Hackney To Highbury: New Buses, Fewer Routes

This post covers a couple of events which occurred back in June, with these being the contract change of route 30 and the restructuring of route 277, including the introduction of an "N-prefix" for the extended night service.

A curtailment on the last day of Tower Transit operation.

The 30 runs from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick, via a slightly indirect routeing which involves traveling through Baker Street, Warren Street, Euston, King's Cross, Angel, Highbury & Islington, Dalston and Hackney Central. It's a fairly busy route, picking up lots of local custom for the handy round-the-corner links it provides around Dalston and Hackney, as well as tourists in Central London where this route gives valued assistance to the Marylebone Road corridor, whilst providing a service through to Marble Arch. There are also fairly strong commuter flows in rush hour from the residential parts of East London it serves to zone 1, with the end-to-end journey typically taking around 80 minutes, dependent on traffic. Usually, the 30 runs at a 10 minute frequency, although during rush hour this can increase to every 6 minutes, whilst during the evenings and on Sundays 5 buses per hour are provided. There is no night service on the 30, with the majority of the route being served by other 24-hour or N-prefix services. A peak vehicle requirement for 23 vehicles satisfy the 8 mile route, having a fairly average length for a London bus service.

It is quite unfortunate that the 30 is rather well-known for infamous reasons, with a bus carrying passengers working this route being a victim of the 7/7 bombings. These awful events occurred when the route was operated by Stagecoach London with ALX400s, although in 2011 it was lost to First London, who ordered a batch of ADL Enviro 400 vehicles to work the route. These were inherited by Tower Transit in 2013, although interestingly the initially strict allocation system became rather more relaxed under the new operator, with Wrightbus Gemini 2s from the 25 making more frequent appearances as well as the later E400s from the 425. Despite it serving the polluted area of Central London, appearances of hybrids on the 30 were very rare. However, a full allocation of this type of bus would be required for the next contract term, starting in June 2018, which involved the 30 going to yet another operator, with Metroline being the successful tenderer this time. This was an interesting move as Tower Transit had shown promising service levels over their five years operating the service, with the route generally being something you could rely on, apart from their last day running the route where traffic congestion meant the 30 descended into chaos, with almost every other bus curtailed to Portman Square, like the E400 illustrated above. Nevertheless, I really liked this batch of buses and I felt that they suited the 30 very well, whilst the (back then) tradition of Metroline ordering wall-to-wall Gemini 3s didn't seem like a suitable replacement. However, some exciting news regarding the new buses being ordered meant that as the contract date approached I was actually looking forward to the new operator and hoping that they would be able to prove themselves.

Metroline Travel VMH2460 is seen at Marble Arch.

The decision to order 66 of the Egyptian Volvo/MCV B5LH EvoSeti vehicles stemmed from the termination of the contract between Metroline and Wrightbus, with the former company being unsatisfied with the quality of their most recent Gemini 3 B5LH orders. This has partially contributed to the manufacturer struggling in recent times, with the reasons for redundancies being cited as a lack of orders from London, in addition to uncertainty in regards to the UK bus market. Perhaps we'll see a Gemini 4 emerge sooner or later.

A few weeks before the contract date of Saturday 23rd June 2018, the brand new MCV EvoSeti vehicles started to arrive at Willesden Junction (WJ) garage, where a number were stored for a few weeks before type training commenced for the 30. Under the new contract, this route runs from the previously single-deck only King's Cross (KC) garage, which is conveniently right in the middle of the route, with the 46 route moving out to Holloway (HT) in order to accommodate the double deckers. Eventually, the 30's VMH-class EvoSetis will be able to intermix with those allocated to the 274, although the latter route is still mostly using single deckers for the time being as local residents insist on protesting to the tree pruning programme which is essential for allowing the route to go DD full time. A few VMHs do come out on weekends though, offering a supplementary service between Marble Arch and London Zoo only.

Many enthusiasts were incredibly excited for the prospect of sampling a brand new Metroline bus type and luckily for them the vast majority of VMHs entered service punctually on the first day of the new contract. One week later I was given the opportunity to ride one myself, having high expectations given their external appearance, which suits the Metroline attire very well. The interior is also one of the best I've witnessed in a long time, with the bright and welcoming colour scheme being very appropriate for the large windows upstairs provided by the EvoSeti. My journey was very relaxing, with the air cooling system working effectively to make the long distance trip from Dalston to Marble Arch pleasant. These buses also feel very powerful - being an early Saturday evening, my trip was relatively traffic free which enabled some decent speed too, something which many enthusiasts haven't been fortunate enough to experience. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with the 30's new allocation, with these VMHs easily being the best EvoSetis I've experienced to date.

A Gemini 3 is seen at Marble Arch, standing in for the VMHs.

Due to the collaboration of King's Cross (KC) and Holloway (HT) garages, there have been some spare double deckers which the 30 has been taking advantage of over the past few weeks, as teething problems with the VMHs are adjusted. These come in the form of smiley-face Wrightbus Gemini 3 B5LH vehicles, which do indeed have the same engine as the EvoSetis, just a different body. Typically, there are two to three found on the 30 daily. There has only been one example of a 30 bus going to Holloway (HT) garage, where on one evening an EvoSeti managed to sneak out on the W7 service between Muswell Hill and Finsbury Park.

Predictably, the first day turned out to be a bit of a disaster, with the efforts made to produce a relatively trouble-free morning being reversed due to some hideous traffic conditions, particularly around Hackney Central, due to the nuisance of roadworks bringing the area to a standstill. As a result, many buses were curtailed and some very large gaps were apparent in the afternoon, although thankfully these works have now ended and road conditions, for now, remain relatively stable. There has been an improvement in the service quality since day one, with Metroline picking up the route very quickly, which is quite impressive considering they previously didn't operate services East of Highbury Corner. I might even go as far as saying the route operates better now than under Tower Transit, so the 30 does seem to be in safe hands for the future, provided that Metroline maintain their excellent performance so far. I wish them good luck for the next few years and maybe the route can actually remain with the same operator upon tender this time!

The terminus of route 277 following the curtailment.

Metroline certainly didn't have an easy start to the 30 - in addition to the traffic in Hackney, one week later its relief route between there and Islington was lost. Due to whatever works are being undertaken at Highbury Corner, the 277 stand has disappeared, meaning TfL had to relocate the termination point of the service. The handy solution would be to extend the 277 a few stops up the road to Holloway Nags Head, which would provide a Holloway to Hackney bus link for the first time, but also open up some lovely journey opportunities for crossing East and North London. However, even this fairly straightforward extension was not considered to be economically viable, which has resulted in a curtailment to Dalston Junction Bus Station instead. This means that the 277 no longer serves Canonbury or Highbury & Islington, which effectively means it no longer reaches the boundary of North-West London or the Victoria Line, which is pretty annoying for cross-London bus travel. It also means that the 30 is now the only bus service between Highbury & Islington and Hackney - it takes a slightly longer route than the 277 too. Although some extra morning peak journeys have been added to the 30 timetable, there has been no other compensation for the 277 loss. The only advantages of this cut back, economics aside, are that this route might become slightly more reliable (Crossharbour to Highbury Corner was a bit of a trek) and the wasted stand space at Dalston Junction Bus Station does see more regular use now - having seven or eight bays for just the 488 was definitely not an efficient use of space. Although the loss of links was considered acceptable in the day time, during the night it is much less convenient to change buses due to the lower frequency of bus routes and as the 30 does not run 24/7, there was still a necessity to provide a bus service to Highbury on the night element of the 277, hence a new route was born.

Sorry for the blurry image - my phone struggles with night photography!

The N277 runs slightly further than Dalston Junction, continuing as far as Highbury Corner like the previous daytime route, but after this it turns left for a few minutes until arrival at Islington Angel, where stand space is available during the night on some back roads near White Lion Street. This ensures that same-stop interchange is possible for onward connections along Upper Street, particularly those to Central London and most of the 30's routeing, which is covered by the N205. The N277 commenced on Saturday 30th June 2018, although the first Southbound trip was so late it was actually curtailed to Canary Wharf! I should hope that reliability has improved since then, although I do not check the route on LVF regularly enough to give a suitable judgement. Secondly, on the first day of operation none of the E40H double deckers - classics or MMCs - had blinds for the N277, so instead they ran around displaying the normal "277" number. As the terminus is shared at Crossharbour Asda, the only true distinction from an external perspective is seen when buses are heading Northbound and the Islington Angel destination is presented, as seen above. Whilst the lack of a number blind was understandable at first, given the introduction of the N277 was a last minute affair, it's quite ridiculous that almost two months later buses are still running around displaying the daytime route - I took my picture on Tuesday 28th August. I know it's not the biggest inconvenience, but I expected better from Bow (BW) garage, who seem to have been pretty good with blinds. On a lighter note, I am grateful that there is still a through service to Highbury Corner at the most vulnerable hours, although I really will miss the link up to North-West London from Docklands in the future.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

The Demise Of Central London

Last week was pretty exciting for the bus enthusiast community, as Transport for London revealed some rather drastic proposals for re-shaping the network in Central London, but also releasing the long-awaited results for the Elizabeth Line and Oxford Street consultations. Due to ongoing congestion and appallingly slow journey times in zone 1, bus usage has decreased dramatically in this area and ultimately TFL aim to reduce the number of "over-bussed" corridors, where more buses per hour are being provided than what is deemed adequate. Firstly, we will look at the (smaller) Oxford Street results, as they can be viewed as almost a foundation for the other changes. Apart from the curtailment of route 25, the Elizabeth Line consultation has no relevance to Central London, so those proposals won't be analysed so heavily.

The 7 is one of the few routes that TfL wish to remain on Oxford Street.

Interestingly, the outcome of the consultation has changed slightly from what was initially planned, as the complete pedestrianisation of Oxford Street has been called off. However, TfL are still committing to heavily reducing the number of buses running along the Western end of this congested road, excluding the section from Selfridges to Marble Arch. In summary, these changes will be taking place:

Routes 94 and 113 will curtail to Marble Arch.
Route 159 will curtail to Oxford Circus.
Routes 10/23 will be merged (using the latter number), running as a Westbourne Park-Paddington-Marble Arch-Knightsbridge-Hammersmith route.
Routes 7, 98, 139 and 390 will continue to operate along Oxford Street.

The iconic number 23 will only scrape the edge of Central London under the new proposals.

 I appreciate that the number of buses along Oxford Street does need to be reduced and having four or five routes traversing the Western arm seems entirely appropriate. I question, however, the services which TfL have decided to remain and certainly disapprove of their lazy bodge job regarding the 10 and 23. After some thinking, I can agree with the changes to the 113 and 159 and accept that the 98, 139 and to an extent the 390 (not my preferred choice) provide some valuable links along Oxford Street. However, what TfL have failed to acknowledge is which journeys passengers are actually making - effectively, which routes are most valued by people who actually use the buses. It seems to me that they have simply looked at a map and chosen the four routes which provide the most links, although even that has some awful gaps missing. There is no denying that the 94 follows the Central Line for a considerable part of its journey after Oxford Street, but it is also apparent that this service is one of the most crowded along this stretch - cutting it to Marble Arch will lose the route most of its custom. The 10/23 proposal is even more absurd ; these two routes are even more valuable and provide cross-London links which are extremely popular with shoppers. What's worse is the new service is ridiculously indirect and only provides a handful of genuinely useful round-the-corner links - TfL blatantly haven't analysed passenger flows and have simply stuck the two ends of the 10 and 23 - which either serve territory alone or provide a unique route (Kensington to Marble Arch, for example) - together. I can assure you though that most people using the 23 from Ladbroke Grove travel beyond Marble Arch, likewise with the 10 from Hammersmith. This route is probably the most popular on Oxford Street at the moment. You can also dismiss the cover-up that a Paddington to Knightsbridge link will be created, when the 36 stops around the corner, whilst sending the 23 this way removes a service from Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and Aldwych - formerly St Paul's too. I would also happily wave goodbye to the 7 along Oxford Street as lots of the route is duplicated by the 23 anyway - it's probably one of the quietest routes there at the moment.

This change also renders some LTs surplus as the new route will be incorporated into the 23 contract.

After all the criticism, you may wonder if a better solution is available. I'm sure this post is not the best place to find one, seeing as I've had to resort to retaining five routes along Oxford Street instead of the magic number four and that I've only spent a couple of minutes on the matter. Nevertheless, here goes nothing:

• Go ahead with the changes to routes 113 and 159. Some inconvenience will be caused, but these two services aren't particularly well used along this stretch compared to others.
• Keep, as planned, routes 98 and 139 running along Oxford Street. These two provide links to different corridors in North-West London, as well as offering a through service through Central London to Holborn and Waterloo respectively. Despite the traffic, they still have some of the strongest commuter flows during rush hour. 
• Restructure route 23 to run from Paddington to Liverpool Street (its former terminus), which was the busiest part of the route. It provides links across the whole of Central London and was always rammed before the curtailment. Having only the 139 through to Aldwych and beyond is not appropriate. The Western part of the route can be replaced by sending the 452 to Westbourne Park (no one uses it to Kensal Rise) and re-routing either the 7 or 70 via Colville Road. If TfL are really concerned about overbussing the Aldwych-Fleet Street-Liverpool Street corridor, how about sending the 11 via Victoria Embankment? Its ridiculous that road doesn't have a bus service and given it passes tourist attractions would generate significant usage.
• Keep route 10 exactly how it is, running from Hammersmith to King's Cross. I favour this as a South West to North East route because it provides links to Knightsbridge, Kensington, British Museum, Euston and King's Cross, whereas the 390 only manages the last two plus a couple of extra bites at Victoria and Goodge Street, which really aren't the end of the world as I plan to keep the route in the vicinity anyway. From my observations, the 10 is much busier than the 390.
• Keep route 94 along Oxford Street, although maybe terminate at Oxford Circus if three bus routes to Piccadilly Circus really is too much for TfL. The 94 is well used along Regent Street, but let us remember there is not an infinite supply of money here.
• Re-route the 390 entirely between Warren Street and Victoria ; to run via the 88 and Great Portland Street until Oxford Circus, then through Mayfair to Hyde Park Corner. This ensures that the extremely fast and useful link (which TFL plan to withdraw) from Warren Street to Oxford Circus is retained - the 390 takes ages - and that the quick route from Oxford Circus to Victoria via Mayfair is also reinstated. This was really popular and is much faster than the route via Park Lane, which the 390 uses currently. These proposals make the 390 a rather fast method of crossing Central London, whilst also keeping it roughly within the West End. The only loss here is some of Oxford Street loses its bus to Victoria, but with Selfridges, Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road all being fairly close to each other and having services available, it is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. There is also the matter of the Sloane Square to Oxford Circus link - you either overbus Mayfair slightly and keep the number 22 (maybe just as far as Conduit Street), or send it back to Piccadilly and accept that the link is lost.
• Divert the 7 at Marble Arch to follow the 36 as far as Camberwell Green, perhaps. You can then reduce the frequency of the 36, which is very excessive at the Queen's Park end, but inadequate on the Central section between Marble Arch and Peckham. From Vauxhall onwards, you do at least have the 436 to compensate.  

And relax. I understand that was a lot to take in and these proposals are far from perfect, but I should hope that they are slightly better than what TfL will introduce. You are all welcome to send your comments regarding them too, especially with any improvements to what I've suggested as I'd love to know what could be made better. From now, however, it's time for the even more horrifying changes - and guess what, I'm putting forward some wild solutions for those too.

This may be the last stop for the 134 under the new proposals.

Shock was conveyed by many bus enthusiasts on the afternoon of Wednesday 15th August 2018, where an article on the popular 853 London blog presented leaked confirmations of the plans TfL wish to consult on regarding the future of the Central London bus network. That is, hacking it to pieces. The details are being finalised at the moment, but a formal consultation should be expected next month. In the mean time, we can feel ashamed that effectively all the funding for London buses has been cut and as a result people who actually rely on them end up with shoddy services. It also seems apparent that whilst there is a necessity to reduce the number of buses on certain corridors, the attempts to do this have been incredibly lazy, with a number of wasteful duplications which could've been easily avoided, whilst other areas are violated completely.

Could Bloomsbury receive its fourth bus route in less than five years?

The first specified corridor which needs "thinning out" is between Warren Street and Tottenham Court Road. With the 10 no longer serving Bloomsbury due to the merge mentioned in the Oxford Street proposals, yet another bus route has to be re-routed to serve the British Museum and Russell Square (we've had the 7, 98 and 10 in recent years). Conveniently, the 14 terminates at nearby Warren Street but also uses Tottenham Court Road, which TfL claims to be overbussed, so that will be sent to Russell Square instead. With the Warren Street stand being vacant, why not curtail a route from the North so that it is cut off from the West End entirely? The 134 will now terminate at Warren Street, which means two routes are lost from this corridor.

Whilst these are hardly drastic proposals, they're pretty awful for providing decent links. Curtailing the 134 will be detrimental for its usage - a large number of people from the Highgate, Archway and Muswell Hill value this service as a route into Central London, staying on until Tottenham Court Road. Undoubtedly, with this new change, they will switch to the Northern Line. Whilst the 14 re-routing may seem an efficient use of stand space (it was never that busy to Warren Street), it does no good for the British Museum whatsoever. The previous routes at least provided useful links to Oxford Street, Marble Arch and Knightsbridge - trips that are not possible by tube - whereas the 14 will simply follow the Piccadilly Line all the way until South Kensington, just at considerably slower speeds. How will that be useful to anyone? Essentially, people will be put off the 134 as the route will be damaged and passengers wishing to access Bloomsbury will be put off bus travel as the route doesn't go anywhere useful. A sterling job.

I suppose you want to know whether I can "do better" than the TfL proposals. If you cast your mind back to my Oxford Street suggestions, there might be a recollection of sending the 390 via Great Portland Street, between Oxford Circus and Warren Street, which not only maintains links there and provides a faster journey time, but conveniently removes a bus from Tottenham Court Road, whilst the core links to the West End and King's Cross are maintained by the 73. Regarding the disposal of a second route, I question whether this is mandatory, although my solution would be to curtail half a route instead. This means introducing short trips on the 29, so every other bus from Wood Green would curtail at Warren Street, rather than all buses continuing all the way to Trafalgar Square. This may be slightly unpopular, but no links are lost at all and the spread of passengers heading Northbound are actually distributed more evenly, with people from Camden Town intending to commute via the 29 maybe finding some spare seats on the way home. It's just a thought, I'm sure you have better ideas than the comments section, but I'm sure we can all agree that removing the 14 and certainly the 134 is not a good idea.

The 11 might not make it past zone 1 for much longer...

The next specified corridor spans from King's Road to Piccadilly and Shaftesbury Avenue, where admittedly traffic congestion is diabolical throughout the day. Instead of delving straight into analysis like last time, however, simply listing the proposed changes is probably wiser as they are extremely long-winded and at times, nonsensical.

Route 9 will be sent away from Pall Mall and instead use Piccadilly, for faster journeys.
Route 11 will be curtailed from Fulham Broadway to Victoria.
Route 19 will be curtailed from Battersea Bridge to Holborn.
Route 22 will be sent away from Oxford Circus, back to its former terminus at Piccadilly Circus.
Route 311 will be introduced, with key destinations being Fulham Broadway-Sloane Square-Victoria-Oxford Circus.

TfL going back on themselves...

 I knew these plans would be absurd when I read the number 9 re-routing, which sends it back to its former course via Piccadilly Circus. For starters, this leaves Pall Mall without a bus service, which is pretty ridiculous. Secondly, it does not speed up journey times at all - the 9 was actually sent away from Piccadilly a few years ago as the route took too long. In addition, this will just over-bus the corridor even more, having this route follow the 6 all the way to Aldwych rather than via a unique path is a complete waste of resources.

In regards to the 11, although this quite a drastic measure, its curtailment to Victoria under the current route is somewhat acceptable, although it does highlight the concerning issue of congestion if a journey less than five miles can be timetabled to take 60 minutes to complete. It does break quite a lot of links, although TfL can now scream "hopper fare" as the 311 service will exist. The 19 change, however, effectively renders the route useless. Its primary purpose at the moment is to act as a cross-city service and is one of the last remaining examples in London. Yes, it does face awful road conditions, but people do still use it from South-West to North-East London. Curtailing it to Holborn, of all places, will reduce ridership significantly and make the route a slight waste, duplicating the 4 and 38 for its entirety. There will be some demand with commuters from Highbury Barn using it to get to Clerkenwell, but much less than before. As for the 311, given what's happened to the other services the route makes a lot of sense, but I question whether a service like this is needed at all.

A route to be almost halved by these proposals.

Predictably, my views are that this scheme does not work. With Piccadilly, keeping the 9 at Pall Mall will decrease the number of buses per hour for starters. Something else I would recommend is quite simple but reduces the number of buses per hour on both Piccadilly and Shaftesbury Avenue whilst not breaking many links. That is, to cut the frequency of the 38, which I find extremely excessive at the moment. It pains me to see the route running every three minutes when almost every bus is carting around fresh air, whilst other routes which are genuinely busy are facing the chop. I would get rid of the alternate short trips to Hackney Central, apart from maybe a couple in rush hour, just running an every 7-8 minute through route to Clapton Pond. This means that the 19 can remain, but perhaps with a curtailment to Sloane Square, as demand from King's Road to North London does seem minimal and a waste of resources - I haven't seen a busy number 19 there for ages.

For the 22, I feel there are two options. The route can either remain at Oxford Circus to keep the link from there to Sloane Square and King's Road (although with my proposal to send the 390 through Mayfair, would mean duplication), or send the route back to its old terminus at Piccadilly Circus, which offers more links that the 19 initially provided on King's Road. Personally, I favour the latter.

I would also retain the 11 through to Fulham Broadway. The links it provides from Chelsea are still useful and creating a new route to replace some of them is just a faff. For mitigating delays, I mentioned before re-routing the service via Victoria Embankment. True, this road is also congested, but is a much more direct route than the current agenda of Whitehall then Strand, which are also gridlocked in rush hour. This means that, in my eyes, there isn't much to change with the King's Road corridor. There will be some inconvenience with curtailing the 19, but the corridor is over-bussed after all and my option doesn't annihilate the route from the entire area at least. Keeping the 11 doesn't actually increase the number of buses per hour at all, as there is now arguably no need for a 311 service.

Not this again, surely?

These next changes attempt to reduce bus flows along Whitehall. The first proposal, which involves curtailing the 3 to Whitehall Horse Guards, is a bit random as it only saves one stop and I suspect is purely because the 22 will need its old stand back at Piccadilly Circus (which the 3 doesn't actually go to in service anyway). Confusing, isn't it. This also means the 53 will be curtailing at Lambeth North, again. Don't TfL realise that this simply doesn't work? There are clearly a number of influential people along the route as there have been two other occasions where the 53 was proposed to be curtailed to County Hall and there was such an uproar that even the stubbornness TfL usually produce failed. My prediction is that the route will end up staying at Whitehall and TfL are wasting their time. People from South-East London clearly like their link to the edge of the West End, and Whitehall is hardly the most congested road out there. I hate to mention Victoria Embankment again, but this will help...

The end looms ahead...

Another long-winded set of plans accompany an attempt to reduce bus flows along Fleet Street, which has to be one of the worst roads out there for rush hour traffic. Be warned, some of these proposals are very vague.

Route 4 will be withdrawn from Waterloo & Ludgate Circus and sent away at St Paul's to Blackfriars.
Route 76 will be removed from Bank and use London Wall / New Change instead to LoR.
Route 172 will be curtailed to Aldwych, no longer serving Clerkenwell Green.
Route 341 will be re-routed from Grays Inn Road to Farringdon Street (I don't get what this means either), with a slight terminal change at Waterloo too, using the previous route 4 stand.
Route 15H will only operate on summer weekends and bank holidays.

The 4 will be sent from a sprawling bus hub to pretty much a dead end.

I've been left quite baffled by some of these plans in all honesty. The change to the 4's routeing is dreadful and makes the bus South of Angel useless - using the Blackfriars stand just to remove a route from Fleet Street is lazy and doesn't actually take into account any passenger flows. The 4 is a lifeline for the densely populated Barbican area and is the only route offering a decent link South of the St Paul's area. It's pretty well used too. Re-routing the 76 is a pathetic excuse of retaining links - it'll still go nowhere near the residential parts of the 4 in Barbican which is where people actually use the service. The only good news is journey times will speed up slightly as getting through Bank Junction still takes ages sometimes.

The 172 cut back is quite sensible in all honesty - sending it to Clerkenwell Green is evidently a waste of resources as I still haven't seen a bus on that part of the route with more than three people on board. As always though, there has to be a cause for concern, with this time it being the 341 re-routing via Farringdon Street. I really don't understand the obsession with providing a round-the-corner link here when no one uses it, whilst roads like Fetter Lane will now lose their bus service entirely, even though in rush hour there is usually a good crowd of passengers travelling to and from here. Secondly, this might also result in the loss of a direct service from Chancery Lane to Roseberry Avenue, which is pretty inconvenient. These new changes will make the 341 largely unpopular to Waterloo, as journey times will be significantly longer, whilst the problem of buses carrying fresh air along Fleet Street will still be apparent. An excuse to cut back the route further in the future, perhaps? Regarding the 15H, as much as this change saddens me (I always find using this service a novelty and a great laugh), the buses don't seem to be very busy apart from at weekends. Therefore, I do actually accept this cut back, as long as it doesn't eventually lead to the service being withdrawn altogether.

Memories of when Abellio operated the route.

If I were in charge of reducing buses on the Fleet Street corridor, the route changes would be very different to what TfL have suggested. For starters, the 23 would still remain as a Paddington-Liverpool Street route, taking the place of the 11 which would use Victoria Embankment. I would go ahead with the curtailment of the 172 and slight hacking back of the 15H. With the 4, my plans would be rather ambitious, involving a complete re-routing between Barbican Station and Aldwych. Instead of the long-winded route via St Paul's and Ludgate Circus, I'd be willing to introduce a bus service to the roads adjacent to Smithfield Market (Charterhouse Street & Carthusian Street towards Barbican ; Long Lane, West Smithfield, East Poultry Ave, Charterhouse Street towards Waterloo), and then the route would cross Holborn Circus, use Fetter Lane and then down to the current terminus, via Aldwych. This would maintain the much valued link from Barbican to Waterloo and Covent Garden, keep Fetter Lane with a bus route, serve the popular tourist destination of Smithfield Market and speed up long-distance journey times significantly, whilst also removing a bus from Fleet Street. I have no idea whether this would work practically, it's just a thought. I would go ahead with re-routing the 76 as it maintains links from St Paul's to Waterloo. The 341 could then be re-routed at Chancery Lane, via High Holborn and Kingsway, to serve Waterloo, which would give this area a link South of the Thames at weekends too. If overbussing Kingsway is a concern, I would curtail the 188 to Waterloo (the route is very long at the moment and not particularly well used North of the river) and send the 171 to the Covent Garden stand, which will certainly have room to accommodate another route given the RV1 has such a poor frequency now. This would leave the 15, 23, 26 and 76 serving the full length of Fleet Street, which is hopefully a better mix of routes than what TfL want to introduce.

The 59 was extended to King's Cross purely for the sake of providing a link to Waterloo.

 These next two changes are a perfect example of being lazy and also over scrupulous, in the sense that a "corridor" which barely lasts two stops is apparently a cause for concern. In order to reduce bus flows on a minor section of Euston Road, the 59 and 476 will be curtailed to Euston and King's Cross respectively, with the routes simply swapping their termini. Whilst the 476 change isn't much of a big deal, as the largely duplicating 73 can pick up the crowd for Euston, the 59 change is awful and simply reverts the active effort made to extend the service to King's Cross many years ago, in order to provide a bus service from there to Waterloo. Currently, apart from the 59, there is no method of directly travelling between these two major rail terminals and not having this accessible friendly option will be a massive oversight and inconvenience to the many people who use the 59 right to the end of the route. If I were in charge here, the 59 would remain exactly how it is, whilst with the 476 pulling something drastic might work effectively. Even though merging this route with the 73 sounds extreme, something clearly isn't working with the corridor from Stoke Newington to King's Cross. Ever since the 73 was curtailed to Oxford Circus, demand has dropped sharply and what was a really busy route now struggles to produce any buses carrying healthy loads, bar maybe at rush hour. This also means the necessity for a relief route, which is essentially the job of the 476, whilst also providing useful links to Northumberland Park, can be questioned. The 73 is only around 20 minutes longer than the 476 now anyway, so I think a through service from Oxford Circus to Northumberland Park wouldn't be particularly unreliable, but would also provide new opportunities for residents of Tottenham to access the West End. An every six minute service during the day would appear adequate, with perhaps a few extra short trips from Stoke Newington in rush hour if such demand still exists. This also removes a fair few buses per hour from this "corridor", even though I'm still not convinced that this stretch of road should be assessed at all as the number of people actually making trips solely between Euston and King's Cross is, let's just say, minimal. It takes so long to exit Euston Bus Station that it's probably quicker to walk anyway.

One of the worst violations I've seen is the 171 curtailment.

I've decided to lump the Marylebone Road and Kingsway plans into one section as they both only involve a solitary route. For the former corridor, it is simply a matter of speeding up journey times and involves re-routing the 205 directly along Marylebone Road, rather than serving the station forecourt. From a selfish perspective, this is brilliant news, as it means whenever I'm using the route on the way home and intend to catch at train from Paddington, I no longer have to sit in the queue to exit Harewood Avenue for 10 minutes and wish I'd changed for a 27 instead. However, what this means for providing a convenient and accessible bus route from Marylebone Station is hard to say - for some people walking down to the stop on the main road could prove to be a challenge.

For reducing the number of buses per hour on Kingsway, a frequently clogged up road between Holborn and Aldwych, TfL have decided to be extreme again and curtail the 171 at Elephant & Castle, meaning it will no longer serve any part of Central London A ridiculous move, in my eyes, as the route has very strong commuter flows from the Peckham and Camberwell areas, but even as far as Bellingham, where using national rail simply isn't an option for some residents. It doesn't help that Thameslink is the train operating company for the railway line parallelling much of the 171 line of route in South-East London. Withdrawing the route from zone 1 is absurd and will lose TfL both patronage and revenue as the 171 becomes a waste of a route North of Peckham, duplicated entirely by the 12 (which is considered to be free by a lot of punters anyway). It is grossly unfair to deprive working class households of their much-valued and efficient method of commuting into work, as after all they are the people who use and appreciate bus services the most. Perhaps Holborn isn't the right terminus for the 171, but finding somewhere else in Central London is, in my eyes, essential. I would propose using the remaining space at the Covent Garden stand for the route as mentioned earlier, also providing some new leisure opportunities for those living in Camberwell, Peckham and Brockley, perhaps boosting ridership on weekends. Cutting the 188 to Waterloo might also be a wise move for reducing bus flows on Kingsway as the number of commuters using this service from North of the Thames has declined noticeably following my observations. It is still a much better cut-off point than the busy and dangerous junction of Elephant & Castle, with workplaces around Holborn being a short walk away from Waterloo that is sometimes even faster than the bus as Aldwych becomes gridlocked all too often. A more extreme alternative would be to merge the fairly short 1 and 168 services, to become one route from Hampstead Heath to Canada Water, with very few links being broken.

Another route ruined by the changes.

 Next up it's Kingsland Road, running from Dalston to Shoreditch and parallelled by the London Overground service. A great excuse, therefore, to lessen services. Along with a slight off-peak frequency increase on the 149, the 67 and 242 are having their terminals tampered with. The 67 will be curtailed to run only between Wood Green and Dalston Junction, whilst the 242 will be routed away from Liverpool Street and St Paul's and sent to Aldgate via Commercial Street, which the 67 currently uses. This is another stupid move - ever since the 242 was cut back from Tottenham Court Road the route is completely dead apart from in Hackney, where some local journeys are made to and from the residential streets it serves alone. The 67, on the other hand, is hugely popular and almost always busy, with the link right into the heart of Shoreditch as well as the shopping district of Wood Green being heavily relied upon by residents of West Green and Stoke Newington in particular. Curtailing the 67 will be disastrous for its patronage, effectively halving the number of people who use the service as only one key destination will be served. The 242 re-routing won't really help boost numbers on this failing service either - the links it'll provide from Shoreditch are duplicated by the 254 at the Aldgate end, or the 55 at the Northern end, so bus usage along Commercial Street will basically cease, so everyone loses out. I think that again a drastic solution is required for this, without touching the 67. The 242, frankly, does not really deserve to exist in its current form, where buses are largely carrying fresh air, whilst other services are unjustifiably being cut. By re-routing the W15 service between Homerton Hospital and Hackney Town Hall via the former 242 roads, the local trips there will still be accounted for (as well as some new links to Walthamstow and Leyton), but also on a more compact vehicle suited to demand. Those actually travelling to Central London, which is a small number, can take advantage of same-stop interchange in Hackney Town Centre. I understand that there would be a little cause for concern regarding passengers attempting to board at Kingsland Road in the morning, so perhaps small frequency increases on the 149 and 243 can be deemed an acceptable compromise.

Heading for withdrawal?

 This city bridges scheme (London Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge and Farringdon Road) is another complicated one, so a brief summary can be justified.

Route 35 will receive a peak frequency increase to 8bph.
Route 40 will be withdrawn between Elephant & Castle and Aldgate and diverted to Clerkenwell Green via Blackfriars Bridge.
Route 45 will be withdrawn between King's Cross and Elephant & Castle.
Route 46 will receive an extra morning peak journey.
Route 100 will be extended around the corner to St Paul's.
Route 388 will be withdrawn between Liverpool Street and Elephant & Castle.
Routes 343 and RV1 are subject to separate review apparently.

A short-lived extension.

These changes are some of the worst out there and that's coming from a bunch of genuinely awful propositions. The 388 was only extended to Elephant & Castle 16 months ago, yet they are already planning to rid this section of route? It clearly shows how indecisive and insecure the bus planning department are at the moment - the 100 extension hardly makes up for the links provided either and literally involves travelling an extra stop. This also shows how much the 388 is really proving to be a nuisance in Central London, having so many different destinations over the years and none of them being regarded as successful. It's interesting to note though that the solitary extension in the East to Stratford City is probably the only reason buses can become genuinely busy on the service.

The 45 curtailment is farcical, almost halving the route and getting rid of the busiest section. There is currently a very large commuter flow from the residential areas of Camberwell, Brixton and Clapham Park to the office districts of Southwark and Chancery Lane, which this route caters for very effectively. Cutting the route to Elephant & Castle means it hardly has any purpose, being duplicated by the already more popular 35 service for almost the entire journey. A round the corner to link from Clapham Park, which is the quietest part of the route, will be the only unique element of the 45 and it seems that TfL are considering the route for withdrawal, which is hardly sensible given its promising patronage numbers. Re-routing the 40 is a useless replacement too - I respect that there may be demand from Dulwich to Southwark, but sending it over to Clerkenwell Green at the North end is a really dumb decision, with the Blackfriars Road corridor being completely annihilated in terms of providing a varied set of destinations North of the Thames. The 40 is just doing to duplicate the 63 for crying out loud. This also leaves Fenchurch Street Station without a bus service, which is appalling for a major London rail terminal.

With the 343 and RV1, I'm hardly surprised that the latter route is being reviewed and I suspect it'll be a complete withdrawal following the recent savage cut to every 20 minutes, as well as the disturbingly rapid decrease in passenger numbers over the past couple of years. I just hope they don't consider the 343 to be an adequate replacement though - the Tower Hill to Waterloo and London Bridge to Aldwych links are genuinely useful and could be well patronised if given the correct publicity. Sending the 381 over the Thames to Covent Garden would cater for most of this, although the Tower Hill to Waterloo link is a little more difficult to combat. An eccentric suggestion would be to revive the 15H and send it over the river, although to my understanding that service has to be duplicated entirely by a mainstream route as the Routemasters aren't wheelchair friendly.

This photo was taken near Fenchurch Street, which is inconvenient enough to get to.

My thoughts? Well, for starters I would keep the 45 in its current form - the demand is just too great to sacrifice. With the 100, I've always thought an extension to Russell Square, via Barbican, St John Street, Percival Street and Great Ormond Street would establish some really popular back road links in Central London, although that's out of the window due to the lack of £££££. That aside, I do genuinely think sending the 40 via the Southwark area would be popular, although instead of dumping the route at Clerkenwell I would terminate it at Liverpool Street, using the former 388 routeing, to retain that handy North-East link from Blackfriars Road as well as serve some more office blocks, which would make the City workers happy. However, instead of just leaving Fenchurch Street isolated, a simple re-routing of the 100 between Aldgate and Bishopsgate would be a suitable replacement. In regards to my plans for the 388, I'll include them in the next and final section, where they fit in more appropriately.

A number that shall cease to exist.

The final scheme reduces bus flows along London Bridge and Hackney Road, by withdrawing the 48 service altogether. A peak frequency increase on the 26 and an extension of the 55 to Walthamstow Central are an attempt at a replacement. I feel that these proposals are a perfect example of TfL not providing an efficient analysis of bus flows and simply looking at a map. It is true that the 48 and 55 duplicate each other for a very long period of time, but if they actually witnessed the services on a day-to-day basis TfL would find that both are extremely well-used, providing valuable assistance to each other. Without the 48, the 55 is going to simply crumble and also become unreliable with its extension - the route is long enough already and the traffic on Hoe Street is terrible on most days. The link from Bishopsgate to Hackney is also extremely popular at weekends, especially on a Saturday afternoon, with the 48 actually struggling to cope with the demand from Shoreditch. The 26 on the other hand, is another route which is struggling to reach its potential, with very few trips actually utilising an adequate proportion of the capacity provided. It provides some pretty cool links into Waterloo from North-East London, but only serving housing along Hackney Road and in Hackney Wick before calling it a day doesn't get you full buses.

The current terminus of the 55.

At the moment, I think the running both the 48 and 55 together is certainly viable. Whether operating the 26 and 388 is worthwhile is another matter though. They are two of the least used Central London routes and their patronage figures combined are probably less than that of the 55 and possibly the 48. Therefore, I propose merging the 26 and 388, to run as one route from Waterloo to Stratford City, running via the former until Liverpool Street then taking the routeing of the latter, via Bethnal Green and Victoria Park Road, heading Westbound. I chose this route because the new links from Bethnal Green Road to Fleet Street and Waterloo could be quite popular, although to compensate for the loss of the Hackney Road corridor, perhaps in rush hour a few extra services could run this way, numbered the 26. Ideally these two routes would be left alone, but if merging something is truly necessary it's a far better choice than the 48 and 55, in my opinion.

Under the Crossrail consultation, route 25 will be cut to Holborn Circus.

Congratulations, you got through all of the proposals and my resultant ranting! Feel free to leave your own suggestions in the comments section, but to round off I've put together a complete list of my changes so you can view them in perspective rather than scattered everywhere. To view the actual TfL proposals like this, click here for the article where all this information came from!

Tottenham Court Road:

Divert 390 via Great Portland Street, between Oxford Circus and Warren Street.

Curtail every other 29 at Warren Street, with 5bph continuing to Trafalgar Square (alternate is curtail every other 14 at TCR)

King's Road, Piccadilly & Shaftesbury Avenue:

Curtail route 19 at Sloane Square, no longer serving Battersea Bridge.

Divert route 22 to Piccadilly Circus.

Withdraw short 38 trips to Hackney Central, run as an 8bph through service.

Whitehall:

Divert route 11, between Mansion House and Westminster, via Victoria Embankment.

Fleet Street:

Divert route 11, between Mansion House and Westminster, via Victoria Embankment (compensate for re-introduction of the 23 between Paddington & Liverpool Street).

Curtail route 172 to Aldwych.

Reduce supplementary 15H service to run summer weekends and bank holidays only.

Divert route 4 between Aldwych and Barbican via Fetter Lane, Holborn Circus and Charterhouse Street/Long Lane.

Divert route 76 via St Paul's, no longer serving Bank.

Re-route the 341, between Chancery Lane and Aldwych, via Holborn and Kingsway.

Kingsway:

Curtail route 171 to Covent Garden (share with the RV1).

Curtail route 188 to Waterloo.

Merge routes 1/168 to run Hampstead Heath-Canada Water 8bph (compensate for route 341 introduction)

Euston Road: 

Merge routes 73/476 to run Oxford Circus-Northumberland Park 10bph

Kingsland Road:

Withdraw route 242, divert W15 from Homerton Hospital to run via former 242 routeing until Hackney Town Hall.

Slight increase on peak frequencies for routes 149 and 243 to compensate.

Blackfriars Road:

Divert route 40 at Elephant & Castle, via former 388 routeing, to Liverpool Street

Divert route 100 via Fenchurch Street and Gracechurch Street.

Restructure route 388 to run from Waterloo to Stratford City.

Run route 26 as rush hour only trips from Hackney Wick to Waterloo via the current routeing, perhaps six in the morning and six in the evening.

Thanks for reading, stay safe and please give me your thoughts and improvements!

An Anglia Adventure

Whilst this publication has little relevance to London or buses, these transport trips couldn't really miss out on a full write up. The Greater Anglia network will be completely revamped within a couple of years, with an entire fleet of new trains replacing the mixed bag of units currently operating services - I decided that their quirky branch lines would be more fun under the "old" and have subsequently made two trips out of the capital and into the countryside, which are in fact my first proper full days on the rails. Originally, the Anglia adventure was planned to be squeezed into one exhausting marathon of a day, but that prevented actually exploring any of the destinations where trains deposit passengers, so I decided to embark on the easier half on Sunday 29th July 2018.

Greater Anglia 360103 is seen at Harwich Town working the branch line.

My first and second trains happened to be of the Class 360 type - a model I'm all too familiar with thanks to living on the Heathrow Connect TFL Rail route. The 0902 departure from London Liverpool Street took me as far as Manningtree, the penultimate stop on its journey, stopping at a number of stations along the Great Eastern Main Line, which is pretty underwhelming and only provides views which are very "average". Nevertheless, the journey flew by and it was time for another one of these units on the Mayflower Line, which runs between Manningtree and Harwich Town.

Generally speaking, this branch runs at an hourly frequency, with a single unit ploughing back and forth along the 22 minute journey. There is one through service in rush hour to London Liverpool Street and sometimes there are special direct trains to Harwich International from destinations like Lowestoft, Cambridge and London, which connect with boat services to Holland. My train on the Mayflower Line was pretty quiet upon departure, with four carriages being more than adequate given the patronage. After splitting off from the Great Eastern Main Line quite hastily, the train ran through suburbs and some rural patches until Mistley, a quiet station which boasts a wonderful old signal box. However, after this tolerable section some water became visible and revealed why the Mayflower Line is so highly regarded among enthusiasts.

Some boats at Harwich Docks.

This train route runs along the River Stour for the majority of the journey and offers some incredible views of the water just before its estuary, with lots of boats sailing up and down too. After Wrabness the view is almost unspoilt by nature and is probably one of the best opportunities for viewing an admirable river from a train. Harwich International is a very odd station, given that it has hardly any custom outside of boat departure times - it is evident that the popularity of train services has declined given the lack of productivity on its three curved platforms, long enough to occupy an intercity train. On my visit the empty departure lounges looked very eerie and a solitary Class 321 unit was abandoned in one of the platforms, presumably having worked a "boat train" in the morning. The emergence of a huge Stena Line ship sitting in the port emphasised the attempt at integration here. After some more stunning views of the water, the train arrived at Dovercourt, which is the busiest station on the line and seems to contain a large enough selection of housing for it to be well patronised. Harwich Town, the end of the line, is a very short distance from the previous station and there are some lovely posters there about the community involvement with the Mayflower Line, although unfortunately during my visit this seemed to be sealed off.

I gave myself 60 minutes to explore Harwich itself and what became immediately apparent was how much more significant I had imagined the place to be. Outside the station there is a permanently closed First bus garage along with a pitiful "bus station", which is in reality just a small lay-by, along with a load of abandoned beer canisters. The town centre itself is comprised of very narrow streets, with some unusual architecture, although most of the properties here are residential. There are a few eateries, but are scattered everywhere with no singular parade of shops that were actually open at 11:30 on a Sunday. The place doesn't even have a Greggs. After investigating some roads off the beaten track and only finding a UKIP headquarters, I thought it would be wise to turn back and attempt to ignore my persistent hunger, given that the only open restaurant seemed overwhelmingly fancy and only served sea food at extortionate pricing.

However, what I found next was an absolute gem. Despite the torrential rain I envisaged that there would be some commendable views of the sea and maybe even some boats from the road closest to the docks and whilst my expectations were certainly met, it seems that coincidentally I had turned up during what appeared to be something quite significant. Even though some people had packed up and gone home for the day given the terrible weather conditions, music was playing and there were evidently a few market stalls, serving a variety of local produce. Whilst the streets of the town were deserted this place was busy in comparison, with all the community coming together and providing what was a remarkably admirable event.

The Harwich Sea Festival and Lifeboat Day had been meticulously planned for months and it was a shame that despite the previous persistent heatwave the adverse conditions probably lost a sizeable amount of custom. This didn't stop some people however - a number of young girls were cheer leading and the mayor/mayoress of Harwich even showed up for the opening ceremony. Coincidence can be a wonderful thing sometimes.

In the end I decided to actually invest in one of the stalls, as an attempted commendation regarding the fact they actually still bothered to serve food even though many others gave up. True, the roll was soggy as a result of the non-existent shelter and the overpowering wind meant Harwich Pier was littered with crumbs (sorry!), but there was something quite beautiful about undertaking what could've been someone's worst nightmare and simply standing in the middle of the pouring rain and watching the water, completely isolated from the market just metres away. No one dared to venture further than the designated stall area.

Whilst Harwich is probably not somewhere I will visit again, with a shocking lack of facilities, the memory of accidentally stumbling across this low-key but praiseworthy event and watching the whole community soldier on like that, is a memory I will treasure for life. It was time to get back on the train now though, the same Class 360 as last time, back to the Great Eastern Main Line.

A Greater Anglia Class 321 is seen at Wickford.

 Even though the connection from my ex-Harwich service to the intercity train to London was perfect, unfortunately I had to let this opportunity go as this service didn't call at Marks Tey, which was my required destination. Around 10 minutes later, the Ipswich stopper turned up, although in the form of an unrefurbished Class 321 this time, which was busy and due to their cramped interior made the experience rather unpleasant. I was also extremely tempted to correct the passenger sitting behind who claimed to boast about possessing knowledge of Colchester Station having the longest train platform in the UK - this is not strictly true as it splits halfway down and therefore I believe Gloucester wins this award. However, I decided not to cause a commotion and instead reflect on how I would spend my time at Marks Tey. Unfortunately, even though a considerable number of trains stop here and is one of the more prolific stations on the GEML, there is literally nothing to do. The station entrance leads out onto an unpleasant dual carriageway, with no sign of civilisation bar maybe a roundabout in the near distance and a few minutes of walking just ended up back at the station car park. Luckily, the station cafe seemed to be open on a Sunday and I enjoyed a pretty decent hot chocolate which helped to pass time. It did feel quite disorientating having to warm up however, given that the day before I would've been begging for a slushy instead.

Greater Anglia 153309 is seen at Marks Tey working a Sudbury service.

I always find it rather amusing when the announcement is played for a service "formed of 1 coach" - by definition that isn't even a train! It was quite surprising to get a Class 153 train on this line anyway, as usually these services are at least 2 carriages in length, although quieter loadings on Sundays mean this working is probably more acceptable. After a slight delay regarding holding the connection from a late outbound service from London, which proved useful for many passengers, my less than glamorous Sprinter train accelerated away from the GEML for my second branch line of the day. The Gainsborough Line is predominantly rural, with trains running at an hourly frequency between four stations all around six minutes apart, although at the start and end of each day there is a through service to Colchester, for the sake of physically getting the unit on and off the branch. For the entire length the line is single track, although the side which the platform lies alters depending on the station. The first section is quite fun as the train is surrounded by woods, with the leaves getting uncomfortably close at times, although after this a stunning view of the countryside is revealed from a beautiful and lengthy viaduct which this train fortunately uses.

Shortly afterwards, Chappel & Wakes Colne station appeared and was thriving as a seemingly popular event was taking place at the East Anglian Railway Museum, which the branch line seems to bisect. They have a wide variety of heritage stock on offer and even a lovely dining car - a proper visit to this place is certainly necessary. After this, the line is predominantly spent travelling through the Suffolk countryside, perhaps with an occasional village, although there is definitely a quaint atmosphere surrounding the Gainsborough Line. Before the terminus at Sudbury, however, where most passengers alighted, there is Bures Station, which was insignificant until a couple of months ago where it became a request stop and now holds the title of being the closest example to London. On both occasions my train did stop there though, making it look like one of the more popular request stops too. It was quite sad having to step off the unit at Marks Tey as the line provides a consistently entertaining 20 minute journey, although as I crossed the footbridge happiness returned as a Class 360 unit seemed to be the train taking me further down the Great Eastern Main Line, as far as Shenfield.

Greater Anglia 321430 is seen at Southminster.

The familiar sight of TFL Rail services, including the new Crossrail units, at Shenfield gave connotations of London and ultimately my home town, although the day was still incomplete and I was actually jumping on a train bound for Southend Victoria, another unrefurbished Class 321 unit. At Wickford, due to the cross platform interchange, the connection to the Southminster train was tight, but manageable and I successfully boarded this service on my final branch line of the day. There were only around eight people on this train and the number didn't become any higher either, although I imagine the line is used more substantially in peak hours. A scary ticking noise and a broken passenger information system made the train feel quite spooky, especially when stationary given that these units are almost silent. Trains on the Crouch Valley line run at an hourly frequency on Sundays, although on weekdays this is increased to every 40 minutes and some services in rush hour run to London Liverpool Street.

The intermediate calling points of Battlesbridge, South Woodham Ferrers, North Fambridge and Burnham On Crouch host some interesting names, whilst the third station is the only example to boast two platforms and is where the units can pass each other. There is a very desolate feeling to this branch - it is mostly rural but the fields it passes rarely serve agricultural purposes and instead feel rather abandoned, especially in gloomy weather. The surroundings are deserted too, with the middle section in particular having relatively few houses to the North and nothing to the South. Its stations just seem to appear randomly, sometimes coinciding with an emergence of industry, but the settlements are very remote and the lack of patronage on my trip certainly contributed to this feeling. There are some lovely waterside views too of the River Crouch, both as a substantial movement of water and the tiny streams it separates into, although this does not match the natural beauty seen on the Mayflower Line.

Upon arrival into Southminster, any signs of civilisation remained few and far between, with the general atmosphere of the Crouch Valley Line being very bleak and a reminder of what it feels like to be in the middle of nowhere - even the settlements have a sense of lifelessness surrounding them. I still loved my experience though and I'd struggle to believe there are any other lines like this out there, passing through such barren landscapes with no obvious natural beauty, yet also acting as a commuter service. If you have to kill time in Southminster I'd suggest finding somewhere with a mobile phone signal as all I found was some unremarkable housing within the village that was quiet enough to be unsettling, along with a Nisa Local store which acts as a lifeline to its residents. On Sundays there is a solitary bus service running at an amazing frequency of every two hours.

As a result, my only option was to take the train back down to Wickford again and enjoy the disorientating vibes given to me, although I can tell you that this wouldn't be anywhere near as effective on newer stock, as much as I dislike the unrefurbished Class 321s. However, my initially consistent luck with catching the trains would be really tested at Wickford, with a challenging three minute connection from the Southminster service to the London-bound trains, which depart from across the footbridge and halfway down the platform. Infuriatingly, the Southend and Southminster service's paths conflict and as the Southend Victoria train was late and (stupidly) not held in the platform, we were forced to sit outside the station and watch the London train sail past and arrive into the station before us. Despite sprinting, the connecting service decided to be awfully unkind and leave without us, which was pretty irritating as this could've really been handled better. Half an hour hardly seemed appealing, but news then emerged that due to a train fault the next train was cancelled! 60 minutes stranded in Wickford on a Sunday evening is not my cup of tea and I reached home much later than intended - not good at all!

Two First Essex Wright Streetlites are seen at Wickford, the front-runner being the rescue vehicle,whilst the bus in the background is broken down.

My unintentional exploration of Wickford wasn't particularly successful - admittedly the high street was much more substantial than anticipated but only dodgy kebab shops seemed to actually still be open. In addition to a broken down Wrightbus Streetlite and a rescue vehicle on the 16, I saw an E200 MMC on the X10, but other than that the roads were traversed by cars alone, which sums up the state of Sunday bus services outside of London. After this, I pondered on my thoughts about the timetabling of the Crouch Valley service and a previous conversation between a passenger and the guard which I overheard earlier. I would strongly propose that either Southminster services are given priority so the main services can wait for the connection, or that the branch is re-timetabled completely. Moving the departures and arrivals from Southminster to 15 minutes earlier, maintaining the deliberate passing point at North Fambridge, would allow leisurely connections at both ends, whilst not holding up any other services given that the branch is isolated. Three minutes is entirely inadequate and Greater Anglia need to realise this if they want passengers to be comfortable with using their services and making sure they are trustworthy. At long last, after my 60 minute delay, which is pending a partial refund after sending in the form, a "renatus project" refurbished Class 321 showed up, which was a bonus at least as I had been hunting these down for ages. The quality of the interior is stunning, a stark contrast to the dire state of the unrefurbished trains and makes the units seem almost brand new - it's a shame they're being withdrawn in a couple of years as this has finally made the backbone of the Greater Anglia network tolerable to travel on, with more comfortable seating, phone charging facilities, WiFi and many more useful facilities. This train was very busy due to to the cancellation, although I still enjoyed the journey and I still absolutely loved my first part of the Anglia adventure, despite the Wickford incident.

Greater Anglia 90006 is seen at London Liverpool Street

Part two of my Anglia adventure commenced at 0800 on Saturday 11th August 2018, with one of the loco-hauled intercity services, running every half an hour between London Liverpool Street and Norwich, serving key destinations along the Great Eastern Main Line at a rapid pace. This was my first ride on an electric locomotive - indeed the only "modern" hauled trains I'd been on before this trip were the HSTs under GWR and they offer a nice smooth ride as well as all the other joys of a slam door service. Surprisingly for such a short journey a buffet car is also available and the interior is perfectly adequate, with the seating in standard class being comfortable and the light grey colour scheme not being particularly flamboyant, but hardly unattractive. My only complaint is that the WiFi is pretty useless, although it's a shame that these trains will be replaced by electric multiple units in a couple of years, which will offer a very different experience. This trip to Ipswich was fairly uninteresting, especially as most of it was already familiar territory, although there are some nice panoramic views after Manningtree. We travelled at a consistently fast pace (non-stop to Colchester) with a punctual arrival at my destination, which allowed for a leisurely connection onto my first proper completion of the day. From this point onwards, right until the return to London, all my journeys were covered by the Anglia Plus Day Ranger, a brilliant tool which allows unlimited travel around the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire areas for a fixed price and as a result this day turned out to be significantly cheaper than part one and its confusingly high number of return tickets purchased for travel.

Greater Anglia 170203 is seen at the terminus of Lowestoft.

I was satisfied with a Class 170 unit for my lengthy trip to Lowestoft, as these trains are both comfortable and air conditioned, as well as offering large windows. The first stretch out of Ipswich is pretty decent, passing through its suburbs as well as some countryside to the South of the tracks. These trains decide to skip Westerfield Station and after travelling through the woods I was surprised to find patches of water emerging, as well as a smattering of boats. All of a sudden, however, an beautiful birds-eye view of the River Deben as well as various ships sailing away emerged, with this being almost on par as what the Mayflower Line supplies. What I find really special though is Woodbridge Station, where boats are moored literally inches from the tracks and subsequently the Westbound platform - apart from maybe the GWML at Dawlish I can't think of another example where trains run so close to water. This station was quite popular with lots of people disembarking for exploration of the surrounding countryside, whilst the next stop at Melton, which was only a minute or two away, offered residents of the village an opportunity to travel somewhere more civilised. Some outstanding panoramic views of the countryside were revealed afterwards and although this line is predominantly rural, unlike many main routes where the yellow fields are all identical, the scenery or terrain changes every few seconds and not once did I feel even an inkling of boredom. Wickham Market station serves a very small hamlet, but like the rest of the stops is incredibly well looked after and the locals clearly share a passion for their railway, which is very reassuring.

Afterwards, a number of level crossings, sightings of a main dual carriageway and another river occupied the view until Saxmundham Station, whose archaic name refers to the small market town it serves, and is one of the more popular destinations on this route. Some more handsome countryside saw the train through Darsham, which has nothing to surround it bar the A12 trunk road and perhaps some rambling paths, although afterwards the town of Halesworth and its stunning station increased the number of passengers on the train by a commendable margin. Brampton Station is a request stop that seems to be in the middle of fields and unsurprisingly there were no takers here, although the next stop at Beccles proved to be the busiest, with the station being surrounded completely by settlements. One of the most good-looking stretches was between here and Oulton Broad South, which seems to be separate residential properties and the Norfolk countryside. The last section to Lowestoft, despite being urban in comparison, should not be overlooked however. After quickly joining up with the branch to Norwich, the train tracks travel through the suburbs of the town and its many retail parks, but all of a sudden a gleaming body of water appeared, which turned out to be a harbour and a gateway to the North Sea. The train also managed to get pretty close up to an enormous ship, which seemed even bigger than the one on display at Harwich. The boats and surprisingly clean appearance of the port made the approach to Lowestoft truly superb and ended an incredibly relaxing journey through so many lovely little villages.

A panoramic view of Lowestoft.

From an exterior perspective, Lowestoft Central is quite marvellous to look at, with the vintage sign at the front emphasising that there were perhaps more stations serving the town in previous times. This town is actually the most Easterly settlement in the United Kingdom and to my delight boasts a seashore and a pier. I expected this place to be equivalent to Harwich but is actually bustling with activity. Its beach is modest, but also very tranquil and not overwhelmed with tourists - interestingly the seaside itself is quite lengthy but sectioned by fortified accumulations of boulders, whose "do not climb" signs are blatantly ignored. A ferry service operates from the South Pier through to Oulton Broad and its sailings temporarily disrupt the through traffic on the main road, as the bridge lifts allowing the boat underneath to pass through, just like Tower Bridge in London. Whilst the pier does not contain amusements, its impressive view of the coast makes the spot very peaceful and interestingly a sailing competition seemed to be taking place in the distance, which was very fun to watch. At one particular moment, I just froze in awe as the moving clouds, waves and boats all seemed to interact, despite being on completely different courses. I could've spent all day here, although I thought it would be equally interesting to explore the more urban part of Lowestoft too.

A First Gemini 2 is seen leaving Lowestoft Bus Station offering an express departure to Norwich.

Its wide, pedestrianised high street seemed to be thriving too, with both recognisable chains and equally popular independents jostling for space close to the hive of Central activity. The shopping centre is humble, being of the old-fashioned style similar to that of Edmonton Green in London and not dissimilar to an indoor market, except with retail units instead. At one end, First Eastern Counties offer a selection of services from Lowestoft Bus Station, with most being town services but also some express routes to destinations like Norwich and Great Yarmouth. They might need to sort out timetabling though as having every single route leaving at 11.30 and five vehicles reversing almost simultaneously didn't end very well. After my enjoyable visit to Lowestoft, it was time to return to the trains and a 2-car Sprinter, or Class 156 unit up to Norwich.

This service was extremely busy, being almost fully seated even five minutes before departure, with the impending Norwich FC game partially explaining the popularity of the service. Nevertheless, I was successful in finding some slightly worn out seats, still sporting the East Midlands Trains moquette and the less than elegant train departed Lowestoft, thankfully sharing the glorious part next to the harbour with the branch to Ipswich. Immediately after the splitting point, Oulton Broad North station saw even more people embark on the service, from what appeared to be an extensive residential area. After this though, the train entered the Norfolk Broads, where it remained for a considerable part of the journey. Even though the general view largely remains the same, it is arguably one of the best panoramas you'll ever find on the rail network; due to the flat nature of the broads the bright green fields and occasionally hills stretch out for miles and miles, with this view becoming incredibly addictive. There were also moments where the River Waveney turned up to make the area even more picturesque, whilst Somerleyton swing bridge was great fun to cross over.

After passing by a windmill, the train paused at Haddiscoe Station, which seems to exist purely for the benefit of ramblers, whilst yet another swing bridge at Reedham, this time with boats moored in front of people's houses, made the journey even more thrilling. The emergence of an old signal box was the icing on the cake and this whole line still uses semaphore signalling which is really satisfying to still see in action. As the train continued along its path, the sudden exposure of industry was surprising, although this was in fact Cantley Sugar Factory, which is surprisingly expansive despite its old-school infrastructure which looked slightly worse for wear. Inevitably, a station followed suit, which I'm sure is very popular with workers.

The speedy run through the countryside was uninterrupted for a while, as this service skipped Buckenham Station, which also appeared to be in the middle of nowhere and receives a few trains a day at weekends only. Brundall Station is lovely too, with a signal box and well looked after staggered platforms, whilst there is a brief section alongside the River Yare before Brundall Gardens, which this train decided to skip. A stunning view of the lake, before some suburbs and a train depot, drew this tremendous journey to an end, with the rural scenery in my eyes being unbeatable and consistent too.

A First Norwich Gemini 2 is seen at Norwich.

 Unfortunately, my exploration time at Norwich was limited due to the necessity of catching a very special train, so in hindsight winging it for lunch probably wasn't the best idea. Norwich Station is also an annoyingly large distance away from the town centre and whilst the castle was lovely, my break here turned out to be quite stressful and I spent more time searching for food outlets than actually admiring what this promising city has to offer. A proper visit is certainly justified, although I only just about made my train out of there so I would allow at least 90 minutes if you want to discover the delights of Norwich properly.

Greater Anglia 37407 is seen at Great Yarmouth

Rail enthusiasts are always excited by a "proper" locomotive and the Class 37 units in particular get them rather worked up - it was the hype surrounding these units and their imminent withdrawal that prompted the trip up to Norfolk in the first place. Whilst during the week these trains just work regular diagrams, on summer Saturdays they run supplementary non-stop services from Norwich to Great Yarmouth, which are aimed at tourists visiting the resort. Usually, these trains run via the direct line through Lingwood and Acle, although on my visit all services were going through Reedham and Berney Arms, although no enhancements were made for the intermediate stations with all diverted trains just running as "express" instead. One thing I love about the Class 37s is how they pull away, with that distinctive sound, almost like a helicopter, being instantly recognisable. The presence of smoke, which was visible from inside the carriages, was equally amusing.

These trains do accelerate very quickly and offer a really soothing ride from inside the carriages, which have received an extensive refurbishment and look immaculate despite the age of the locomotive. This made the journey through the broads very pleasant and the separation point at Reedham changed nothing regarding the beautiful scenery, which I certainly wasn't complaining about. My train flashed past the one intermediate station on this line, more on which later. The final approach to Great Yarmouth is another belter, with the River Yare transforming into an almost endless lake which fits in perfectly with the surrounding broads. Twenty eight minutes after departure, the train had already arrived at its destination and it was quite funny to see at least six other rail enthusiasts here, all photographing the Class 37 locomotive. These trains really do attract train spotters - it's almost guaranteed there will be one on every journey!

A First Yarmouth ALX400 is seen sporting a wonderful heritage livery.

Initially, Great Yarmouth seemed rather underwhelming upon arrival at the station, with the only pathway being surrounded by red barriers and works and no sign whatsoever of civilisation. However, after a few minutes some shops revealed themselves and all of a sudden I was caught in the middle of the bustling hubbub created when merging a market and a high street. This parade seemed to serve everything typical of a seaside town, whilst all the mainstream stores were lodged into the fairly modern shopping centre around the corner. A left turn confirmed to be a wise choice, with a gently sloping pedestrianised street that was incredibly busy with both shoppers and those heading to the seaside. After around twenty minutes, I was finally at the main promenade that runs alongside the beach, which has something called a "road train" that seems to be operated by two rival companies. I imagine things can become really nasty between them...

This beach in particular was quite draining because of its steep gradient and the sheer distance between the sea itself and the road - the sand had a very rich depth too which probably wrecked my trainers. I was initially surprised that there wasn't more competition for space, although the beach is so expansive I imagine that all the tourists were spread out effectively. It was a pretty nice experience, although Great Yarmouth pier doesn't actually extend into the sea and a wind farm really spoils the view to the left as it has been placed in such close proximity to the land. There also seemed to be a lack of local businesses nearer the seafront, although I imagine this was more my fault than anything for not stopping off for souvenirs earlier at the market.

After a brief explore it was time to head back to the station - I'm really glad I have visited Great Yarmouth now but my view is that the place is slightly glorified in regards to its facilities. Oddly, I preferred the slightly less conventional Lowestoft. Even though the express to Norwich had just departed from the station, I wasn't fussed as the next departure was another very special train.

Spot the station only served four times a day!

Admittedly, using a Class 170 on this line seemed surprising given the local stations don't produce significant patronage at all, although the advantage of selective door opening could justify the manouevre in the instance of short platforms. As I relaxed in the air conditioned carriage, the friendly guard walked through the train, asking if there were any takers for Berney Arms Station. That is because it is a request stop, served by only two trains in each direction from Monday to Saturday, although this is doubled on Sundays for some reason. This station is quite special because it only really exists for the sake of a pub of the same name, although whether it is still open is another matter. There are no roads for three miles and other than a windmill, there is nothing to see apart from fields, making it one of the most isolated halts in the country. There is the option of boat travel as the River Yare is nearby, but I'd be very surprised if anyone actually used a boat to catch the train from there. Its remote nature makes this place a station I really want to visit, although unfortunately spending 2.5 hours in the Norfolk Broads didn't seem viable on my already jam-packed adventure.

The vintage sign at Berney Arms, seen through the window.

I was really hoping for an opportunity to step out onto the platform (which can't even accommodate the full length of a 1-car train and just looks like an accumulation of grains), although it was saddening to find out there were no takers for Berney Arms and the train sailed past, so this shot through the window is the best I managed. After this, the train travelled through the delightful broads and its spectacular views, before depositing me at Norwich, which was slightly less crowded this time as thankfully the football match was still ongoing (I would've had to deal with angry fans anyway judging by the result, hard luck Norwich). The slightly worrying connection onto my London train was more than adequate and I settled in for a comfortable journey back to London, again on an intercity electric loco-hauled service. There is some nice scenery around Diss, but other than that the journey was uneventful and ultimately just a recap of what I've seen earlier, so I even managed to sneak in a snooze just after Ipswich. As the surroundings became gradually more urban, purple trains started to run alongside my express, the wonders of the Olympic Park towered next to the main line and the all too familiar pitch-black approach into Liverpool Street was completed, stepping off this train brought my Anglia adventure to a close.

As someone who still has a lot to learn about railways and is very inexperienced with using them outside the oyster zone, this type of day was certainly stepping outside my comfort zone of route completions. However, I loved every second of it (okay maybe not at Wickford but you get the idea) with every single line being incredibly entertaining whilst unique at the same time. This will, hopefully, be the start of a few more train trips and it'll be interesting to see what other operators have to offer. With the London bus service declining so much, whilst the railways thrive, it's no surprise that I'm trying to become more interested in the latter. I hope you have enjoyed this post despite it deviating slightly from what this blog primarily covers and I hope the length isn't too excessive either - with a last minute holiday coming up I had to really cram this into my schedule and no attention was given to condensing!

Thanks for reading and stay safe!