East London's Trio Of Changes

Saturday 14th October 2017 was an exciting day for many enthusiasts, particularly those based in East London, as three routes were awarded to different operators as part of the tendering process. Go-Ahead London were unsuccessful in retaining route 257, which passed to Stagecoach London, although the latter company ended up losing routes 103 and 175 to Arriva. So, a mixed bag for Stagecoach, congratulations to Arriva and commiserations to Go-Ahead, who seem to have lost a worryingly large amount of work from Northumberland Park (NP) garage recently!

A Go-Ahead London WVL-class Wrightbus Gemini arrives at Whipps Cross en route to Stratford.

Go-Ahead London only operated route 257 for 5 years, from their Northumberland Park (NP) garage. The allocation generally consisted of Wrightbus Eclipse "Gemini 1" vehicles, which were transferred  from Putney (AF) garage back in 2012. The route itself is one of the shorter ones in East London, being only 5 miles long. Originating at Stratford, the 257 travels through residential Maryland before arriving at the transport hub of Leytonstone. There is a brief rural interlude until Whipps Cross, where the 257 follows the high street through Leyton Bakers Arms until Walthamstow Central, where it terminates. The Peak Vehicle Requirement of 16 caters for a 7-8 minute frequency, which is justified from my observations as the 257 seems to be pretty busy all day, especially with the opening of Westfield Stratford City and further developments in Walthamstow Town Centre. Even though Northumberland Park (NP) garage have been slammed for their poor operation of other routes, the 257 was always one of the more reliable services they ran. There weren't many complaints about the buses either, apart from residents who probably weren't too keen on buses roaring away in the middle of the night, as the WVLs certainly weren't the quietest vehicles around! After an absence of five years, Stagecoach London successfully won the route back from Go-Ahead, presumably because the garage is in a much better position logistically, and the convenience of having existing vehicles they could use for part of the allocation.

Stagecoach London 12428 picks up passengers at Walthamstow Bus Station at the start of a journey to Stratford.

In addition to the existing E400s, seven brand new ADL E40H MMCs were ordered for the new contract and these buses are based at Leyton (T) garage. They entered service prematurely on their flagship Central London route 55 (which is normally run with New Routemasters), and there have been occasional appearances on routes like the 275 and 179 since the contract gain. However, they do predominantly work the 257, which is a good thing as they suit the route very well. The 257's external surroundings are urban 90% of the time, and some of the roads can be traffic-filled in rush hour, so the stop-start technology can be effective at these times. However, my bus (12428) was very powerful too, allowing the bus to really open up on the rural section between Leytonstone and Whipps Cross. The other part of the allocation is some existing ADL Enviro 400 vehicles that were previously used at Rainham (RM) garage, which Stagecoach lost on the same day as they gained the 257. Therefore, it made sense to transfer them over to Leyton (T) garage for the new contract, rather than splashing out on a full allocation of new vehicles, which would probably cost them the tender. The 62-reg buses have settled in at the garage nicely, making appearances on pretty much every other route found there. As a result, some of the native E400s at Leyton have started to appear on the 257 regularly, such as 10180 pictured below.

Stagecoach London 10180 arrives at Walthamstow Central en route to Stratford.

Stagecoach London have made a decent start to their new contract on the 257. Apart from the first day, where there were a couple of noticeable service hiccups in the evening, the reliability has been superb. This was certainly the case when I rode the route, with almost perfect headways and no curtailments or bunching. However, this is not too surprising, as Stagecoach London have had previous experience with operating the 257. When I rode the route from start to finish at the end of October, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a great example of an urban East London route that never becomes boring, there are almost always shops to look at and when there is purely housing, something interesting pops up a minute or two after. The rural section between Leytonstone and Whipps Cross is also fun, allowing the bus to reach high speeds. Embarrassingly, the last ever Go-Ahead 257 towards Walthamstow, WVL194, actually broke down outside the Sir Alfred Hitchcock Hotel stop on this section, which has also made this stop very popular for photography in recent times! Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend the 257 if you want to explore inner East London, although I'd suggest doing it during the off-peak, as even the fast section can be gridlocked during rush hour.

Stagecoach London 17979 passes through Romford. This photo was taken in June 2014!

Unfortunately, the 257 gain did come at a price for Stagecoach, who lost routes 103 and 175 to Arriva at the same time, which caused lots of grief within the enthusiast community, as Stagecoach operated these routes for a considerable amount of time. Route 103 runs between Rainham Interchange and Chase Cross, via Dagenham East and Romford, whilst the 175 operates from Dagenham New Road to Hillrise Estate, also running across Romford Town Centre.For both routes, the old allocation mainly consisted of ADL Trident ALX400s and Enviro 400s, based at Romford (NS) for the 175 and Rainham (RM) for the 103, although the latter route also saw Scania OmniCity vehicles on a regular basis. In addition to the typical day-to-day allocation, Stagecoach London's 19000, named Spirit Of London in remembrance of the 7/7 attacks, also made regular appearances on route 103, and this bus deliberately performed the last ever Stagecoach 103 trip, which is a superb way to end the contract! There were never too many issues with service for both routes and neither of them are particularly difficult to operate, with only one or two traffic hotspots in Dagenham and Rush Green.

Arriva London DW248 pauses at Ilford Station en route to Becontree Heath on the 150.

Some of the DW-class Wrightbus Gemini VDL DB300 vehicles bound for route 175 arrived prematurely and were used on routes 150, 173 and 368 before the new contract. However, their poor performance on the A13 dual carriageway and the involvement of route 150 in a route branding scheme has resulted in them appearing on route 368 and 175 more than anything else. These vehicles have migrated from either South Croydon (TC) or Tottenham (AR) garage to work the 175. In addition to the 103/175 gains, the school trips on route 150 previously operated by Go-Ahead London were incorporated into the main contract, which was retained by Arriva on Saturday 14th October 2017.

Arriva London DW229 is seen on stand at Rainham Interchange.

The 103 DW-class vehicles are based at Grays (GY) garage, allowing them to intermix with the examples that work native routes 66 and 370, but there have been no appearances of other vehicle types on the 103. These vehicles were previously found at Ash Grove (AE) garage working urban routes, so this new contract allowed them to experience a brand new type of environment, especially on the 370 which spends a lot of time in the middle of nowhere! The service on the first day was pretty poor, with lots of curtailments and a noticeable number of large gaps. However, reliability has improved greatly since then, condemning the views of many enthusiasts who were sceptical that Arriva would be able to provide an adequate service. The buses themselves are decent and I was fortunate enough to have a fast journey, with my driver using kickdown regularly, even through Romford Town Centre! The 103 surprised me when I rode it, it's nowhere near as residential as I initally thought, with the section between Rainham and Becontree Heath being particularly interesting, with the nice open roads and somewhat industrial nature South of Dagenham East. Even though the section North of Romford predominantly consists of housing, the 103 does use the A12 dual carriageway for around 30 seconds, something I didn't even know about at first! So, if you're looking to sample one of the routes under the new contract, I'd definitely recommend the 103 over the 175, as my experience on the latter route was nowhere near as good.

Arriva London DW245 is seen at Hillrise Estate on route 175.

Unlike the 103, the 175 is operated from Barking (DX) garage, which is actually in a convenient location for the Southern terminus of the route. Since day one, the service on the 175 has been considerably worse than on the 103, with even bigger gaps and regular curtailments. In recent times there have been some signs of improvement but there's a lot of work to be done if Arriva want to meet the previous standards presented by Stagecoach. Rather embarrassingly, a number of buses have been displaying the incorrect destination on the front blind; the route was permanently withdrawn from Dagenham Ford Works last year, so I'm slightly confused as to why the destination was being displayed as it isn't even on the line of route. In contrast to the 103, my bus (DW245) was awful, struggling to reach any speed faster than 10mph and having a hideous vibrating noise throughout the journey, which became really irritating towards the end of the journey. My main problem with the 175 is that pretty much the entire route was already familiar to me, it's essentially a "sideman" service which doesn't do anything useful apart from providing back up to other routes on busy corridors. Coincidentally, the best section of the route is also the only part where the 175 is a lone wolf, the view of London from the terminus at Hillrise Estate is fantastic! However, the schedule also seems to be very loose, resulting in a painfully slow journey. In conclusion, the 175 was disappointing. The buses are in a deteriorating condition, the routeing is far less interesting than the 103, and the service isn't particularly good either. There also haven't been any odd workings yet, so you're probably going to be dumped with a sluggish Gemini.

This rounds off the recent bus service changes in East London. I wish good luck to Stagecoach and Arriva for the next five years operating routes 257, 103 and 175, even if I only recommend the first two. On that note, there is also a brand new page/feature on the blog, which gives tips/tricks to enthusiasts in order to make their day more effective. Additionally, there is a route recommendation service, where you can leave a comment telling me what makes a route appealing to you, and I should be able to find something you'll enjoy. Since its implementation on Monday, there hasn't been one comment on the page yet, so hopefully its advertisement here will boost its popularity.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!