Wreckage 44, Smart 77

During the past month, Go-Ahead London have introduced some brand new buses onto routes 44, 77 and 87 following their success in retaining all three services.

Go-Ahead London WVL94 is seen at Vauxhall on route 87.

The 87 has been based at Stockwell (SW) garage for a number of years and has typically used the older vehicles found there, including diesel ADL Enviro 400s and Wrightbus Gemini B7TL vehicles and in more recent times a couple of "vantage hybrid" variants of the latter type, although they seem to have disappeared (again). For the contract renewal, the majority of the this routes' new allocation consists of existing, 13-reg ADL Enviro400Hs which were actually ordered for the 87 back in 2013, but were predominantly used on the 88 until it was infested with New Routemasters. However, to make up the numbers required for its six minute frequency, some brand new "smart hybrid" ADL E40H MMCs are also used on the route, which apparently are cleaner than conventional hybrids. The 87 itself runs from Aldwych to Wandsworth, via Westminster, Vauxhall and Clapham Junction, making it not particularly long for a Central London route. Whilst it does offer some lovely views of the Thames, I would personally recommend the 77 over this route for trying out the new smart hybrids, given that the 87 is often filled with traffic from start to finish and is often curtailed at weekends due to protest marches.

Go-Ahead London WDL1 is seen on route 77 at Clapham Junction.

The 44 and 77 are quite similar, in the sense that they are both double deck, high frequency routes operated by Go-Ahead that start at Tooting Station and link the surrounding area of Earlsfield to Central London. However, it is at this suburb where the two services diverge - the 44 serves Wandsworth Town and travels through Battersea and across Chelsea Bridge to terminate at Victoria ; the 77 goes to Clapham Junction instead and takes a parallel route along Wandsworth Road until Vauxhall, where a riverside section leads the 77 to its terminus at Waterloo. For a while, both services were based at Merton (AL) garage, illustrated by the unique demonstrator above working the 77, although this route has now transferred to Stockwell (SW) garage. The 44 generally used ADL Enviro400s under the previous contract, whilst the 77 had a substantial number of Volvo/B7TL Presidents working it until very recently, which is surprising given that it enters zone 1. Both routes were retained upon contract renewal, but with two different types of bus.

Go-Ahead London WSD22 is seen in Wandsworth Town.

Interestingly, Go-Ahead decided to order a completely new type for the 44 retention, this being the Wrightbus Streetdeck micro hybrid, now colloquially referred to as "Streetwrecks" due to their undesirable reliability issues. There aren't very many in London, with only one other batch in North London for the 340. WSD1-22 are based at Merton (AL) garage and from the outside look identical to a Gemini 3, although instead of the B5LH engine the WSDs sound more like a higher pitched Streetlite which whines and screams a lot. They really don't sound very healthy at all, even if there are no apparent problems. Their entry into service was controversial, to say the least, given that at least two broke down upon delivery and a worrying number have gone kaput in their first month of service. Some positive aspects of the buses are that the air conditioning generally seems to be effective and therefore offer quite a pleasant ride, with comfortable seating, although I cannot imagine these vehicles coping on most other London routes. They seem to struggle to reach speeds over 10mph, having poor acceleration and a very whiny engine. The baggage area at the front of the vehicle is also stupidly high up to be useful for anyone not of tall stature - this has also resulted in a rather awkward position for the side blind. All of the batch can now be found in service, mostly on route 44, but occasionally on other services such as the 57 and 163. In conclusion, the Wrightbus Streetdeck hasn't really proved itself to be a trustworthy bus model for future orders, although time will tell to see if Go-Ahead are pleased with their performance. Whilst the breakdown rate is poor and they contain a very unsatisfying engine, I'm glad that they are used on a route like the 44, where the generally slow speeds mean the buses are not stretched too far and can actually offer a decent journey not dissimilar to what a Gemini 3 provides, if you are sitting upstairs. They also have an extra row of priority seats downstairs, which is a bonus.

Go-Ahead London EH285 is seen at Waterloo on route 77.

The 77 now uses the slightly more familiar ADL E40H MMC, although even this contains the exciting new "smart" technology which means this conversion isn't as dull as you might expect, given that there is only one other batch of this variant of hybrid in London. The route became 100% hybrid on Saturday 23rd June and on most days it comfortably avoids the necessity of having to borrow from other routes. Interestingly, instead of starting on their assigned route, Stockwell (SW) bizarrely sent the buses out on the normally New Routemaster only route 88, between Clapham Common and Camden Town, which is arguably more demanding than what the E40Hs are actually allocated to. Whilst I have not sampled the 77, hopefully the smart hybrids are slightly more capable of handling inclines than the previous batch of these buses, given that the 77 is quite hilly at times. Other than that, they feel just like a normal MMC, which is my favourite "new" bus type at the moment, so overall I feel the 77 contract renewal is a positive change.

Thanks for reading this rather short post and stay safe!