists. It is also a useful backup in case the high frequency 38 decides to contradict its nickname; I had a 16 minute wait for one once! The 19 is an incredibly difficult route to run and Go-Ahead London certainly tried their best, running it from two garages on different sides of the river at once point (Stockwell and Northumberland Park), but they only lasted five years and Arriva won the route back for the next contract. Wrightbus Gemini 3 vehicles are used from Tottenham (AR) garage, resulting in some incredibly long dead runs to the South side of the river! The 19 is still a top 10 route for me and Arriva have been doing very well so far, I hope that they are able to keep this up for the next five years, I wish them luck!

Go-Ahead London SE234 works the 100 to London Wall, Museum Of London.

In a recent consultation TFL proposed to shorten route 100 so that it would terminate outside the Museum Of London, with 388 being re-routed from Liverpool Street to serve London Wall, St Paul's, Blackfriars and Southwark, as a replacement for the 100 on this section. Wapping residents were not too pleased with this curtailment, as the 100 is rather short now and it doesn't provide links to many useful areas apart from Liverpool Street. Personally, I think this is stage one of a wider scheme to save some money on electric vehicles (all single deck routes running inside the ULEZ will need to convert by 2020), and this route will be withdrawn with an extension of the 339 to Tower Gateway, or the 153 to Shadwell. However, I could be wrong and hopefully the 100 can live on with its short form! Due to roadworks in Aldgate this route has had a significant patronage decrease and the London Overground improvements there didn't help this route much either. Although I was also hoping for an extension of the 100 to Warren Street (via Barbican, Percival Street, Russell Square and Gordon Square), TFL are short of money at the moment so it won't happen for a long time.However, the element of the consultation that I was excited about since it was released was the extension of the 388. Here's why.

The old allocation of the 388 in 2013.

The 388 is a relatively young route and it has remained with CT Plus since it was born in 2003. It has had lots of modifications since the beginning, only running between Mansion House and Hackney Wick. It was extended to Blackfriars Station not long after it's birth, then to Embankment in 2009, providing a very unique link along the Victoria Embankment. Unfortunately, this was only temporary and the route was cut back to Blackfriars after a couple of years, but in January 2013 the 388 was extended to Stratford City via the Olympic Park, providing many shopping trips for residents of Hackney Wick and Cambridge Heath. The final extension took place on Saturday 8th April, where it was re-routed away from Bank and extended to Elephant & Castle. The 388 has been underused from the beginning, with buses only half full even in rush hour, partially because of its low frequency compared to other routes it follows such as the 8. The Stratford City extension saved the route from withdrawal and it is now quite popular for Westfield shoppers to get home. When I initially saw the consultation I was very happy as a brand new East-South London link was created which should be very popular, especially from areas such as Bethnal Green and Elephant.

CT Plus 2502 on route 388 to Elephant & Castle.

The contract for the 388 was renewed in January, with brand new Enviro 400H City vehicles, the second batch for CT Plus. I still miss the old Trident Lolyne and Scania vehicles, although these comfortable buses are a suitable replacement for them. On the first day the route was subject to bunching and delays, but this is predictable considering it travels through the congested City Of London. The 388 has always been very unreliable and hopefully the difficult extension has encouraged CT Plus to try and operate the route a little bit better. So far, the buses have been carrying air on the new section, with only a few people who normally used the 100 between Liverpool Street and Elephant, which coped fine with single deckers! I had to wait 17 minutes for my 388 along London Wall for a relatively empty vehicle. However, I hope that people will be made aware of the change sooner or later and the extension will be popular, despite my concerns. Although the link should be very beneficial for cross-river trips, the 388 is certainly not the most direct of routes and it is far quicker to change buses in pretty much every long trip. From Elephant-Stratford/Bethnal Green you're better off taking a 35, 133 or 344 to Liverpool Street and changing onto a 25 or 8 respectively. However, some indirect routes are still popular for long distances and hopefully the 388 will be one of them, as I love the new routeing!

Thanks for reading and stay safe!