The Wembley Neighbours

The dominance of RATP in Wembley and Harrow continues, with Metroline losing out again on two closely-related single deck services this time.

Metroline West DE1808 is seen at Wembley Central.

The 223 runs between Harrow and Wembley Central, absorbing Northwick Park Hospital, South Kenton, Preston Road and Wembley Park in the process. A peak vehicle requirement for six vehicles satisfies the 7 mile route, which takes around 50 minutes to complete from end-to-end. From Monday to Saturday the service runs every 20 minutes, with the frequency dropping to every half an hour on Sundays and during the evening. Previously, Metroline operated it from Alperton (ON) garage, with a batch of ex-First ADL Enviro 200s - until now the 223 has always operated from this base. There were never too many issues with reliability; the operator were very familiar with the testing territory it serves, although the batch of vehicles were looking slightly worn out towards the end of its time at Metroline. Interestingly it did receive a vehicle upgrade mid-way through the contract, as the 9.6m E200s (which were required at Potters Bar) were swapped with 10.2m models, whilst incidentally under the new contract 10.8m buses are now being used, which is a real struggle around some of the residential streets around Preston Road! Nevertheless, the last day (Friday 12th October 2018), passed for Metroline and a new era began for an operator slightly further away.

The new look for the 223.

As far as I'm aware, RATP are running late with their ADL Enviro 200 MMCs again, so the legitimate batch for the 223 is nowhere to be seen. Although a few examples of the type did appear on the first day, the London Sovereign logos gave away that these buses are probably destined for the 288 and 303 instead, which are still using a handful of "classic" E200s at Edgware (BT) garage. To make up the numbers, some existing 11-reg classic E200s at Park Royal (RP) garage, the new base for the 223, have been reblinded and now work this route alongside the H17 and 398. Astonishingly, there were no examples of banditry on the 223. In regards to reliability, London United haven't had a brilliant start, with the first day consisting of bunching and some pretty nasty gaps, whilst the rest of the week hasn't shown anything more promising. However, it is still early days and given how much of a nightmare the Wembley part of the route is operationally, I don't doubt that it'll take some time to get used to. Hopefully, once the intended allocation arrives, it'll be slightly easier to deal with in that respect also.

Coincidentally the stand is familiar to this vehicle as it is shared with the H17.

On Saturday 13th October, I decided to sample the 223 from end-to-end in coincidence with the first day of RATP operation. My vehicle for this completion was one of the new MMCs and unfortunately they are probably the worst examples I've ridden so far ; the stop-start technology was inevitably going to drive me nuts but the quality of the journey was absolutely terrible. The vehicle was changing gears really violently and in the most random places - it also had a habit of overrevving excessively completely out of the blue - this resulted in being sent flying around the bus, so the trip was hardly relaxing. The congested nature of the Southern terminus on a Saturday afternoon also meant I spent over 20 minutes just getting from Wembley Central to Wembley Stadium, which is walkable in half that time, but despite the slow pace it was quite pleasant to see the urban realm thriving in such a way. After the rapidly developing Wembley Park, the route became residential and a lone wolf (bar a short interlude at Preston Road) and in all honesty this section wasn't bad - the houses were quite aesthetically pleasing and a wide variety of green spaces and trees helped to bridge the gap when necessary. Admittedly, despite the route allegedly serving South Kenton Station I still have no clue where the pitiful entrance actually lies, although this part of the route with the railway bridges, commendable inclines and sweet public houses was probably my favourite. The approach into Harrow was pretty calm, with a wide road and a variety of independent business, whilst the double run into Northwick Park Hospital gave an almost rural feel to the journey despite its annoyance. Overall, for a single deck route the 223 was decent - there was nothing particularly interesting about it although generally I was entertained throughout which justifies a 6/10. I wish London United the best in operating this route and alas we move on to the second service, which is numerically straight after the 223.

The former look of the 224. I don't know how Ealing Road was so quiet when this was taken.

The 224 is infamous for being one of the most indirect services in London, taking up to 80 minutes to complete an end-to-end journey which can be walked in around 25. It also undertakes four double runs in a single trip, which must be the most on a London bus service and undoubtedly infuriating for passengers. Its termini are Wembley Stadium and St Raphael's Estate, with key intermediate destinations including Alperton, Stonebridge Park, Central Middlesex Hospital, Harlesden and Brent Park. It runs at a 20 minute frequency from Monday to Saturday and typically this reduces to half

Crazy route!

hourly on Sundays and during the evening, with the number eight matching both the peak vehicle requirement and length in miles. Like the 223, Metroline operated this route from Alperton (ON) garage and the route itself has been based there since birth - under the previous contract, "classic" ADL Enviro 200s were the only type to appear on the service. Generally, reliability was quite decent considering the operational challenges this route has to contend with, being significantly longer than the 223 but also having to deal with Wembley Town Centre. In terms of usage, the 224 is one of those routes which seems quiet in the middle but busy at both outer ends, especially since the frequency was reduced from four to three buses per hour in recent times. Conveniently, Metroline lost the route on the exact same day as the 223, which made tracking them down much easier for enthusiasts.

In the middle of what can almost be described as a double run within a double run...

As per usual with brand new ADL Enviro 200 MMCs ordered by RATP, this batch were invisible at the start of the contract, whilst the spare buses that have been drafted in are quite elderly now and are in a rather sorry state. These were meant to be stood down months ago after the K2 at Tolworth (TV) garage received new MMCs, but have recently been covering the 288 and 303 before settling in on the 224. They've already made some appearances on other Park Royal (RP) routes like the H17, which must've been quite amusing with all the challenging hills that service has to tackle. On day one operation was hit and miss, with certain times of the day throwing up some uneven headways, but since then it hasn't been doing badly at all. My only criticism is the almost inevitable large number of banditised buses present on the first day, which don't exactly give the new operator top marks for first impressions. A slight inconvenience that's come about as a result of the switchover is the driver changeover point is now at Park Royal Asda, which makes the excessive double run here even longer than before ; it took ten minutes to travel from Central Middlesex Hospital to a bus stop around the corner on my journey! Although there were initially plans for the 224s new MMCs to be used on the 440 instead due to navigation problems at Iveagh Avenue, double yellow lines have been painted and I believe the 224 will receive its new buses after all, so regulars can at least recognise some sort of upgrade.

Home-made blinds, complete with a missing apostrophe and spelling error. I saw Wembly Stadium too...

In conclusion, the 223 and 224 changes could've been a lot worse. The service, as expected, hasn't been top notch but it is still week one after all and as these routes are what I'd call small fry, it surely wont' take too long for decent operation to be resumed. I'm just hoping that the new MMCs for the 224 don't have such a clunky gearbox as 80 minutes of being bashed around sounds like torture, especially with the poor road conditions around the industrial parts of the route! Oh, and there's one more thing which happened in relation to these changes...

I don't know why this looks so blurry on blogger as on my phone it came out just fine. Hopefully just me!

In an attempt to fill the void created by the departure of routes 223/224 at Alperton (ON) garage, the double deck 204 service, formerly based at Edgware (EW) garage, has been transferred over. The type of bus which makes up the main allocation does in fact remain the same, in the form of ADL Enviro 400s, with some actually being from Potters Bar (PB) garage rather than the ex-Edgware vehicles. However, reblinding of other double deckers at Alperton, which are Gemini 2s that work routes 83/483 primarily, has already taken place, thus allowing these Wrightbus B9TLs to venture out onto the 204 from day one, which happened to be Saturday 13th October 2018. This does bring a brand new vehicle type to the 204, making it slightly more varied and hopefully some of the E400s it took down to Alperton can begin to sneak onto the currently 100% Wrightbus 83 and 483.

Unfortunately, I end this post with on a rather negative note. Essentially, you can expect very little content over the next few weeks as currently I have an overwhelmingly large number of other commitments which, due to forthcoming events are taking priority. Health-wise I've also felt really rotten recently, but pending medication hopefully I should be back on form very soon and taking those crazy 12-hour trips again. I am planning on doing a summary post discussing the events of this month in a couple of weeks, but apart from that, it's adios until December.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!