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!