Go Away, Give North London Independance

Amongst the excitement on Saturday 3rd February 2018, two routes in North London had their contracts awarded to different operators whilst a third gained new buses for a retention. Although they don't all meet at any single point, all three serve the bottom chunk of the London Borough of Enfield and Go-Ahead London were the losers here, giving up routes 299 and W4 to independent operator Sullivan Buses and the much more substantial Arriva London respectively.

Go-Ahead London SEN17 is seen at Southgate on route 299.

Originating in Cockfosters, the 299 is predominantly a quiet residential route, serving the back streets of the outer London suburb Oakwood before dropping off travellers to the urban town centre of Southgate. After this, it generally sticks to main roads but the nature of the surroundings still remains fairly monotonous, with the only points of interest being a steep hill on Alexandra Park Road, crossing the North Circular Road near Bounds Green Station and the pretty Broomfield Park. I was left disappointed after my end-to-end ride on the 299, as the routeing itself is pretty dull and all the houses pretty much looked the same - in fact, the only riveting sections were the somewhat rural approach to Cockfosters and the high street at Southgate and I honestly think there are much more interesting routes in this part of North London, especially since the new buses have taken over. Of course, this is subject to opinion and some enthusiasts will like  Wrightbus Streetlites, but there's more on them later.

One advantage of the 299 is its fairly short length, taking no more than 40 minutes to cover the six miles between Muswell Hill and Cockfosters. A modest 15 minute frequency is generally suitable for demand and the route soaks up seven buses at rush hour. Under Go-Ahead the 299 used dual door 2011-plate ADL Enviro 200s, which were inherited from First after they sold Northumberland Park (NP) garage, although occasionally other types including the endangered Marshall Capital would appear. Generally, there were no real complaints regarding the reliability or buses provided by Go-Ahead, with the loss being overshadowed by the gain achieved by Sullivan Buses ; the 299 is now their fourth mainstream TFL service and it prompted the first batch of Wrightbus Streetlites for the company.

Sullivan Buses SL90 is seen along Alexandra Park Road on route 299 to Muswell Hill.

As usual, SL90-97 carry the personalised number plates which Sullivan Buses always order for new buses, in addition to the TFL-spec interior livery and the buses have been used on the other two single deck routes at South Mimms (SM) garage, the 298 and W9, with the former being used as a testing ground for the new vehicles a few days before the 299 takeover. Generally, I'm not a fan of Wrightbus Streetlites, especially the longer variants, because their interior layout just makes it so unncessarily difficult to enjoy the view outside, having ridiculously small windows towards the rear along with loads of glass barriers in front of the seats which even distort the view outside of the front windscreen. They feel cramped and this sensation is particularly noticeable on the 299 examples, as they are 9.7m in length and are therefore shorter than the standard examples but still have two doors. This made the entire journey feel very uncomfortable, preventing any sense of appreciation for the 299's routeing - it definitely isn't top 10 material but I found that the vehicle detracted from my enjoyment significantly. However, lots of enthusiasts have praised this batch as apparently they can reach high speeds, although if you're a strong advocate of that theory I'd suggest trying SL93 first as that bus was truly awful, having no power and refusing to leave first gear, which ultimately resulted in an end-to-end 299 journey that didn't exceed 10mph. The bus wasn't even overreving badly, as that at least provided some amusement to when I had an E200 stuck in first gear on the 143 a few weeks ago. Therefore, in general I'm not too happy about the 299 change, although my opinion on the bus model should really be inferior to the views of the general public and Sullivan Buses' service delivery so far, which is the focaliser of the next paragraph.

Sullivan Buses SL93 is seen near Muswell Hill on the 299 to Cockfosters.

The first day of operation presented some challenges for Sullivan Buses, although in general the service levels were deemed acceptable and this has remained the case since then, apart from the occasional lapse in rush hour. Unusually, the reliability most commonly deteriorates late in the evening, particularly after 9pm, where sometimes the buses run around in pairs despite the 20 minute frequency - normally the punctuality of bus routes improves in the late evenings as road traffic conditions are much clearer. My personal conspiracy theory for this bizarre matter is that the route isn't actually being controlled or overlooked by anyone at the depot during the evening - Sullivan Buses only opened up their iBus room very recently and perhaps they couldn't recruit anyone for the night shift yet. However, you can probably take this with a pinch of salt as it's just something that came to me the other day out of the blue. So far, there have been no odd workings on the 299 under the new contract, although there is always the possibility of existing Enviro 200s if they are reblinded. In conclusion, with my enthusiast mindset the 299 change can be viewed as disheartening, with the introduction of those horrible Wrightbus Streetlites which simply irritate me to the point I can't enjoy the journey. However, unless you concretely share my views on this type it might be worth checking out the route anyway, in case there are some hidden gems within the initially dry routeing presented on my journey. Just avoid SL93 as that was unbearable. I wish Sullivan Buses the best of luck with maintaining the Streetlites and their immaculate interior presentation, as well as running a satisfactory service for the 299 - it's a positive start and if they can work on the punctuality of the last few trips the standards will easily match those provided by Go-Ahead.

Go-Ahead London SEN10 is seen at Wood Green on the W4.

Some bus routes in London may initially look tedious from map studies or reports from other enthusiasts, although the W4 proved exactly why it's always worth trying something out, on the off-chance that your expectations are exceeded significantly. Both termini of the W4 are very unusual and I started my journey at Oakthorpe Park under the new contract - the first stop is just alongside a dual carriageway with not much to see elsewhere bar a crusty footbridge which can offer some decent views of the passing traffic underneath, although the noise of traffic constantly roaring past provided some much-needed entertainment during my wait. After this the W4 weaves through the back streets of Palmers Green on a hail and ride basis, although the occasional park or public house do provide some balance between relentless residential property.

Before any sense of boredom became apparent, the W4 returns to a main road and travels right through the heart of Wood Green, something which is quite fun to do on a mini single decker - usually this route underneath the shopping centre is associated with important double deck routes like the 29, 123 and 141, so traversing it on a very different model was certainly an interesting experience. After this urban replenishment, the W4 becomes residential yet again, serving some extremely narrow streets in the West Green area, although arguably the most interesting section is here, where the W4 undertakes a one-way loop to serve the expansive Broadwater Farm Estate, being the only route to do so.

Arriva London ENN41 is seen on the W4 to Oakthorpe Park.

The contrast between white terraced housing and the countless towering apartment blocks is quite mesmerising, with each tenement having a unique characteristic, whether that being a ziggurat structure or the somewhat admirable graffiti art. The other factor which impressed me was the sheer size of the area, it looked like it stretched out for miles at the W4 stop underneath a link bridge, adjacent to some community shops providing essentials to local residents within a short distance. There are indeed negative connotations surrounding this estate and perhaps the conditions are still quite unpleasant for the tenants, but exploring these parts of London is eye-opening and allows us to reflect on matters such as inequality, but also the architecture of this huge complex - it's brutally beautiful. After here, the W4 serves some more sections of terraced housing before entering the hustle and bustle of Bruce Grove and Tottenham High Road, along with the recently developed retail parks. Tottenham Hale Bus Station is a busy interchange where most routes terminate, although the W4 soldiers on for a few more minutes, serving the Ferry Lane Estate.

This is nowhere near as vast as Broadwater Farm and there is definitely evidence of this area being formerly industrial, although it's in a very odd location, marooned between the Greater Anglia rail line to Cambridge and the Tottenham reservoirs, so all the housing is contained in this very short space with no room whatsover to expand outwards. It's a very odd terminating point, being an isolated and quiet area which is so close to the thriving Tottenham Town Centre, although it feels as if it's one hundred miles away. Within the tranquility an unsettling tone was also created - perhaps the dire state of the construction site next to the train tracks partially contributes to this, along with the occasional lack of pavement if you choose to walk out of the estate. Yes, I have deviated significantly from the aspect of route changes, but hopefully I've been able to convey how much the W4 surprised me, being one of my favourite single decker routes of North London for offering such an enthralling insight into an area I thought I was familiar with, although this clearly isn't the case.

Go-Ahead London operated the W4 from Northumberland Park (NP) garage, using a batch of SEN-class ADL Enviro 200s which were almost identical to the 299 examples, apart from the lack of a second door with the W4 buses. Occasionally, Wrightbus Streetlites would appear on this route and even some of the longer vehicles ventured out onto the W4 from time to time, although how they navigated some of the tight turns in West Green is beyond me. A peak vehicle requirement of 14 buses satisfy the 10 minute frequency, which may sound quite high for a single deck route but is entirely inadequate for the W4 - almost every area it passes through has very high bus usage and this means that the short E200s are almost always filled up, with my bus being packed up to the driver's cab on the approach to Wood Green at 11:30 on a weekday. In terms of their service and vehicle provision, Go-Ahead weren't viewed as particularly awful on this route - the reliability was patchy but that is to be expected for a route like the W4, which serves traffic hotspots as well as tight residential streets where buses often get stuck. Enthusiasts were quite happy with Arriva taking over the operation of the W4, given that the change is a homecoming as this company ran the route before First took over a few years ago (which then became Go-Ahead after First sold the garage).

Arriva London ENN39 is seen at Ferry Lane Estate at the end of a W4 journey.

Arriva London ordered sixteen ENN-class 9.0m ADL Enviro 200 MMCs for the W4, which entered service promptly and subsequently no other types have been used on the route since the new contract. The route is based at Wood Green (WN) garage which is conveniently right in the middle of the route and the Enviro 200 MMCs themselves are quite nice vehicles, not having an overpowering interior colour scheme, although a potentially powerful engine is also apparent, which is rather satisfying to listen to even at low speeds. Unusually, Arriva seem to have reverted to using yellow poles for the interior livery of these new vehicles, rather than the cream-coloured ones which were used on the previous MMCs Arriva ordered for the 377. Day one of Arriva operation coincided with roadworks in Wood Green, which completely wrecked the service and caused gaps lasting well over 40 minutes and a countless number of curtailments, especially in the afternoon, although since then the route has been performing well, which can perhaps be explained by the fact that Arriva already have experience with the W4 in its current form, bar the slight diversion in Tottenham which occurred a couple of years ago with all the gyratory works. I still don't properly understand what's changed other than that the bus station was rebuilt and now all the roads are two-way. There's still some form of development going on with the train station as accessing the platforms is it a bit of a mess at the moment - even the oyster barriers are outside!

Arriva London ENN43 is seen near Muswell Hill on route 184.

Even though the W4 hasn't seen any other bus types, nothing has stopped its allocation from spreading their wings onto the challenging route 184, between Barnet and Turnpike Lane. Its own batch of longer E200s have clearly been having problems recently, with the route having to borrow both the W4 vehicles and occasionally double deckers from the 29 on an almost daily basis, with the former option not being ideal for the oversubscribed 184 service. As this particular section has lingered on for ages now, a summary should hopefully assist you in consolidating the W4 change ; the route was lost from Go-Ahead to Arriva with new MMCs and the service levels are decent so far. It's also a really fascinating route which is honestly it's a brilliant way to spend your time if you like exploring different areas of London and getting to know this diverse city, beyond all the tourist traps in zone one.

Arriva London ENS39 is seen at Southgate on route W6 to Edmonton Green.

No, this is not another example of the W4 buses straying, although the only immediately obvious difference is the appearance of a second door, although even that isn't very clear with this contemptible picture - unfortunately Southgate Station is an absolute pain for snapping buses and I completely forgot to try again after alighting, mostly because the driver decided to let me off a whole 30 seconds after I pressed the bell on a hail & ride section, which meant that I got distracted in trying to find a more appropriate walking route. The W6 was retained by Arriva on Saturday 3rd February and it was simply a matter of displacing old Dart Pointers with the more modern equivalent - Enviro 200 MMCs. They entered service very prematurely, some of them as early as November and I'm sure regular commuters are relieved to finally have new buses on this short, but overcrowded service. Running between Edmonton Green and Southgate at a 10 minute frequency, it's a handy method of linking the two town centres, in addition to serving some housing alone, all within half an hour. The new buses are based at Enfield (E) garage and haven't strayed onto any other single deck routes there, as they are too long for the 377 whilst sending one out on the 313 would be entirely inappropriate given how busy it gets. The service levels provided by Arriva have always been adequate and hopefully this continues for the next few years.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Go-Ahead, Swap The Allocations

You might remember a post towards the beginning of January documenting some changes to Go-Ahead London (GAL) single deck routes, which included the story of the 170 receiving new Wrightbus Streetlites and its diversion away from Lombard Road in Battersea due to a safety issue. Shortly after the post was published, more details emerged on the problem in question and how a permanent solution was required - this means that routes 170 and 286 now have another post dedicated to them. Additionally, the acquirement of single deck route 153 by GAL seems quite fitting to publish here and hopefully you find entertainment in reading the first post on the blog in almost two months - I cannot apologise enough for the prolonged waiting around ; it's been a rather stressful few weeks recently with personal events clogging up effectively all of my free time. However, a sense of normality can be resumed for now and I now intend to start retrieving information about what I've missed over the past couple of months in the fascinating world of transport and eventually convey it to my viewers.

Go-Ahead London WS114 is seen in Westcombe Park on route 286 to Greenwich.

The embarrassing situation regarding the 170 safety issue is quite a complicated affair, but essentially what happened is that a driver noticed that his brand new Wrightbus Streetlite was legally too tall to travel under a bridge, even though other buses did (just about) make it. However, safety is always a priority and once centre comm were informed TFL decided to simply divert the 170 away from the low bridge, missing out a very dense housing area in which no other bus serves. The diversion, which lasted for weeks, caused an understandable outrage from Battersea residents, who demanded that their bus service was returned. As a result, the new Streetlites were taken off the 170 after only a few weeks in service, with all of them transferring to Morden Wharf (MG) garage in South-East London within a couple of days. Their new home is the busy route 286, running between Greenwich Cutty Sark and Queen Mary's Hospital via Blackheath and Eltham - this route also featured in the January posting due to its partial allocation of the Wrightbus Electrocity vehicles displaced from the 360. The Streetlites have settled into their new home quite well, although for the first week lots of them were running around with slipboards like the example above, as the decision to swap the allocations was a last minute deal and the new blinds took a while to arrive. However, all of them are fully equipped now and these 67-reg buses make up 90% of the 286 allocation, with one older demonstrator of the same model and the solitary remaining ADL E200 making up the numbers.

Go-Ahead London SE209 is seen at Clapham Junction on route 170.

As you might've already guessed, the absence of the Streetlites from the 170 was filled with the 14-plate ADL E200s that previously worked the 286 ; these buses transferred to Stockwell (SW)  swiftly and were fitted with blinds quite quickly, although there were still a few banditised buses at the start of their operation. All bar one of the new SEs make up the new allocation of the 170 and the mysterious disappearance of the 60-plate E200s from December has been resolved, with most of them returning from a refurbishment programme. This means that most of the old Dart Pointer vehicles are now withdrawn, so realistically you only have until the end of this week to catch one. Hopefully, a long-term plan has been sorted for the 170 and 286 so I won't have to trek to South-East London again for the sake of writing an unplanned follow-up post. I also hope that stability can be provided for the poor drivers, some of whom feel violated that their preferred type has been taken away from them at such short notice. However, the most important matter regarding the Battersea residents keeping their bus service has been resolved and hopefully they can start to rely on the 170 once again, albeit with a different bus type.

CT Plus DA4 is seen at Barbican Station on route 153 to Finsbury Park Station.

 Saturday 3rd February 2018 was undoubtedly a sorrowful day for CT Plus, where route 153 passed to Go-Ahead London, resulting in the former company losing the first London bus route they gained back in 2001, initially with some Caetano Nimbus vehicles and later the 62-reg Enviro 200s, which have all left London since. The 153 itself is one of my favourite single deck routes in the city, currently running between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, serving Holloway, Islington and the Clerkenwell area en route. There are essentially three different sections on the 153, with the Finsbury Park-Holloway part being urban, traversing along high streets and main roads.

After this, the 153 becomes residential, travelling through the eye-opening Westbourne Estate as well as the affluent area surrounding Copenhagen Street, which feels quite quaint, especially at 8am on a sunny winter morning. However, my favourite section of the 153 and arguably the most unique part, is between Angel and Moorgate, where the route travels through the office district surrounding Clerkenwell via St John Street, Goswell Road and Beech Street, in addition to serving City University and the Barbican Centre. I love this because no other TFL route dives into this wonderful part of Central London in much detail - the single decker weaves through the streets which are particularly effective at showcasing London's magnificent architecture, especially the towering skyscrapers which are both marvellous yet somewhat daunting to look at.

Despite this, a few minutes away lie some more tower blocks, but of the inner-city council estates and I always find it hard to imagine that the two very different settlements lie so close to each other. This area is often deserted and usually the buses are empty too, although I suspect in rush hour this is an entirely different story. The 153 is also the only route to serve the Beech Street tunnel which is always fun to travel through and hopefully once the Crossrail works are complete the 153 can return to Liverpool Street, its official terminus which is much more accessible than Finsbury Square.

Hopefully you can understand why the 153 feels so different to many other monotonous single deck routes - despite its short length you're provided with three generous insights into completely contrasting environments, with the section through the workplaces being like no other route, offering a perspective you simply can't endeavour from the mainstream 4/56 or 55/243 corridors along the main roads. However, if the residential parts of Clerkenwell appeal to you (and I also recommend exploring them, it's very interesting to travel through given its proximity to the city centre) the non-TFL 812 is brilliant for this, serving a huge number of side roads that even the 153 can't hack. Using a cute yellow minibus, you can pay £1.00 by cash to enjoy this masterpiece of a route and if you need any more assistance with finding the 812 please drop a comment below.

This proof read has revealed that I have made a slight deviation from the intentional short summary of the 153 routeing, although this arguably only emphasises the extent to which I encourage you to go out and try it yourself, in addition to my relief when I found out the route was receiving a decent (in my opinion) batch of single deckers in terms of their interior layout and the ability of being able to admire the external surroundings through the windows, based on previous examples.

Go-Ahead London SEe70 is a brand new E200 MMC EV, seen on Hemingford Road on route 153 to Moorgate, Finsbury Square

Being a 6 mile route with a 12 minute frequency at most times, 11 buses satisfy the peak vehicle requirement and a dozen electric ADL E200 MMC vehicles were ordered for the new contract. In addition to this main allocation, a BYD integral demonstrator, dubbed "EB3", occasionally works the service. The introduction of electric vehicles on the 153, due to Central London emission standards, has resulted in the installation of new charging facilities at Northumberland Park (NP) garage, where the 153 is based - in 2019 it is expected that route 214 will also run from here. So far, the buses themselves haven't received any notable complaints, offering a smoother journey than the previous E200s and a contrasting interior, which was noticed by local residents on my particular journey who didn't seem to like the darker shades of blue used in Go-Ahead seating, although personally I seem to think this makes the bus more pleasant to travel on than being emblazoned with bright yellow and red surrounding the entire interior of the vehicle. These buses are much more similar to the 360 examples than the ones on the red arrow routes, with not much sound at all from the engine and an expected lack of acceleration or power, although the extremely noisy air conditioning units along with some other vibrations mean the journey isn't completely silent, which is a relief in my opinion as I would find complete silence a tad demoralising and I find that it detracts from the overall passenger experience, although I suspect the opinion from a non-enthusiast differs greatly. Apart from the obvious differences in the technicalities of the vehicles, the interior is pretty similar to a bog standard E200 MMC and in my opinion they are a satisfactory replacement for the DA-class Enviro 200s that were the mainstay of the 153 for many years.

Go-Ahead London SEe74 is seen near Copenhagen Street on the 153 to Finsbury Park.

No odd workings have appeared on the 153 since the takeover and therefore the route has been 100% electric with Go-Ahead so far, which means that the buses are proving to be reliable. The operation has been decent since the start of the new contract too, with a generally reliable service apart from few hitches in the first week and in particular on the day one where the whole service just collapsed by the evening, although nothing on that scale has occurred afterwards, with only the occasional gap or bunching which is to be expected as Go-Ahead develop their knowledge of the 153. A rather random feature of the new blinds ordered by Go-Ahead is the separation of the word station from Finsbury Park, so the destination display is no longer linear and instead the interchange is treated as a suffix, which seems a bit pointless but if it does improve clarity then that's surely a good thing.

I wish Go-Ahead the best for the next few years in running the 153 and hopefully they can maintain what seems to be a positive start for this fascinating inner London route.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!