Some Form Of Tower Everywhere

Tower Transit have been popping up everywhere recently, with the January changes being no exception - either implicitly or explicitly, they'll make some sort of appearance.  

Surprisingly for such a significant area, the 603 is the only route to terminate at Swiss Cottage.

 It's safe to say that the 603 is far from your average London route. Usually, all services numbered in the 600-series are designated to school buses, which usually transport children to and from a place of education. This one, on the other hand, terminates at two fairly substantial transport hubs, these being Swiss Cottage and Muswell Hill Broadway. Intermediate destinations include Hampstead, Highgate Village and East Finchley, with the end-to-end journey time generally taking around 45 minutes. There are four trips in each direction, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, which depart at either 20 minute or 10 minute intervals. Its operation is rather extensive since the buses do undertake a return journey, although the vehicles don't ever become particularly busy. I suspect the only reason it uses double deckers is because they crosslink onto busier services. The main function of the 603 is to ferry people to and from independent primary schools, however one would assume the majority of their students use private transport instead. Nonetheless, the 603 provides a valuable route home for those who decide that buses are way forward, but also creates some nice links between parts of North London that are slightly awkward to navigate - Highgate to Hampstead is a perfect example. At a 30 minute frequency, with single deckers and perhaps an extension to Wood Green, I think the 603 would be very well-used, but in the current climate such a proposal isn't possible. What made the route even more bizarre was that despite it ultimately being a school bus, it ran outside of term time, with the timetable remaining pretty much the same for the holiday departures. Some people argued that the route was more of a commuter service because of this oddity, but sadly this is no longer the case, being just a slightly quirky generic school route instead.

This demonstrator really does get around...

Under its previous contract, the 603 was operated by Metroline Travel from Holloway (HT) garage. Its allocation has varied considerably over the years, with Plaxton Presidents gradually being phased out in favour of ADL Enviro 400s and Wrightbus Geminis, with the B5LH 3s being particularly common for the final few months. There haven't been too many odd workings in the past, with the only example I can think of being the appearance of a Yutong electric demonstrator during the summer holidays, which was part of a two day trial on the service. Given that the route still uses DDs for now, I guess Metroline were simply having a bit of a laugh while the buses were empty. Having such hyper-local usage, this route must have been a small but painful loss for the operator, as I imagine the drivers were fairly familiar with regular customers. Friday 11th January 2019 saw the final trip operate and as it didn't take place in the middle of the night, lots of enthusiasts turned up to say their goodbyes, which is quite heart-warming. 

The very first journey under the new operator, who have clearly decided to hide their identity.

This particular tender award did raise some eyebrows at first, since Sullivan Buses and their base at South Mimms (SM) is nowhere near either of the termini. However, this independent company do have a ridiculously high number of school services, so adding this one to their collection couldn't do much harm. Existing stock has been acquired for the 603, with these vehicles being ADL Enviro 400s which used to work for Abellio or Tower Transit - these haven't been refurbished yet. The change brings a rather unassuming outsider ever-closer to Central London, emphasising the rapid growth Sullivan Buses have embraced recently. Although changeover days always occur on a Saturday, as this route only runs from Monday to Friday Sullivan Buses made their debut on the January 14th instead. So far, there have been no real issues with the service and shockingly no one has reported any inadequate blind displays - if only the same could be said for their other school routes... One irritating by-product of this change is that the 603 vehicles no longer crosslink onto another route, so its holiday operation has been scrapped. This is a real shame as it seems almost every unique element of the London bus network is gradually being taken away. I would still recommend riding the route, as it gives you an opportunity to explore parts of Hampstead and Highgate on a double decker which isn't possible on conventional services, whilst the worst sort of behaviour you'll have to contend with is perhaps some hyper-active kids - on my trip they were especially excited as it happened to be their last day of term. I wish Sullivan Buses all the best with the 603, even if the route isn't as majestic as it was before. 

Snapping here requires a lot of patience, as buses keep blocking 228s by using the other lane

The 228 is one of London's newest services, commencing in January 2009 to improve connectivity with the then new Westfield London. It takes a rather convoluted route from Central Middlesex Hospital to Maida Hill, The Chippenham, via Willesden Junction, East Acton, White City Estate, Shepherd's Bush and Ladbroke Grove. Although an end-to-end journey takes over 70 minutes (get the 187, its far quicker), the route is now pretty well used for round-the-corner local links, as well as providing a handy connection between Harlesden and East Acton, via the Old Oak Common development site. A peak vehicle requirement for 8 vehicles satisfies a 20 minute frequency - the 228 is 8 miles in length. The route has remained at Willesden Junction (WJ) garage since its birth, but the sale of First London in 2013 prompted an operator change. This former operator were pretty disastrous on the route, making it into the top 10 least punctual services in London at one point, but Metroline West managed to turn this around and were actually pretty decent by the end of the contract. The same batch of ADL Enviro 200s have worked the 228 since the route was brand new, being ordered specifically for the service, although odd workings did appear under First London in the form of Dart Marshalls and a Wrightbus Streetlite demonstrator, which ironically ended up at Tower Transit afterwards. Moving house for the first time is always a traumatic experience, making this contract change one of the most significant moments of the 228s journey so far. 

A fairly new Streetlite leaves a gloomy Central Middlesex Hospital.

Tower Transit now operate the 228 from Westbourne Park (X) garage, which is still very close to the route albeit at the opposite end. This operator deployed cunning tactics in an attempt to win this route, only ordering four new buses. The remaining six are still fairly young, but have been taken from Lea Interchange (LI) garage after some frequency cuts and rather desperate adjustments to the allocations. Wrightbus Streetlites are now the official 228 buses, with both the new and existing vehicles being this type. Since its base does not currently house any other single deck routes, you can expect the strict allocation policy to continue. Tower made their debut on Saturday 19th January 2018 with a full turnout of the WV-class Streetlites, which was quite surprising as the new vehicles were nowhere to be seen the day before. Their performance has been exemplary so far, with no first day syndrome at all. Admittedly, a diversion away from the White City Estate due to an event at the QPR stadium made operation slightly earlier, but they should still be given credit for acing a fairly challenging route on day one. Hopefully, these high standards will continue throughout the next few years and I wish Tower Transit the best in achieving them.

This bus used to proudly proclaim that it used hydrogen technology - not anymore...

In this final part of the post I'll attempt to explain how Tower Transit managed to scrape together six existing buses for the 228 without losing any routes. A couple were made free as a result of a cut to the 236, but the rest have come from the 444 which hasn't seen any frequency modifications recently.

The donation of its Streetlites stems from the RV1, also at Lea Interchange (LI) garage, which had its frequency cut in half last year and is about to be withdrawn. It now has nine, maybe ten vehicles for a PVR of 5 and the number of spares has increased yet again since one of the Vanhool vehicles has returned after embarrassing itself at Aldwych and blocking the road for several hours after a leak. Oops. This excessive vehicle supply meant that lots of the Wrightbus hydrogen buses were sitting around in the garage doing nothing, so for now Tower Transit have decided to allocate two of them to the 444. This is a rather drastic manouevre and some would argue that running the buses on such a route is grossly inappropriate, given that it spends a large amount of time on dual carriageways ; a stark contrast to the RV1 which is just non-stop congestion. These buses are certainly pushed to their limits on the 444, making some rather amusing noises, but if Tower manage to retain the route in a few months it has been a very clever move. Since the vehicles are a full 12m in length, most of the single deck services failed the route test and even the 444 only just passed - things can become messy on the back roads around North Middlesex Hospital, especially when an ambulance wants to get past. Catching one on January 19th proved evasive as the only example was subbed by 10am, but luckily it returned later in the day and its extra length proved to be very useful since the bus was following a 30 minute gap and was really busy. Since then Tower have tried their best to avoid sticking the hydrogen buses on the 444, but it does happen occasionally. Although this change is a bit crazy, it makes the 444 a much more interesting route and allows these hydrogen buses to be viewed in a new light.

The end of this post marks a transition in the coverage of this blog, at least for the next few months anyway. A rather stressful and work-heavy time of year has arrived (fun fun fun!), with my bus trips beyond the delights of Ealing and Hounslow being inhibited until the middle of June. I won't be giving up blogging altogether during this time, but documenting changes will be too time-consuming and they will be lacking photographs - I plan to catch up on all of this during the summer! Instead, a weekly summary of what's been going on in the bus (and railways, if I keep up) scene will be published on Friday evenings, giving you the opportunity to get outside and catch some goodies over the weekend. I understand that it must feel like a downgrade, but hopefully some sort of publication is better than nothing at all!

Thanks for reading, stay safe and please do enjoy yourselves out there!

United In Standardisation

In happier times, London United were rather well-known for their eclectic mix of exotic vehicle types which, albeit in small numbers, were popular with enthusiasts. Unfortunately, in recent times this operator has decided to ruin the fun for everybody and order a load of monotonous Enviro 200 MMCs to wipe out almost all of their variety. Here's an attempt at explaining the rather long-winded process of cascading the more interesting vehicles, although there won't be too many pictures representing the "new" as there are far better things to be doing than photographing a bus type which probably has near 1000 vehicles in London already.

That construction on the pavement made getting off the bus slightly awkward...

We start off with Park Royal (RP) garage, who have already featured on the blog in recent times for their new E200 MMCs which work the 223. Since then, two more batches have arrived for the 224 and H17 - initially the former route was meant to stick to "classic" Enviro 200s due to a tight turn but somehow that's been dealt with using the power of drawing lines on the road. The H17 was a contract renewal and as its former allocation of classic E200s were still pretty young, many enthusiasts were quite surprised that the route was being niced with new vehicles again. Inevitably, the E200 MMCs turned up really late, but they've now settled in nicely and form a large common user pool with those on the 223 and 224, as well as some more recent appearances on the 440. I do wonder if the stop-start technology that these buses possess will be a nuisance on the H17 because of all the steep "hill-starts" around Harrow School, but as a compulsory installment to single deck vehicles now there's no getting around it. With the 283 buses (see later) and eventually more E200 MMCs for the 440, the garage won't have any other single deck types by June 2019 except for a couple of classics for the 398, but I predict that they'll be replaced anyway.

One of the ex-H17 buses is seen on the bridge which prevents the 72 from having double deckers.

These buses which used to work the H17 have started to receive a refurbishment, which looks pretty horrid as the current green "S-stock" moquette has been fitted without changing the orange London Sovereign poles, which leads to a rather gross colour combination. Nonetheless, their transfer to Shepherd's Bush (S) garage has been swift and they now work the intensive 72 service instead, which holds the title of the busiest single deck route in London and only uses these buses because Hammersmith Bridge will collapse with anything heavier. I'm not kidding, if you walk along the bridge and a bus gingerly trundles past the whole structure starts shaking and there's even a barrier system in place so only one vehicle in the same direction can cross at a time. The weight restriction also prevents the 72 from receiving new single deckers as the MMCs are too heavy, so "classic" E200s were the best solution. Although this won't work in the long-term, the bridge will probably have to close to traffic soon unless some cash is found to strengthen it. This certainly poses a problem for the 72, which is the only "through" route across the bridge - all the others terminate at Hammersmith Bus Station which is just on the other side. This route runs from Roehampton, Bessborough Road to East Acton and is hugely popular because of how quickly it travels from South-West to North-West London. A diversion via Putney Bridge will make journey times considerably longer and undoubtedly put off passengers. Amphibious buses, anyone?

This type was commonly found in its heyday. Now it's almost extinct.

The aim of this conversion is to oust the remaining Dart Pointers in the London United, which are becoming rather old and worn out now after their stint on the 72. Even though this is an inner-London service, it somehow held the title of being the last route officially allocated Dart Pointers and has become rather famous in the enthusiast community for that reason. Unfortunately, this could only happen for so long due to low emission corridors and despite a couple of stragglers which have survived for considerably longer than the rest, the 72 is now almost fully E200 whilst the remaining Pointers have only a couple of days left, maybe none at all. For whatever reason, the night element of the 72 almost always had a Pointer on it until the very end despite the vehicle requirement only being for three buses and the fact that they cause a racket when starting up in the quiet residential estate pictured above. It's very telling about driver's preference in regards to new vehicles.

An Optare Versa is seen causing a traffic jam on Du Cane Road.

As a route, the 283 is a little bizarre now as it spends 70% of its time duplicating the 72. Previously it also crossed Hammersmith Bridge and ran South to the Wetlands Centre in Barnes, but in an attempt to reduce the number of vehicles using the unstable structure the route has been curtailed to Hammersmith Bus Station, running between this destination and East Acton. Intermediate points include Shepherd's Bush and White City Estate, with the latter location being the only reason why the 283 survives. Although the East Acton to Westway and Shepherd's Bush to Hammersmith sections do follow the 72, as it'd so busy some support does come in handy, but the main purpose of the 283 is to deviate from the main route to Westfield and serve the aforementioned Estate. It does this in a rather complicated way due to one-way streets and turning restrictions, but is very popular in this area which does currently have a very poor public transport accessibility rating - the 4 mile 283 warrants an impressive 8 minute frequency for a 35 minute end-to-end journey time, soaking up 14 buses in the peak.

Alright alright here's an MMC, already looking rather grubby at Hammersmith.

Park Royal (RP) garage are responsible for the 283 and until recently used an allocation of Optare Versas for the service. Although these are generally unpopular with enthusiasts due to their unreliability and excessive vibrations when idling, the withdrawal of this batch means London United only have one group left. The 283 hasn't actually had a contract renewal recently, but as this operator are adamant on being spoil-sports they ordered some new buses anyway. The conversion took place very quickly, with all being over in around three weeks and now the route is solidly MMC. Hopefully the locals do appreciate their new vehicles, even if the enthusiasts don't...

The surviving batch of Versas are at Fulwell (FW) garage. Here's one turning out of the stand.

After the number 10 service was withdrawn in November, a void was created at Stamford Brook (V) garage and as it's conveniently placed for so many routes, transferring something else in compensation seems like a sensible decision. The 391 is the chosen one, but type training all the drivers on Versas was deemed to be a waste of time, so it has stolen the 33's Enviro 200s instead. This is only a temporary measure as more new E200 MMCs have been ordered for the 391, which means the 33 can have its buses back and ultimately results in the withdrawal of the Optare Versas, which the 33 has been using temporarily. A large number of them have been running around with missing destination blinds recently, which emphasises the neglect that Fulwell (FW) garage show towards these poor vehicles. To my understanding, both drivers and passengers on the 33 aren't too pleased with the downgrade, which is once again shown through the night element which almost always 100% E200 despite there being eighteen Versas available for a PVR of 3. When the MMC revolution progresses even further, I hope the locals appreciate that their slightly less rattly vehicles have caused the extinction of a bus type in London, although I'm not convinced this will be the case.

Conveniently, whilst waiting for a rare on the 222 this double decker turned up.

Back in September, when the long E200 MMCs for the 293 were late, this route borrowed some Optare Tempos from Hounslow (AV) garage, which meant the H37 had to take Mercedes Citaros from the 203, which had to convert to double deck operation temporarily. This was usually in the form of Scania OmniCity vehicles and as the 20-minute frequency on the 203 is inadequate, the extra capacity was greatly appreciated. Even though the Optare Tempos have returned, double deckers still work the route on a daily basis because of how busy it gets. Riding the 203 from upstairs is a brilliant experience as it uses some rather wacky roads - some are narrow residential streets whilst others are open dual carriageways, with urban high streets, industrial zones and airports being some of the backdrops available. Unfortunately when I rode the route on a DD the bus broke down at Ashford Hospital so I have to do the whole thing again, but hopefully this shouldn't be too difficult if the decker appearances continue. The route itself runs from Hounslow Bus Station to Staines, via Hounslow West, Hatton Cross, Stanwell Moor and Ashford Hospital, with the 10 mile service soaking up 7 buses in rush hour. End-to-end journey times are usually around an hour and the route is particularly important in the summer months, as taking the tube to Hatton Cross and then catching the 203 to Staines is a much cheaper method of reaching Thorpe Park than forking out for a train ticket.

Whilst waiting for the rescue bus an Optare Tempo turned up for the camera going the other way, so it wasn't all bad.

The future of the 203's allocation is unclear at the moment. All we know at the moment is that a batch of long Enviro 200 MMCs have been ordered to replace the Optare Tempos at Hounslow (AV) garage, which will make my favourite type of single decker in London extinct - I definitely recommend taking a ride on one before they go. Although the MMCs should theoretically work the H37, at the moment the 203 is using the Tempos every day alongside double deckers, whilst its Citaros are now stuck to the H37. Having sampled one recently after refurbishment, I'm not surprised at all that they avoid the 203, being incredibly sluggish and often stalling before pullaway. Although I've had some incredibly fast H37 trips, it is a much more urban route and unlike the 203, doesn't use any dual carriageways. This unofficial switch-around raises the question of where the MMCs will end up and what's actually going to be withdrawn - it seems silly to dispose of perfectly healthy Tempos and keep the Citaros which can't even handle their allocated route anymore. My theory is that both types will go and the 203 will use spare double deckers, perhaps the OmniCity vehicles from the E3, but what's clear is that those MMCs need to arrive pronto before the Citaros can't handle anything.

No longer fit for purpose?

The reason for all these complex manouveres is standardisation - maintaining and finding spare parts for exotic vehicles is becoming increasingly difficult and clearly for London United it's more viable to just invest in new buses than faff around trying to repair the old ones. Although you might be too late for some of them, the 33, 203 and H37 still have their fair share of interesting buses, so get out there and take your farewell rides while you still can.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

In The Absence Of Purple

This post focuses on three routes which don't have too much relevance to one another, but all were forced to undergo changes of some sort during December.

I vividly remember waiting a long time for a bus to show up with correct blinds...

One of London's youngest bus routes is the 452, having only existed since 2006, essentially acting as a relief for the busy 52 service. Starting at Kensal Rise, the route becomes more popular as it heads further South, picking up passengers in Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill and Knightsbridge, before offering some unique links to Sloane Square, Wandsworth Road Station and lastly Vauxhall, where the route was extended to in 2016. Although it's one of the lesser used Central London services, patronage has picked up considerably over the years and its now regarded as a useful method of crossing this part of London. Abellio previously operated the service from Battersea (QB) garage with a batch of ADL Enviro 400s, but Trident ALX400s preceded them and more recently E40H MMCs started to appear. Being 9 miles in length, journey times generally take around 70 minutes, with a peak vehicle requirement for 18 vehicles satisfying the 10 minute frequency, which inevitably reduces to every 12 minutes on Sundays and during the evening. Generally, this operator managed the 452 rather well, with no other base controlling the service until this latest contract change. However, Battersea (QB) garage have been losing a lot of work recently, even if the other Abellio division is blossoming a little too much...

At the same location, except in daylight.

Even though Abellio are situated en route, Tower Transit were always going to provide some stiff competition with their recently expanded Westbourne Park (X) garage. Existing buses were specified for the new 452 contract and these are in the form of Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TLs, which have been refurbished recently and are still in a very good condition despite running around on the busiest route in London prior to this. Coincidentally, the 25 service has had a heavy PVR reduction recently with a curtailment and removal of 50% of its trips, which meant its former allocation could quickly transfer over to work the 452 and since the first day no other vehicles have worked it. Predictably, the service has been hit and miss, with not so many curtailments but lots of large gaps and a fair bit of bunching, but this is natural when an operator first takes over and hopefully Tower Transit will be able to settle in soon. I wish them the best for the next five years, with an excellent batch of vehicles to complement this change.

I wasn't meant to snap here but ended up waiting at the wrong stop for this 308, whoops.

Whilst the 25 cut was pretty severe, the 452 took away a little too many vehicles for the former route to still function with its new routeing. Conveniently, the 328 at Westbourne Park (X) garage received a frequency cut on the same day as the 25/452 changes, which freed up five of its Wrightbus Gemini 3 B5LHs for use at Lea Interchange (LI) garage. This introduced a new bodywork to this base as its only other Gemini 3s are smiley-face models, but these buses seem adamant on not working the 25 and after one trip on the very first day of the cutback, they've rigidly stuck to the 308 instead. At the moment I can't think of a suitable explanation justifying this allocation change, but it does mean there are now two types working the 308 instead of one neat batch. They do bear similarities to one another, both having the same B5LH engine, so the change isn't too drastic. However, these are the 25s buses after all and the remainder of its PVR has to come from somewhere.

An array of vehicles at Stratford Bus Station.

In addition to Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TLs and ADL Enviro 400s, since the cutback MCV EvoSeti hybrids from the 308 have also become common the 25, with around 5 or 6 working the route each day. Surprisingly, for a Central London service, this introduced hybrid technology to the route en masse for the first time -  ironically though since the use of cleaner buses the 25 stopped travelling through the most polluted part of the route. In coincidence with the opening of Crossrail (or not), TfL decided to slaughter London's busiest route even more through a curtailment to Holborn Circus,

although the official destination is displayed as City Thameslink, presumably to glorify the Western terminus and make it sound more useful than it actually is. This change has removed the 25 from Oxford Street and Chancery Lane, upsetting many commuters who frequently rode this service all the way from Ilford and East London as a cheap method of travelling to the West End. I'm sceptical the introduction of shiny new trains would remove any patronage from the 25, but TfL had the audacity to cut the route despite the fact that the 'alternative' is not even operating yet. The hopper fare isn't actually applicable for most trips, given that the journey time from Ilford to City Thameslink still exceeds 70 minutes during the day, whilst the saving grace that is the number 8 doesn't even make it to Oxford Street anymore, stopping short at Tottenham Court Road. This means that it now requires three buses to directly travel between Oxford Circus and St Paul's, which is slightly ridiculous considering how close the two destinations are. This change has resulted in the introduction of a new night bus route, the N25, which continues to run through to Oxford Circus, but its operation hours are quite limited and I thought it would at least extend into the early morning rush hour, which is where the 25 used to thrive. Another example of poor execution is the state of the bus stop tiles a couple of months after the change - some still claim the 25 is a 24-hour route, whilst other N25 tiles lack the blue background. On the same day as the curtailment, Westbound 25 buses were sent into Stratford Bus Station too, which makes journey times significantly longer but does improve accessibility for those wishing to travel to Westfield or the railway station. From my observations, the 25 is nowhere near as busy as before - buses used to be heaving in rush hour but now they're leaving Central London only half full, whilst the number 8 has surged in popularity as one of the only routes left travelling East from (the edg) of) the West End. The once almighty 25 has fallen considerably into nothing more than a commuter route which dumps passengers in the middle of nowhere and certainly won't be in the top spot next year for patronage - its downfall reflects the Central London bus network as a whole, falling to pieces.

Looping the bus station.

 Whilst the 25 uses the most direct route between Stratford and Manor Park, the 104 decides to take a much more scenic journey, passing through Upton Park, Lonsdale Avenue and East Ham along the 6-mile route. It's an intensely used service (just not necessarily for end-to-end trips) and a 10 minute frequency is required during the day, with a drop to 4 buses per hour on Sundays and during the evening. Interestingly, this one of a handful of routes in London to retain a dramatic increase in frequency during rush hour, presumably due to strong commuter flows into and out of Stratford, so in the morning peak buses depart at 6 minute intervals. The journey takes around 55 minutes to complete, requiring 18 buses in rush hour. Stagecoach London previously operated the route from West Ham (WH) garage, with a mixed allocation of ADL Enviro 400s and older Trident ALX400s. Rarely, E400 MMCs and Scania OmniCitys would appear, especially during the evening. Although the service was run to a decent standard and an existing vehicle allocation was available, with the proposed changes to the 104 Go-Ahead were much more strategically positioned for the service, so a loss was almost inevitable.

At the other end of Stratford Bus Station.

Go-Ahead London assumed operation of the 104 on Saturday 8th December 2018, with buses based at River Road (RR) garage. Its new allocation is extremely messy, with ADL Enviro 400s scraped together from around five different batches, as well as a couple of Wrightbus Gemini 2 B9TLs, yet these rarely work the service in practice. This operator actually won the 104 as a route running from Stratford to Beckton Station - in conjunction with Crossrail TfL proposed to split the U-shaped service at Lonsdale Avenue, with this service turning right to serve Beckton, whilst the Manor Park element would turn left towards Newham Hospital and Custom House, with this new service numbered 304. This was meant to occur on December 8th, with Go-Ahead running the 304 too, but for now they've had to embrace the 104 alone in its current form. At the moment, operation is looking quite good ; as always some first day syndrome was apparent but other than that Go-Ahead seem to be off to a good start. My only criticism is that somehow since the 104 was lost Stratford Bus Station has become an overcrowded mess - previously the main parking area was only used by Stagecoach but since Go-Ahead joined the party some hostility has arisen and vehicles like the one pictured above keep having to undertake circuits before finding a space. When Arriva make their debut in March for the 158, goodness knows how the bus station will cope. Apart from this trivial matter, things are looking promising for the 104 and I wish Go-Ahead all the best in running this service, and the 304 if it ever emerges, for the next five years.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!