Random Observations: September 2017

This particular post has been published just after the Summer holiday, so these pictures have been chosen from a batch of over 200 found in my folder. Typically, we have a rather unbalanced selection of photos, with only one contributor from the East, and none from the West! Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the latest edition of a shortened Random Observations, and maybe today will be the lucky day where I moan about your local route....

Tower Transit VH38116 pauses at Swiss Cottage Station on a rare appearance working route 13.

Since Tower Transit took over operation of the new route 13 (replacing route 82 between North Finchley and Victoria), the route only used the allocated MCV EvosSeti B5LH buses, as well as some spare Enviro 400H vehicles normally found on the 23. Since then, there have been two appearances of one of the Wrightbus Gemini 3 B5LH vehicles found at Westbourne Park (X) garage - these normally stick to route 328. However, on the most recent trip VH38116 only lasted for a couple of hours in the evening, but on Wednesday 30th August 2017 this bus managed to stay out for a substantial amount of time. A convenient coincidence ensured that my camera was available for snapping in the Swiss Cottage area, which the 13 passes. The appearance certainly looked rather odd, although this type of bus isn't new to the number 13 route itself, as London Sovereign operated these buses on the old service from Golders Green-Aldwych.

After operating the new service for a few months, Tower Transit are still struggling to provide a reliable service, with almost every bus arriving with a companion. Curtailments and large gaps are also common, and this inability to operate the service is quite surprising, as Metroline managed to run the 82 significantly better. Whilst it is acceptable for an operator to have difficulty in settling in for the first couple of months or two, it's quite surprising that the service levels are still this poor after nearly 6 months of operation. Patronage along the Finchley Road corridor has decreased considerably as a result of the controversial service changes and unreliability of the "compromise" bus provided. Hopefully Tower Transit eventually get used to running the service, as it shouldn't be too challenging for them, especially because their garage is situated in the middle of the route, which is much more convenient and useful than Potters Bar, which is quite some distance from both termini!

Arriva London T64 stands at the rural terminus of Caterham On-The-Hill in between trips on route 466.

The 466 is one of a few routes that run across Croydon Town Centre, rather than terminating there and reaching further in one particular direction. It starts at the rural village of Caterham On-The-Hill, before making its way through residential Coulsdon and the somewhat substantial town centre of Purley. Whilst providing necessary assistance along the demanding Brighton Road corridor, the 466 travels through South Croydon before reaching Croydon Town Centre itself, although the route only serves the South Side before diverting to serve East Croydon Station. Then, the 466 begins its quietest stretch of route, through Shirley Hills to Addington Village Interchange, where the route terminates.

In general, the 466 is a decent route for variety, with a wide mixture of countryside thrash in Addington, scenic hilltop views in Coulsdon, residential running around Purley, and the urban realm of Croydon, with the two ends of the route being my favourite sections. Despite a brief diversion in between Sandilands and East Croydon (which involved running in some traffic), the route was fairly fast-paced, with no regulation or particularly slow sections. Even though the bus wasn't particularly "thrashy", I was satisfied with the overall speed of the journey and it seems that the 466 is one of a few routes left in London with a fairly tight schedule, which seems to work well as the route is generally reliable from my observations.

Various enthusiasts complain about this route frequently, often stating that the double deck vehicles allocated aren't justified, and that the Addington-Croydon section is unnecessary and superfluous. Although the route does often run empty on the latter section of the route, there is no need to withdraw the service and I can't really find any suitable replacement single deck route. Additionally, there are quite a few cross-Croydon trips (e.g from Shirley-Purley), that would require a change of bus without the 466. In terms of double deck justification, one 466 journey undertaken back on a Sunday in May was very busy, with only a few seats left upstairs! A single deck conversion would be brutal for the Brighton Road corridor, which does need another high frequency DD route like the 466 to cope with loadings into and out of Croydon.  Even though the 466 isn't one of my favourite Croydon-based routes, it's definitely worth recommending for anyone wanting to discover the suburbs of Greater South London and there are no real issues I can find.

Hackney Community Transport 1241 stands at Chingford Hall Estate at the beginning of a route W11 journey to Walthamstow Central.

The W11 is one of the shortest routes in Walthamstow, providing a local link between the dense residential areas found within Higham Hill and the aforementioned town centre, in addition to Crooked Billet Sainsbury's. The route terminates at Chingford Hall Estate, which is just a couple of minutes away from Crooked Billet, although this housing area isn't served by any other route, so the W11 acts a lifeline for residents living here. The roads in Chingford Hall are extremely tight and my driver did struggle with maneuvering the E200 MMC around these difficult roads, but thankfully we were successful in reaching the end of the estate. The rest of the route is pretty dull, with a mixture of housing and dense tower blocks to look at. Like the 466, the two ends of the W11 are the most interesting sections, as towards Walthamstow the route provides an interesting view of Walthamstow Market, emphasising its expansive nature. The W11 is also one of the busier Walthamstow routes, constantly filling up as soon as it enters Higham Hill, with my bus being full and standing at 10:30 on a Saturday morning. Although I probably wouldn't recommend the W11 for you guys, as it can feel quite repetitive towards the end of the journey, it's certainly a concrete example of a successful feeder single deck route, which are likely to make up the majority of the bus network as longer service scontinue to be cut back in favour of reliability and saving money.

Arriva London's refurbished HV19 pauses at Streatham Hill Station at the start of a 133 journey to Liverpool Street.

The 133 is one of London's busiest routes, running between Streatham Station and Liverpool Street. It's an extremely popular commuter service, providing a handy link between the residential areas North of Brixton and the City of London. Patronage has decreased significantly on the 133 recently for a variety of reasons, mostly involving some sort of roadwork causing delay and an unreliable service, with more passengers switching to the Northern Line. Despite this, the 133 is still one of my favourite London routes. I love how the route starts in the suburban area of Streatham, with its famously long high street, before taking the direct route through Rush Common and the thriving Brixton town centre. The residential section just after is brief but still provides another contrasting view to the rest of the service, which is always a bonus. Leafy Kennington is always a pleasure to travel through, whilst the nightmare of Elephant & Castle is always amusing to travel through! However, my absolute favourite section of the route lies just after Borough, where the beautiful landscape of the City of London reveals itself.

The 133 takes a unique routeing to reach Liverpool Street from the scenic London Bridge river crossing, opting to travel via Bank Junction and Old Broad Street, which is always brilliant to travel down on a double deck vehicle without tiny windows at the front, due to the somewhat daunting nature of the massive skyscrapers towering over you on this fairly narrow road. With the forthcoming curtailment of route 23 to Aldwych, the 133 will be the only non-LT route to travel down this stretch of route, making it even more special to travel down.

Although straight-line direct routes are usually fairly boring from past experiences, the 133 is completely different, with a change in scenery every few minutes, ensuring that you're entertained throughout the lengthy journey. It's also one of a handful of South/Central London routes that haven't been infected with the disease known as the New Bus For London, which is why it remains in my top 20 favourite routes. It's current allocation consists of a mixture of "rip-off LTs" (officially called the E400 City, which are considerably better in my opinion) and existing Wrightbus Gemini 2 B5LH vehicles, which are in the process of being refurbished and upgraded to Euro 6 specification, making it compatible with the tough emission standards in Central London. In short, the 133 is a brilliant route with fantastic buses, so I definitely recommend you try this one out if you want to explore the depths of inner South London.

Stagecoach London 19782 stops at Barking Station at the end of a 169 trip from Clayhall.

The 169 is part of an experimental scheme in Barkingside involving route branding, which results in 80% of the vehicle allocation receiving advertisement for the service on the bus, including some colour-coded green stripes and route summaries. I wrote about the scheme in more detail here. So far, there has been no indication on whether the trial has been successful or not, although my sceptical views on its effectiveness still haven't changed. Personally, I feel that the attempts at decorating the bus on the exterior are pretty pathetic, with unnecessary random stripes and massive numbers blocking the passenger view and wasting space when the number is clearly shown on the blinds! In my opinion, the route record is the only useful feature found on these vehicles, but there are even discrepancies with this. For example, the 128's route advertisement ignores the termination point at Claybury Broadway and the key interchange point at Gants Hill, although every other Barkingside route passing through the area advertises the aforementioned location.

 In addition, a colour-coded stripe has been added to the flag of every bus stop along each route, which works rather well in Barkingside High Street where every route involved in the experiment has been assigned a colour. However, in further areas such as Romford or Barking, having one random route with a stripe on the flag compared to 15+ other plain stickers looks pretty daft and unprofessional, almost as if it has been placed accidentally! Unless I find that annual patronage for the Barkingside routes has increased considerably, I refuse to call this scheme successful or effective, as at the moment I'm struggling to see how this is going to increase bus awareness, as currently the vehicles running around are in a pitiful state. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to talk about the 169 itself as this branding experiment has stolen the limelight for now, but hopefully I'll be able to express my opinion on the service in more detail in 2018, when it receives its brand new E40H MMCs for the contract renewal.

Abellio London 8332 terminates at Camberwell Green at the end of a route 484 journey.

 Surprisingly, the 484 is one my favourite single deck routes in London. This route didn't look particularly interesting when I first viewed the service, as it has a rather boring allocation of bog-standard E200s, the routeing is mainly residential and the route can get extremely busy with crowds form Lewisham Shopping Centre; unfortunately the 484 is restricted to fairly short single deckers due to the tight turns found on the route. Towards the end of a long trip out on a Summer Sunday, I found myself in Lewisham and was pondering over which route to complete before heading home. I originally decided that the 380 would be fun, although works at Lewisham High Street meant that the first stop was closed and the arrangements in place were a little confusing, so I decided to leave the route for another time. I was also feeling quite tired by this point, so a short route that took me to a fairly convenient location seemed sensible, and the 484 was coming in 3 minutes, so I jumped on board. Abellio have done a fantastic job with the refurbishment of this batch of E200s; the seats are very comfortable and they can get up to some high speeds. My driver was extremely friendly, sometimes pausing a considerable distance from the bus stop to let people on who were struggling to run for the service; a mother with a buggy had almost given up trying to board the bus as she climbed up Vicars Hill, but this lovely driver let her on halfway up instead! He also wasn't afraid to use the accelerator, getting up to some amazing speeds on the back roads, so it was a very enjoyable journey.

Rather foolishly, I chose to board the service just after Lewisham Shopping Centre closed, so my bus was absolutely rammed leaving the high street, with standing room only! Thankfully, the 484 is one of those "short hop" routes, where people tend to only board for a few stops before alighting again, so eventually every passenger left managed to grab a seat. All these positive factors (apart from the overcrowding) contributed to the brilliant experience, but the routeing is what made the 484 stand out for me. The areas it travels through are very affluent, including the heights of Telegraph Hill and Peckham Rye Common, where the beautiful and bustling green space supplements the terraced housing very nicely. The journey was truly fascinating, delving into some areas of London that you simply miss out by only travelling on mainstream double deck routes. As well as the lovely residential areas, some urban areas like Camberwell Green and East Dulwich provide a satisfying contrast, but I didn't find myself bored at any moment on this 40 minute journey, something rare for a single deck route! This brief description can't fully describe how much I loved this journey, and how interesting the areas that it passes through are. This post has contained quite a few decent routes, but if you like travelling through the more expensive part of London, but also like ocassional outbreaks of green spaces or busy shopping streets, then the 484 is for you. You might find it boring, and you probably won't receive such a fast or spritely journey, but if you're a keen London explorer who wants to expand further into the residential part of the city, then try this route out, as I didn't find the houses became relentless or uninteresting at any point. Hats off to the 484, one of the best single deck routes in London!

Metroline Travel TE838 pauses in Barnet Town Centre towards the end of its journey.

The 107 is quite a strange little route, running between Edgware and New Barnet at a 15-minute frequency with ADL E400s. It provides the only direct bus link between the popular North-West London shopping districts of Edgware and Barnet (other than the non-TFL 614, which runs at an unattractive frequency and boasts expensive fares), although it takes a rather indirect route between the two, travelling via Elstree & Borehamwood in the process! It's a rare example of a London bus route that terminates within the Greater London Boundary at both ends, but takes a brief interlude into Hertfordshire towards the middle. It's one of the more exotic TFL bus services, being one of the few DD routes to venture into the depths of the countryside. The 107 is a decent mix of urban high streets and residential areas (namely in Barnet, Edgware and Borehamwood), and some fast rural sections, like in Arkley (situated West of Barnet) and towards Elstree, where some of the roads near the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital feel like they're situated on the outskirts of the woods containing the infamous Blair Witch!

Nevertheless, the 107 is generally quite an enjoyable fast-paced ride, taking you through the outskirts of North West London, sticking to the edge of the London boundary for the majority of the journey. Unfortunately, the once-powerful Enviro 400 vehicles that work the service are starting to deteriorate a little, but there are a few fast examples found at the garage and thankfully I managed to catch one of these buses when I rode the route last year. Being a Saturday morning, the journey was pretty quiet and the "thrashy" trip through rural London was certainly fun, and even if your journey isn't particularly fast, the external surroundings are somewhat interesting, especially as the 107 is a lone wolf for a considerable amount of the journey, which should mean you end up travelling through a large number of new areas.

 Interestingly, the 107 travels through some parts of Hertfordshire where the planned Northern Line extension to Bushey Heath was meant to serve, although this project was cancelled, protecting the picturesque countryside for the forseeable future. If these tube stations were built and became operational, I'm sure you'd all be familiar with "Brockley Hill" and "Elstree South", as these would probably be outer-London residential areas contributing to the vast amount of suburbia found in this City. It would also make the 107 a very different route (if it existed) and perhaps less enjoyable, as travelling through housing for long periods of time doesn't impress me very much. However, the 107 is safe for now and if you like viewing the countryside from the top deck of a bus, but don't want to wait for services with appalling frequencies or extortionate fares, then trying the 107 isn't a bad idea, even if there are some better examples found on the other side of London.

Go-Ahead London WVN30 stands at Concert Hall Approach, between trips on the extra 77 services.

 The infamous "Waterloo Blockade" caused chaos and some significantly longer trips for South West Trains commuters, as platforms 1-9 were closed between Saturday 5th August and Monday 28th August 2017, although the former "Waterloo International" Eurostar terminal was reopened temporarily during this period to help accommodate some of the train services. As well as the reduced services, some stations were partially or fully closed (e.g Earlsfield and Queenstown Road) whilst some train services were replaced by a bus service (e.g between Chessington South and Malden Manor). In order to partially compensate some passengers, extra buses were drafted into service on routes that closely mirror the South Western network, such as the 77. As well as being the fastest route between Waterloo and Clapham Junction, a popular journey by train, the 77 also serves Earlsfield Station, which was closed during rush hour throughout the works. So, this bus service received a significant PVR boost, with these rush-hour only extras running between Tooting Broadway and Waterloo, rather than continuing to the Station where the normal service terminates. The extra buses came in the form of some ADL E40H MMCs, which were transferred from Putney (AF) garage following the substantial PVR reduction on route 14. However, the other buses didn't contain blinds and were simply banditised with sheets of paper displaying the route number, and the destination in some cases, in the windscreen. These Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TL vehicles were unrefurbished WVN-class buses, which were transferred from Northumberland Park (NP) garage following the loss of routes 259 and 476. These buses should hopefully be working route 131 from Saturday 30th September 2017, although in recent months they've been used for a wide range of last minute duties, such as covering for late MMCs on route 5, or providing extra buses on route 161 during the Southeastern blockade at the end of August. The unrefurbished examples still contain the First London moquette from when they used to operate these vehicles, so the sighting of the WVNs  on Go-Ahead routes can look a little odd. Despite being a little worn out, they've certainly been useful over the past few months, and maybe Go-Ahead wouldn't have been able to step in so easily for all this cover work, especially as making the 77 one of the most frequent routes in Waterloo isn't an easy task!

I must apologise for the short formation today. As you may have noticed, this post only contains 8 picture reviews instead of the usual 10, which is due to time constraints on my part; this post was meant to be published last weekend! Unfortunately, I can guarantee that there won't be any updates on the blog until Saturday 14th October 2017, and after that there should be regular posts for a decent amount of time. I'm sorry to disappoint you all, especially with the rather erratic postings recently and the almost incomplete post today. I also haven't had a chance to update my sliding "latest news" information recently; although the idea of regularly keeping all of you aware of what's going on in the bus scene, unfortunately this blog simply isn't the place to do it. I don't have the time to check my sources on a regular basis now, and this doesn't work anymore like it used to in the Summer holidays. This cut back is a shame as I do enjoy writing, but hopefully my postings on here won't disappear completely for a while and the London Buses On The Go blog can maintain it's recent boost in popularity!

Thanks for reading and stay safe!