Metroline Travel: Hampstead, Not Heathrow

This post will focus on the operator Metroline Travel, who have had some recent success in Hampstead in regards to winning a number of single deck services in the area, but also sacrificed the 105 in West London, with both changes taking place in June. However, due to the H2 and H3 change not being complete as of yet, only the 268 will feature in this publication for the Hampstead wins.

An Arriva The Shires Wrightbus Cadet represents the old guard on route 268.

Route 268 is one of the shortest services found in London, running between Finchley Road O2 Centre and Golders Green. Instead of taking the direct route via the 13, however, it serves Belsize Park and follows the Northern Line through Hampstead, with this journey typically taking around 30-35 minutes during the day. This bus serves some of the more affluent parts of the city and whilst it provides some invaluable "round the corner" links, generally the 268 isn't very well patronised unless the Northern Line goes down, in which case the buses are heaving (funnily enough this happened when I first came across the service and I thought it was genuinely a busy route). TFL have seized the opportunity of a contract change to reduce the frequency of the 268, to every 15 minutes from Monday-Saturday and every 20 minutes during the evenings and on Sundays, meaning the peak vehicle requirement is now for six buses. Arriva The Shires operated the 268 from Garston (GR) garage, with this operation being famous for hosting the longest dead run required for a London service, with the Garston-Finchley Road journey being 15.6 miles in length! This was clearly not deemed viable by TFL as the route is now operated from a much nearer depot. Whilst Wrightbus Cadet vehicles have consistently worked the service for many years, in more recent times the main allocation has been 11-reg ADL Enviro 200s which used to work Stagecoach routes in East London. Occasionally, unusual types such as Dart Pointers and even Optare Solo minibuses appeared on the route, although unfortunately due to low trees no double deckers have appeared. In general, the service provided was decent, although the 268 is not a particularly challenging route to run well, with the only real obstacle being traffic in Hampstead Village. Friday 1st June 2018 saw Arriva The Shires bid farewell to the route, with Metroline taking over the next day.

Metroline Travel DE1148 is seen at the O2 Centre on route 268

Conveniently, Metroline can operate the 268 from their Cricklewood (W) garage, which is only around 15 minutes away from either end of the route. The aforementioned PVR cut meant Metroline could source a sufficient amount of existing vehicles for the new contract and due to frequency reductions on other routes like the 187 and C11, ADL Enviro200s from various different batches are found on the service. Despite a couple of small hiccups on the first day, the route has been run very well since the contract renewal and there have been no real strays yet, with the only truly rare possibility being a DEL-class vehicle normally allocated to the 112. The only negative thing about the change, for me, is that there is a discrepancy with the blinds regarding the Golders Green terminus - most buses display "Golders Green STATION", with the last capitalised qualifier being underneath the main blind, but I was surprised to find DE1148 just displaying plain "Golders Green" when I visited the O2 Centre. Aside from this small matter though, which wouldn't bother most people, the 268 has definitely been a successful change and I wish Metroline the best in operating the route over the next five, or possibly seven years.

Metroline Travel VW1189 is seen on route 105 to Greenford Station.

Route 105 is a fairly substantial service in West London, running 24/7 between Heathrow Central and Greenford Station. In the process, it travels through Cranford, Southall and Dormers Wells, with the links it provides being very popular and making the 105 a generally busy route. Unusually, the peak vehicle requirement for this route is achieved on a Saturday, where fifteen buses are needed to run the service - this is presumably because of the notorious traffic which Southall experiences on weekends. Being nine miles in length, the route is neither particularly lengthy or noticeably short, with a typical journey time of around 70 minutes from end-to-end during the day. As usual with medium-long distance trunk services, the frequency is surprisingly low and can be deemed inadequate in rush hour - bar a short period in the AM peak where a 10 minute frequency is achieved, at most other times the route runs every 12 minutes. On Sundays and during the evening, this drops further to every 15 minutes, whilst a typical half-hourly service is maintained through the night. In general, I've found the 105 to be quite an enjoyable route, offering lots of contrast within the journey, whether that being the fairly monotonous high street of Greenford, the narrow residential roads in Dormers Wells, the urban realm of Southall with a strong sense of culture, or the almost rural element of Cranford where considerable speeds are often achieved, whilst the last bit alongside the planes in Heathrow, or even the vehicle tunnel never becomes boring. I would, however, recommend not riding the route during rush hour, or indeed between 11am and 6pm on weekends, as you'll be caught up in horrible traffic!

Metroline VW1388 is seen in Cranford on route 105.

Metroline Travel haven't actually operated the 105 for very long, with First being their predecessors, predominantly using Trident Presidents. When Metroline picked up the route in 2011, the double run via the Compass Centre in Heathrow was dropped, meaning that it now runs directly from the Bath Road to Central Bus Station, which means that the lightly used detour no longer has a TFL bus service apart from the N9. Throughout the seven year contract, the 105 was operated from Perivale West (PA) garage, with a dedicated batch of 11-reg Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TL vehicles being used right until the last day. The route was worked solidly with this type for a good few years, as the only other double deck type found at the garage (Scania Olympus) can't work the route due to their length. However, in more recent times, Wrightbus Gemini 3 B5LH vehicles normally found on the 120, as well as newer Gemini 2s which were drafted in for the gain of route 31, have appeared on the 105 alongside its dedicated batch. Generally speaking, the reliability of the service was fairly decent for such a difficult route - understandably there were times where the performance was not up to scratch, but I do feel that Metroline tried hard to make sure they ran the route to the best of their ability. However, as the date of Saturday 30th June 2018 became closer, I was starting to look forward to seeing London United on the route, mostly because the 105s former allocation of VWs were really not suitable for the "high speed" section in Cranford, being some of the slowest examples I've come across. Nevertheless, Metroline were forced to bow out in the early hours of 30th June, with London United taking over the night element of the service only minutes afterwards.

London United VH45266 is seen on Allenby Road working route 105 to Heathrow Central.

Under the new contract, the 105 is operated from Hounslow Heath (HH) garage, which is pretty much as equidistant to the route as the former Metroline base, albeit to the other terminus. Even though the arrival of a batch of new Wrightbus Gemini 3 B5LH vehicles may seem quite boring, interestingly this seems to be the last batch of these buses being delivered to any London operator for a considerable amount of time, as London United have switched to ADL for their next gains, whilst Metroline seem to now prefer MCV. The buses, despite being the first substantial batch delivered to the garage (the three 635 facelift G3s left a while ago), seem to have settled in well and have started to make appearances on the 285 and H91. Additionally, on two occasions, "smiley-face" Gemini 3s normally allocated to the 285 have appeared on the route, although unfortunately on both times they avoided my camera and whenever I've been prepared none have turned up! However, the route has remained fully hybrid since the new contract, with the existing Scania OmniCity vehicles at the garage currently lacking blinds for the 105. In my opinion, the VH-class vehicles do suit the 105 perfectly - the number and destination seem to fit naturally with the type and they are also some of the fastest examples of B5LHs I've come across, with my journey on a Saturday morning being floored down the Bath Road and through Cranford.

VH45262 is seen curtailed to Southall Town Hall.

Inevitably, the first day turned out to be a bit of a disaster for London United, with some very nasty gaps during the afternoon and a noticeable number of bunchings. Curtailments were a big issue as well, with Southall Town Hall and Greenford Broadway being used as early as 8am and 9:30am respectively. Since then, the route has still been struggling somewhat - although generally the service levels have been bearable, it is far from a perfect headway with bunching and curtailments being the biggest problem - I've witnessed a very large number of buses not doing the full route since the takeover, with the proportion of these being significantly higher than at Metroline. When traffic in Southall becomes particularly bad, the route has a tendency to crumble, although I imagine that this is simply London United getting used to running the 105, which certainly isn't an easy task. They do already have experience of this area, in the form of route H32, which is run very well, so hopefully in the near future we'll notice an improvement and London United will be able to justify their win of this significant route. Whilst the start has not been perfect, I have seen changes far worse than this in recent times.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!