TFL Destination Discrepancies

The destination shown on the iBus and blinds of London buses indicate the terminus of the route. However, some destinations are far too vague, whereas others are so specific that they are misleading. Others are just inaccurate. Let's go through some examples.

London General E115 on route 57 to Clapham Park.

Clapham Park is a terminus in South London shared by routes 45 and 57. However, I feel that this destination is far too vague, not indicating exactly where the bus routes actually finish. The terminus, near Atkins Road, is very close to Streatham Hill and I would classify the area as South Brixton, as Clapham Park lies to the West of this terminus. This blind also might force people to believe that this route serves Clapham Junction or Clapham Common, as they are the two main town centres there, however neither of the two routes go anywhere close to either of these destinations. I think the blind should be changed to "Clapham Park, Atkins Road" or "Streatham Hill, Kings Avenue."

Metroline TEH2084 stands on Bishops Bridge at Paddington.

In North-West London, the 332 and 92 both terminate at the two attractions at Brent Park, or Neasden. Retail areas are popular destinations by bus, although the two routes display different destinations, despite standing on either side of an IKEA store. I know they seem endless on the inside, but in reality, they're not huge enough to warrant a change in place name. The 92 vehicles display "St Raphael's North", which gives passengers absolutely no clue as to where the route terminates, which could even prevent people from using the route to get to the stores. The St Raphael's Estate is properly served by routes 224 and 232, although the 92 doesn't even attempt to serve the housing area, but terminates just outside it, in the centre of Brent Park retail area, which might cause people in the residential area to think that they have a direct bus from Wembley! I even have a problem with the 332 destination, as the wider area of Neasden (which Brent Park is contained in) is likely to attract more people to the shops, especially as there is a tube station nearby. The new display should say "Neasden, Superstores" for both routes.

Remember when the 521 used to operate with Diesel buses?

Waterloo has several different bus routes terminating there, as well as 6 stands that I can name off the top of my head. The 4, 26 and 139 stand outside The Old Vic (which is nearly at Elephant & Castle), the 243 and 521 stand just behind the station on Mepham Street, the 211 and 507 stand right outside the station on Upper Taxi Road, the 76 stands in Lambeth North but displays Waterloo, the 341 and 381 stand near County Hall in separate locations and the 77 stands on Concert Hall Approach near the IMAX roundabout. If space wasn't an issue then I would create a bus station for all routes that serve the area, making interchange much easier and having a guaranteed spot where each route terminates. However, that's not possible, so I would change the blinds so that they display this: the 4, 26 and 139 show "Waterloo, Old Vic", the 243 and 521 show "Waterloo Station, Tenison Way", the 211 and 507 show "Waterloo Station", the 76 shows "Lambeth North, Baylis Road", the 341 and 381 show "County Hall" and the 77 shows "Waterloo Station, Concert Hall Approach".

A London United ALX400 terminates on route 71 at Kingston, Cromwell Road.

The sprawling town centre of Kingston contains four different bus standing areas, which are Cromwell Road Bus Station (this houses the majority of routes terminating in Kingston), Fairfield Bus Station, Brook Street and the area around Kingston University. Cromwell Road and the University area are at least 10 minutes apart by walking, so different destinations are definitely necessary, considering every route terminating in the town centre merely displays Kingston. The destinations should be changed to "Kingston, Cromwell Road Bus Station", "Kingston East, Fairfield Bus Station" for the 57, 131 and 213, "Kingston South, Brook Street for the 65" and "Kingston South, St James' Road" for the 371 and 85.

We've looked at two examples of vague town centre areas, now it's time to check out a good example. The West London area of Hounslow boasts four different terminating points for routes in the town centre, all with specific details that I mostly agree with.

Abellio London 8158 on the water bus to Hounslow, Civic Centre.

The H20 is the only route that terminates at the Civic Centre, near Hounslow Central station on the Piccadilly Line. Bell Corner is home to the H22 and E8, both of those routes have appropriate blinds. Hounslow Bus Station is where the bulk of routes terminate and the H37 is the odd one out, terminating outside Hounslow Asda. However, the blind displays "Hounslow, Blenheim Centre" as the shopping mall is nearby, even though it contains very few shops and is a smaller version of the Treaty Centre. The Blenheim has a massive car park, so that's the only thing that the locals recognise it for. Personally, I would have the blind displaying "Hounslow Asda, Blenheim Centre" which makes it clear that the route serves Asda better than everything else.

It seems that the specification of blinds are decided by the operator, which can lead to careless mistakes, such as the time when Arriva decided to use home-made blinds and spell the word Ockendon incorrectly, meaning that the 347 buses were running around with "Ockenden Station" on the front for a few weeks until the issue was sorted. Just type in "347 bus Ockenden" into google images and a suitable picture should come up. Unfortunately, I didn't get one in time.

Metroline VWH2214 on route 140 to Heathrow Central, showing vague blinds.

Sorry about the extra large size, the picture comes out really blurry on the medium and large settings for some reason, even though it looks fine here. The issue here is that the 140 terminates at Heathrow Central Bus Station, the gateway for Terminals 2 and 3, even though the blinds only display "Heathrow Airport," which is extremely misleading as it is impossible to reach two of the terminals of Heathrow on this bus, with terminal 4 having terrible accessibility anyway. I simply don't understand why the 140 vehicles display this stupidly confusing destination, especially as new buses arrived in September 2016! Every other bus route displays "Heathrow Central", including other Metroline routes like the 105, which means that there isn't even a consistency in the blinds ordered for all of the Metroline routes serving Heathrow. This makes me think that the 140's blinds were ordered for nostalgic reasons, which is unacceptable as passenger experience takes priority over having a bit of fun, in my opinion. These buses should be reblinded as quickly as possible!

Another culprit for inappropriate blinds is CT Plus, who ordered some controversial displays for the W19 contract back in November 2016. Every other bus route terminating at Ilford's main bus park just displays "Ilford", although the new W19 vehicles display "Ilford High Road, Hainault Street", which is way too specific for its purpose. People along the route probably haven't even heard of Hainault Street; they just want to make sure that the bus serves the town centre so they can get their shopping done. The Ilford High Road part of the blind might just confuse people, making them think that the W19 doesn't serve the town centre at all, even though it passes through the middle of it! CT Plus themselves realised that they made a mistake, as the MMCs for the W11 which arrived in March only displayed "Ilford" when they strayed onto the W19.

I hope that this post has given you an idea of how bus destinations are far from perfect, and that there is a lot of work to be done before blind specificity is at an acceptable standard. Thanks for reading, stay safe!

Random Observations: March 2017

I am extremely sorry for the month-long gap between posts, unfortunately I've had even more heavy exams, but they are over for now, and I can promise that posts will be out every week until June, hooray! I haven't been out much lately, so I thought a Random Obs post would be appropriate in this situation. Enjoy!

Go-Ahead London DOE12 on route 63 to King's Cross.

Putney High Street has become infamous for the overwhelming pollution levels it presents to the general public, so now every single route that travels along it has to be allocated Euro 6 Hybrid buses, which means that they produce very low emissions. At the time of writing (18th March), every single double deck vehicle scheduled to arrive there was Euro 6; well done to Go-Ahead and RATP for allocating vehicles correctly! As a result, the 93 (Putney Bridge-North Cheam) stole the brand new MCV EvoSeti vehicles allocated to route 63, which means that Olympi are travelling around Central London again, which is great news for me.

Stagecoach London 36329 stands at Woolwich, before tackling the 386.

The 386 is definitely not direct, taking over an hour to cover a section which takes 15 minutes on the direct 53. It looks fairly interesting, especially the section by Greenwich Park, although the Blackheath-Cutty Sark section is rarely ever used. The route uses a mixture of 9.3m Darts and 10.2m E200s, although I would keep the Darts on this route as the 291 (which has a common user pool with the 386), gets extremely busy. Typically, an Enviro 200 is seen here on the 386.

VLA106 pauses on the 375 to Passingford Bridge.

Grays garage only had one single decker for a period of time in February, even though they operate 2 single deck routes (yes they both have a PVR of 1). As the 347 has a low bridge near Upminster, sending ALX 400 vehicles on the 375 was the only option. The route serves the village of Havering Atte-Bower before terminating at the glamorous Passingford Bridge Roundabout. I'm sure many people questioned the use of a double decker on this every 90-minute route, although the countryside views were definitely appreciated by enthusiasts. If you every feel the need to ride this route, be aware that there really isn't much in Passingford Bridge. Don't worry, these vehicles still appear on the route from time to time, but make sure that you consult LVF first and make sure that the vehicle listed is either a "VLA" or "DW."

Metroline London TEH2084 on route 332 at Paddington.

The 332 is an average route, running through a mix of residential and semi-urban areas. As all the other routes in Paddington are brilliant, it's my least favourite route there, but it really isn't bad at all. At some point in the future, the complicated one way system at Paddington will be removed and the buses will be re-routed to serve Warwick Avenue in both directions, rather than going via Edgware Road to terminate, and Praed Street on departure.

Metroline VW1038 on route 237.

Metroline have started to refurbish the worn-out 10-reg Gemini 2 vehicles at Brentford (AH) garage and they've done a pretty good job, especially with the brand new seat covers! Removing the black surrounds on the lights makes the bus look strange, but this is something I'll have to get used to. This also explains why two ex-18 former First London Gemini 2s are chilling at Brentford, in Metroline Travel territory.

Stagecoach London 15091 takes a break at North Woolwich.

The 473 provides a stunning view of London City Airport along Connaught Bridge, so if you're into planes and docks, this route is perfect for you. If you're lucky, you'll be able to see planes taking off right by the water, which looks particularly beautiful on a sunny day. However, the 473 gets extremely busy heading out of Stratford from the afternoon, due to the expansive shopping complex known as Westfield. This worsens when the 262 doesn't show up for 14 minutes-this happened when I intended to use the route so I had to let the first 473 go as it was rammed and the front seats were unavailable.

The interior of a Southeastern Class 375 train, Ramsgate-bound.

The refurb Electrostar trains on the long-distance Southeastern diagrams look pretty cool, especially with the new colour scheme on the exterior and inside. My train was completely empty from London Bridge, with only one other person in the carriage on my trip to Orpington. However, be aware that the seats really aren't that comfortable for your back, so it's best to lean forward and focus on the WIFI which will be available from next year. I use Southeastern fairly regularly, although this trip was the first time I'd got a non-class 465 unit, proving that those trains like to follow me around!

Go-Ahead London MHV19 on the lengthy route 35 from Clapham Junction-Shoreditch.

Both times I rode this route end to end I felt disappointed. This route should've been perfect for me, passing through Clapham, Brixton, Elephant and Shoreditch, four areas which I love visiting. I'm not sure if the length disorientated my views on the route, although I was perfectly fine with riding the 83 end to end. Maybe this route will prove itself one day, but I don't have the time to re-try it for a third time, so it has to be useful, or in the right place at the right time for me to try it again. It also looks like the vehicle is open top in this shot, which is rather interesting.

A Mini Pointer Dart arrives at Orpington Station, bound for Biggin Hill.

In February, the two mini Optare Solo vehicles allocated to the R8 both broke down and were off-road for almost a month. Typically, I planned to ride the interesting buses in the half term, when both of them weren't in use. They are also going to be withdrawn in April, so unless the new/existing buses are late, I may never get the chance to ride the unique vehicles. I decided to ride the route anyway and a powerful Dart Pointer showed up, which was fairly well-loaded for a route which spends most of the time travelling through narrow country lanes. I loved going through these nature-filled areas on a London bus, although my journey came to an abrupt halt in Aperfield, a couple of stops away from the terminus. After dropping off some children in Biggin Hill High Street, the bus door randomly opened in the middle of the road and the driver eventually had to stop. It became clear that part of the door flew off in the middle of the road and I had the pleasure of picking it up and handing it back to the driver! She was very friendly and told me that 12 Optare single decks were on order for routes R4, R6 and R8, although I think the poor driver was a bit confused with the StreetLite Wrightbus vehicles that are meant to transfer down to Orpington after their stint on the 462. (Un)fortunately, this means that I will have to ride this route again, although hopefully the Optare vehicles are still around!

An Arriva London E400 City arrives at Liverpool Street Bus Station.

The 133 was recently upgraded to Euro 6 vehicles, in the form of ADL's rip-off New Routemaster. These vehicles are very nice, although I would always prefer a standard MMC. The 133 itself is a very busy route, so I hope that the commuters of Brixton appreciate the new kit.

That's all for now, stay safe and thanks for reading!

Random Route: The 372

The 372 runs from Hornchurch, Town Centre-Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock, running every 20 minutes. The journey time takes around 50 minutes and was recently converted to double deck operation, a big relief for frequent shoppers. The 372 is one of the few routes that leave the London boundary, to link the villages of Aveley and Wennington to the massive shopping complex, the 10th biggest in the UK. Typically, my 193 ran early and decided to regulate one stop before Hornchurch Town Centre, meaning that I just missed a 372, feeling furious as I watched it leave the first stop.

A Stagecoach London Enviro 400 pulls up at the Hornchurch stop.

After spending twenty minutes contemplating the rest of the day and taking pictures of other buses (mainly the 252, there are lots of them running around), my 372 finally showed up and allowed passengers on board. The 372 travels through the whole of Hornchurch Town Centre, which is basically a smaller version of Romford, before turning left to serve the residential area of Elm Park. Abbs Cross Lane is full of houses that are almost identical, before turning right into Elm Park Avenue. At the end of this road is the junction that represents Elm Park Town Centre, boasting a minor shopping parade next to the District Line station.

The 372 stopped for the first time since the beginning of the route here, suggesting that this section of the route isn't particularly well used in the off-peak. In rush hour, I suspect that this route can get very busy, full of commuters travelling to/from the tube station and their homes, especially if the more frequent route 365 fails to show up. The 372 prefers to twist and turn through the residential area rather than carry on in a straight line, so after two turns the bus travelled along Rosewood Avenue, where a few more people boarded, but no one dared to venture upstairs.

Elm Park Baptist Church stands out from the dreary housing and the building was greatly appreciated, as I was already starting to feel a little bored staring at the same old buildings with the sun glaring in my face. After a few more minutes of housing, Scargill School provided a nice alternative view whilst two more people climbed up the stairs and sat down on the upper deck, ready to visit Lakeside.  Mungo Park Road consists of a Co-op and that's about it, until the 372 turns onto South End Road, where a few more people boarded the very empty double decker. At this point I noticed that the 365 and 165 follow this route all the way from Hornchurch Town Centre-Rainham, suggesting that the 372 really is a back-up for these two routes, if Romford Town Centre becomes congested, as both of the "65" routes serve there.

However, on Cherry Tree Lane, the 365 can't take endless housing and turns off onto Stanley Road South, to terminate at Orchard Village. I'm sure the destination was Mardyke Estate a few years ago, so the new name merely exists to make the residential area sound more upmarket than it actually is.

The new name looks particularly glamorous on the refurbished Scania OmniCity vehicles allocated to the 365.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw a main road ahead, meaning that the residential section was finally over. The view as the bus waited at the traffic lights was pretty decent, with multiple pylons visible in the distance, representing the extensive Dagenham Industrial Estates situated by the River Thames. Down below, an endless amount of cars raced by as the traffic lights refused to change, with the occasional 287 bus visible flying down the A1306. Finally, the signal changed from red to green and my drained Enviro 400 struggled to keep up with the speed of all the other motor vehicles. The grim buildings of Rainham Tiles and Rainham Construction Centre were aesthetically pleasing to my eyes, tired of watching the same thing over and over again. From this point, the dreary 372 suddenly turned into something quite special.

Before serving the town centre, the 372 completes a double run into Rainham Tesco Extra, where a surprisingly large amount of people boarded. Presumably these passengers came from other routes in the area, where this mini bus station creates an easy opportunity for interchange and a hopper fare, rather than travelling from one retail centre to another. Rainham Town Centre consists of a reasonable amount of shops, just enough for a suburb on the edge of the London boundary. The c2c rail service calls in here once every 30 minutes at Rainham station, the terminus of the 103 from Chase Cross and Romford.

The 372 is the only London route that travels along the B1335, where a few more people boarded the bus. This route just can't get enough of housing, but soon after the view out of the front window changed dramatically, from a fairly urban environment to the rural countryside. To the right all I could see was grassland, with a few remnants of an industrial estate in the far distance. A sign welcomed my bus to Wennington, a rural village in the heart of Thurrock. Not long after, around 10 terraced houses stood all alone in the countryside, like a tight-knit friendship group, with cars parked in a ditch on the other side. After the bus negotiated a priority scheme, open countryside dominated the view outside of the bus, which is very unusual for a TFL service. This section allowed my worn out Enviro 400 to gain some speed, reaching 40mph after some sluggish acceleration. My driver was pushing the boundaries for my bus, which was crying out for some rest, after the strenuous journey through Wennington. A much bigger cluster of housing followed the thrash section, all concentrated on the right-hand side of the road, so the residents can stare at the countryside out of their bedroom windows. Unusually, at the end of the cluster one house was situated on my left, with about 6 cars in the driveway.

After the small village residential area, the road continued to twist and turn towards Lakeside, through more greenery, until a junction with an A-road. I was slightly surprised to find a Premier Inn in Wennington, although it may be useful for ramblers, or for when there is a Darts competition on at Lakeside, seeing as it's a mere 15 minutes away on the bus. The 372 briefly turns right, but gets back on track at the next roundabout, where the bus started to pick up speed again, on the longest countrified section so far. The final town before Lakeside is the small residential area of Aveley, the last pick-up point that passengers actually use before Lakeside. The bus got substantially busy at this point, with most of the upper deck seats taken, showing that this route must have been heaving with single deckers, especially with hundreds of shopping bags on the return journey.

Lots of teenagers use this route in Aveley over any of the other three services, taking advantage of the free travel provided by TFL on the 372 for them, unlike any of the other routes there. After negotiating the narrow streets, the 372 uses Ship Lane, which provides a stunning view of the countryside on either side, with the contrasting hubbub of the M25 visible in the distance. The bus crossed a fairly tall bridge over the A13, a road that was also visible back in Rainham. The 50mph section provided more high speeds, with another world of industry present in the far distance. The stop for the Thurrock Hotel was the last for a while, with the approach to Lakeside next. Pylons ran alongside the West Thurrock Arterial Road, where I witnessed hundreds of cars parked up next to each other and a beautiful lake, on the side of the retail centre. Arena Essex, the Karting centre, is the last attraction before Lakeside Bus Station, where the Enviro 400 terminated and let off around three dozen eager shoppers, desperate to buy new things or eat in one of the various restaurants found in Lakeside.

The red London bus certainly looked odd alongside the blue and white livery of Ensignbus, but I hope that the 372 and other cross-border services continue to serve these out-of-town locations, even with the upcoming review, involving cuts to routes 465, 167 and possibly more routes. It's a real shame, as these TFL services are needed, proven by the busy 372 in the off-peak. I award this route 7/10, for redeeming itself after the tedious first section. If you like residential or countryside routes, this one is for you, but if both of them are unappealing to you, stay away!

Thanks for reading.  

So Close, But Yet So Far: Barking Riverside & Thamesmead

The development site of Barking Riverside and the residential area of Thamesmead are very close to each other, geographically. Unfortunately, traveling between them isn't so easy, as there is a huge chunk of water acting as a barrier. The Thames Gateway Bridge also doesn't exist, so people have to take a very long way round to get between the two. In around 15 years time, Barking Riverside will have its own beach, pier and numerous retail outlets, so a connection to a huge residential site with a Crossrail station makes sense, especially as the two are only a couple of miles apart as the crow files. However, getting between the two isn't so easy. Here are some examples.

The driving route between Thamesmead and Barking Riverside.

Driving between the two takes a ridiculous amount of time, taking 40 minutes on a quiet Saturday evening, a distance of over 21.1 miles. This time sounds reasonable (unlike the distance), but if there was a road bridge in place this journey would take around 5-10 minutes instead. Both of the roads used here that cross the Thames are incident-prone and are frequently closed, these being the infamous Blackwall Tunnel and Dartford Crossing. Going from Thamesmead-Barking Riverside via Purfleet or Poplar just doesn't sound right. Google maps also think that using the Woolwich Ferry would take even longer (by 11 minutes), partly due to the queuing system.

Cycling between the two isn't particularly fast either.

The cycling route is much more direct, using the Woolwich Foot Tunnel. However, bikes can't travel as fast as cars so it still takes slightly longer, although in rush hour this method might actually be quicker, even though you'll be risking your life cycling along the dual carriageway. Walking between the two takes 3 hours and creates a diversion through Barking as walking along the A13 without a pavement isn't going to end well, so that's not a sensible option either. That leaves good old public transport.

Step 4/5, the 238 to Barking.

Taking the bus takes nearly 3 hours and involves 4 changes for the quickest route, which is far from ideal. Currently, you have to ride the 472 all the way to North Greenwich (taking over 40 minutes at times), then use one of the most unreliable bus services in London for three stops through the Blackwall Tunnel, the 108. After that, it's a short hop across the road to the 115 to East Ham, then a 5/238 to Barking, followed by an EL1 to Barking Riverside, which will be free soon thanks to the introduction of New Routemasters, encouraging fare evasion. Taking 3 hours to cover a distance of around a mile is a waste of life, so you can rule out that option.

Take the train, or not...

If buses aren't your biggest fan, then the most logical thing to do is the train. However, Barking Riverside doesn't have a train station and walking from Dagenham Dock is going to take around 35 minutes. Abbey Wood, the closest station to Thamesmead, is also a 40 minute walk away from some of the houses there, so using the rails is eliminated as well. How about a combination of both?

Escaping Thamesmead.

From the top of my head, the quickest route is to take a 472 bus to Woolwich Arsenal, a DLR train to West Ham, c2c rail service to Barking and then catch the EL1 to Barking Riverside. This still takes over an hour, so we can conclude that traveling between the two is a nightmare, thanks to the Thames.

There are four solutions to this problem, all of them fairly effective and also very expensive. Here they are:

• Build a road bridge from the Riverside to the Thamesmead, allowing cars and buses to travel between the two easily, making connections between South and East London much easier. The EL1 could be extended through to Woolwich, which would be incredibly useful for Ilford and Barking residents. 
• Extend the London Overground from Barking Riverside to Thamesmead. This wouldn't be as useful as a road bridge, but would still allow cross-river travel fairly quickly and is probably one of the cheaper options, seeing as its going to Barking Riverside anyway.
• Extend the DLR from Beckton to Barking Riverside, down to Thamesmead and loop down to Woolwich Arsenal, creating a circuit and clockwise/anti-clockwise services. Other than confusing passengers, this would work very well, but is the most expensive option out of the lot.
• Extend Thames Clippers through to Thamesmead and Barking Riverside. This would require another vessel and two new piers, but this would attract quite a few passengers from the Riverside. Having said that, they cost a fortune and not everyone living in these areas will be able to use them regularly. Bang goes that theory...

This solution should've been solved a long time ago, but here are my suggestions. They may not be great, so if you have any ideas of your own, drop a comment on my flickr page or something. Thanks for reading! I've also updated the tenders page again, with a new feature that will be more detailed soon.

Busageddon: Hounslow Edition

I apologise for the non-existent post last week, I spent my time upgrading the tenders page, which looked really messy before and was a nightmare to maintain, especially as imported the bullet list from Google Docs. Let's not go into detail...

Recently, the area of Hounslow was flooded with enthusiasts, who travelled from all over London to capture the first service change of the 2017, the contract change of route 235, one of the busiest single deck routes in the whole of London. Guess what, it stayed single deck, despite having no DD restrictions. Here I will document the change and the progress the route has made under Metroline, seeing as I use the route every week. Oh yeah, the H20 also got new buses, but that change was pretty much forgotten by all enthusiasts....

Abellio London 8141, an 8.9m E200 MMC, makes a rare appearance on route 235 at Brentford, Market Place.

The service under Abellio was average for this type of single deck route. On the whole, the route was prone to bunching and very large gaps, however these are notorious for a route which deals with crowds all the time, as well as traffic in Hounslow/Feltham Town Centres. In terms of allocation, the route wasn't exactly treated as superior to anything else at Twickenham (TF), despite being the busiest of all of the routes based there, and the main allocation consisted of old Dart Pointers and Nimbuses, which were hanging on for dear life towards the end of the old contract. Despite their age, they were certainly nippy vehicles and I remember having extremely fast rides on Saturday mornings, with the driver absolutely flooring the vehicle up London Road. A less fond memory of these buses were the horrid urban 90 seats found on these vehicles, which had no padding and were absolutely freezing on a chilly weekend morning at 9am! Having said that, the Nimbus vehicles were rare types for London, with only a couple of other batches running around at the time (I think there are none left in London now) and I will miss riding them frequently.

An unallocated 08-reg Enviro 200 arrives at Brentford High Street.

The 235 had quite a lot of standard E200's ploughing up and down the route every day, especially towards the end of the contract. There was a period of time where the route was 100% Enviro, because the residents of North Brentford Quarter complained about the Nimbuses leaking oil on the bus stand. Unfortunately, 8.9m buses became quite common towards the end of the contract, which was bad news for a route that struggles with 10.8m buses and has over 5m annual ridership. The route itself is fairly short, running from Sunbury Village-North Brentford, via urban Feltham and Hounslow. It is one of only two routes directly linking Feltham and Hounslow town centres, with the other running every 20 minutes (the frequency of the 117 needs to be increased, that route struggles too). Although the double decking of routes E8 and 116 has helped the route between Brentford and Hounslow Heath, the service is still struggling today, as this route provides many unique links, which TFL's "corridor scheme" overlooks. As a result, enthusiasts were fuming when the new contract was awarded to Metroline with new single deckers, with no frequency changes. It seems that TFL haven't monitored the route closely enough to figure out that the decking of two other routes isn't enough to sort out the 235's issues and for the next five years SW London residents will continue to cram themselves onto packed buses in the peaks and shopping hours.

A Metroline Enviro 200 MMC departs North Brentford, on the first day of operation.

I wasn't exactly looking forward to the new contract, although any local service change interests me, so I actually bothered riding the route on the first day. The operation on the first day was terrible (as usual), with drivers getting lost and lots of bunching and gaps, partly due to delays in Hounslow. Lots of vehicles were having door faults and the number of buses curtailed to Sunbury Cross was higher than ever before, but I accept that this was the first day and these are never smooth! However, having three buses leaving Brentford within 8 minutes on a Saturday morning isn't exactly acceptable and the service hasn't improved much since then. The route is still the same as it was, albeit with a different operator and brand new buses.

As I arrived at North Brentford Quarter I was surprised to find two other enthusiasts already there, even though it was early in the morning. The North Brentford area consists of very dense housing, which should be an ideal place for a frequent bus service, but the 235 will move out of there very soon (more on that later). There were two buses on stand, but whilst I was admiring the ambience of the area, one of the Enviro 200 MMC's pulled away and left me behind. The other two enthusiasts were chatty with the driver of the remaining bus (another pulled in afterwards) and decided to muck about with the blinds, which proved to be quite useful later on.

Condensation meant that the blinds were a bit steamed up in the morning. Nevertheless, here is DEL2252 at North Brentford.

If I hadn't hurriedly caught the vehicle behind, I would've been able to get a picture of one of these SDs blinded for my local, the E2, although I wasn't aware that the driver would scroll through more "exclusive routes". The buses themselves are a decent batch of MMCs, with comfortable seats and nice acceleration noises. The only downside is the stop-start technology, which startles everyone on the bus thinking that the vehicle has broken down! Other than that, it's nice to have new vehicles on a weekly commute full of the same, dreary Gemini 2's. The service change was surprisingly popular among enthusiasts for a far-west SD route, but it was the first contract change of 2017, so that could be the reason why (the date wouldn't make a difference for me!). I managed to spot 6 enthusiasts within 15 minutes at 9:30 in the morning, so I suspect the route was full of them in the "peak." For your information, if you want to avoid bumping into fellow enthusiasts on a first day service change, travel outside 1-4pm. However, I can't guarantee that this will work, I apologise in advance. On the other hand, if you like socialising with fellow "bus geeks", then feel free to cover the route in snappers rush hour.

DEL2252 displays the incorrect destination for North Brentford Quarter, although this will be accurate in a few months time...

The residents of North Brentford aren't grateful for their frequent bus service, so a new stand is being fitted on Ealing Road, just outside the development, which makes the extension from County Court a bit pointless now. However, the barrier outside Great West Quarter keeps breaking so the bus service doesn't make it to the quarter on a regular basis anyway! The allocation of the 235 has been fairly strict so far, with a couple of standard E200s and an Evolution appearing over the last month. Overall, the service has been about the same as before and the route is still crowded, so not much has changed on the poor old 235.

Abellio London 8158 in Hounslow on route H20.

The H20 also received a brand new batch of E200 MMC's, which actually strayed onto the 235 towards the end of its contract. The H20 was a forgotten service change, I was actually the first person to snap the change, even though I caught it over a week after the new buses entered service. The buses themselves look fine and I'm sure the residents of Whitton and Ivybridge are pleased with their new buses.

Thanks for reading, next I have a rather unique post planned...

London Buses On The Go-4th Birthday

Four years ago, a fairly inexperienced bus enthusiast decided to document their sights on the London bus network on a website, in brief posts containing pictures that weren't exactly photogenic! Nevertheless, the blog has developed and my photography has improved and somehow this blog still survives today, although posts did grind to a halt for about 18 months in 2015! Before you carry on reading this post, please pay a visit to the successful London Connected blog (they now have the bus blogger's dream, top of the search list of "London bus blog" on google, whilst I'm in measly 7th) who also started their blog four years ago today! Click here to see their celebratory post (assuming it's out already, which isn't at the time of writing). In this post I'll reflect on my year of bus extravaganzas and share the high and low points of everything significant! Enjoy if you can!

In 2016 I rode a lot of enjoyable bus routes, with quite a few entering the almost sacred top 50, which gets increasingly rare as I ride around more of the network! The 180 managed to enter the top 10, but the 199, D7, 240, and W7 all managed to earn their place in the top 20% of routes completed. In general, I didn't ride any atrocious bus routes in 2016 (thanks to careful planning!), although my worst was the E5, which crawled around the depressing streets of Dormers Wells at 10mph and got increasingly boring until Greenford, where I gave up and went to a newsagents, seeing as the other half of the route was already complete.

The E5 managed to score a 4/10 on my route ratings, although 2 of the points are for the excellent Enviro 200 MMCs this route has been blessed with.

I returned to the blogging scene in May 2016, when three local routes of mine changed operator, and one was extended to become a whole lot more useful! I covered the E8 extension to Hounslow in such great detail, that it was impossible to fit it all onto one tiny flickr caption, so I decided to return to the world of bus blogging, even though my monthly viewings had plummeted since 2015! However, the E5/7/9 post came out first, as no other blog had covered those changes as of May 2016. I made a few changes to the layout, updated the polls and introduced the popular new Busageddon and Random Route series posts, which have generated quite a few viewings since their birth. To keep some sense of tradition, the Random Observations series soldiers on, even though posts aren't exactly once a month! The E-route changes were my first bus journey for over a month and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my favourite company (Abellio London) roaming around the streets of Ealing on a regular basis! The E7 and E9 were most enjoyable and I started to look forward to an action-packed summer, rammed full of ventures across every part of London.

My random route series kicked off with the 122, a fairly interesting and long route from Crystal Palace-Plumstead, Bus Garage, where I shared my experience of my trip in the Easter holidays. It went pretty well and since then, routes 483, Breezer 50 (non-TFL), 56 and 180 have been reviewed and hopefully your local will steal the limelight soon! Unfortunately, all of the routes selected have been good ones and I am hoping that the random number generator gives me one where I can have a nice, long rant. In July the Random Observations series kicked off again, with 10 pictures selected from the folder on my laptop. An interesting array of photos were presented for members of the public to read, where I briefly wrote about any experience I had of the route. Generally, I only take pictures of routes I rode (because I always forget to take snaps of observations on other routes), so there's nearly always something about the photo that relates to me!

On Saturday 23rd July 2016, I set off on my first long-haul bus journey since Easter , in which I covered lots of Central London changes, but also ended up in Catford. Due to a last minute cancellation, I was able to leave even earlier, so I got even more done! It was a beautiful sunny day and I discovered many brilliant bus routes. The 53 ride was extremely fun, but the 199 was one of the most enjoyable end to end rides I've ever had. The combination of riverside views, residential sections, thrashy main road sections, tourist attractions (Greenwich always looks spectacular from any bus apart from the 386), gradients near Lewisham and urban high streets. I was not bored for one second and I honestly recommend this route if you love short, but constantly interesting routes around South London. It earned it's place in the top 25, but has now slipped to 27th, with the additions of routes 210 and 180. Being a Summer day, I was sincerely grateful for the powerful air-conditioning on the Enviro 400H City buses allocated to route 26. It was a fabulous day and the start of an epic summer holiday.

Refreshing. 2520 pulls into Waterloo Station/Waterloo Road, on an outbound 26 journey.

My North London trip was another brilliant adventure, which started with a pleasant 113 journey through the heights of North West London and a thrashy experience on the countryside route 107, which I surprisingly enjoyed, even though nature is my nemesis. Bar the horrific experience on the 491, all of the routes were decent, although my highlight was riding the 389/399. These two routes have a combined PVR of 1 (as they share a bus), running from Barnet to two contrasting estates. The 389 runs to the deprived community of Underhill, which really does deserve a more regular bus service, whilst the 399 trundles around upper class mansions in Hadley Wood, where the driver knows exactly where regular bus passengers live! The experience was so unique I wrote a special post about the two routes; I'm nowreally looking forward to riding the W10, the Enfield equivalent of the 399!

Go-Ahead London SEN23 stands at Barnet, The Spires, whilst it flips the number blind from 389-399.

The Kingston temporary routes were interesting and I loved the 65 diversion over Richmond Bridge and through Teddington, although that was quite a low-key day out compared to my next adventure, which resulted in waking up at the unearthly hour of 3am. At this point in the Summer I was rather embarrassed at the lack of East London routes I'd completed, so I organised an extravaganza involving the completion of route N205 and the East London Transit, especially after the tender result which implied that the routes were converted to New Routemaster operation. Although it seemed like a good idea at the time, I was shattered by the end of it and desperately wanted to be asleep, which was a shame seeing as I was halfway through a 368 journey to Chadwell Heath. The day didn't start very well, purely because the N7 to Oxford Circus departed Acton Old Town Hall 5 minutes early (this shouldn't be allowed), resulting in a missed connection that was vital to make the N205 from Paddington. Waiting 30 minutes simply wasn't an option, so I had to use initiative and jump on an N207 (which was 10 minutes late) and catch a Circle Line at Shepherd's Bush Market. Unfortunately, I didn't make the N205 at Paddington, but I did manage to intercept the last journey at Liverpool Street, where the beastly E40H took me on a tour of the Olympic Park just as the sun was beginning to rise.

The last N205 of the day arrives at Liverpool Street, Leyton bound.

The buses after that were pretty miserable. The 238 was depressing for most of the short journey and the 5 was rammed in the morning peak. The EL2 was incredibly boring until the last two minutes, which are absolutely brilliant! The road is isolated, with an industrial area looming in the distance, with thrash pretty much guaranteed. The oversized Dagenham Dock Bus Station is in the middle of nowhere and it's going to be really weird having New Routemasters, which were only meant to be deployed on Central London routes, out in Zone 4 in an industrial wasteland! The 387 and 396 were pretty dull and I was really hungry by this point. East Beckton smelled of sewage and I was grateful that the 262 came immediately. The views around Beckton were brilliant, although it was raining by this point and I could barely see anything out of the front window! The 147 from Ilford-Canning Town was my favourite end to end ride of the day, even though I was falling asleep by Custom House. I barely remember the 368 and visiting Barking six times on one day really wasn't a good idea, I was so sick of seeing thousands of ELT-branded Gemini 2's everywhere. TFL Rail came quickly, although the Class 315 train was grim and I couldn't wait for the ride to be over. Just as I was looking forward to relaxing at home, the Hammersmith & City Line decided to have a signal faliure and I endured a 60 minute Scania 205 journey all the way to Paddington. I couldn't even appreciate my favourite route as I had my eyes closed for half of it! Even though the day wasn't as enjoyable as I intended, I've learned now that waking up earlier than 5am is not tolerable and never a sensible idea!

WVL471 stands at Dagenham Dock. Deserted, right?

Before my blogging reduced in September, I ranted about the lack of links from Ealing Broadway- I'm hoping to write a similar post about another area soon, but I'm keeping that a secret until the day of publishing. Despite my sorrowful emotions at the loss of route 83 to Ealing, new local route 483 grabbed my attention and I dedicated a random route post to the long-winded Harrow-Ealing trunk route. After that I enjoyed fantastic rides on the 340, 240 and 153 and it was a fun day, just before the start of a torturous 14 weeks. Halfway through, I sampled the brand new Electric BYD E200 MMCs now working routes 507/521 in Central London and I wrote a very brief review on flickr/the blog. I also managed to get lost in the new London Bridge concourse, which is incredibly confusing! By this point I really didn't have much to write about, although the random number generator threw up the number 50, which wasn't very helpful seeing as the Croydon-Stockwell route is still on my "to-do" list. However, I used my imagination and discovered that there was a number 50 bus service that I rode in the past, I even managed to moan a little about the timetable!

A convertible EvoSeti, without the horrid seats!

Before my month of absence, I published a boring post summarising the upcoming events of December, which all took place whilst I looked through revision notes for 4 weeks. I also managed to sneak in a review of temporary route 563, which was a 3 minute shuttle from Upper Holloway-Holloway, Nags Head, with only 1 stop between the start and end! Sadly, this route has now been withdrawn following the completion of works on Holloway Road (damn, I forgot to update the tenders page).

My first major comeback was the completion of my first London mobility route, the 931, which is up for withdrawal "this month", but TFL still haven't bothered to confirm an exact date or update the consultation yet. A catch-up trip in South London enabled me to ride the lovely new Citaro K vehicles at Quality Line and I also managed to find a brand new top 10 route, the 180. However, my favourite trip of 2016 came at the very end, where I ventured into the depths of East London again, to ride around on some bus routes which were involved in a rather controversial set of changes. I arrived in Docklands at 8am on a bank holiday morning, which was completely deserted. It's a bit like being in the City Of London at weekends, when there are no workers around, except that in the Isle Of Dogs there are no tourists to contend with either!

The view from my bus stop, where I waited impatiently for my 135.

The 135 ride was fantastic, speeding around the Isle Of Dogs completely empty, with constant views of futuristic buildings. I published a post about the D8/108 changes and how they had so many negative impacts, even though the D8 roueting is now quite nice. I discovered two brilliant routes known as the 248 and 275, which unfortunately didn't have any changes so I couldn't write about them in detail, although I remember my experience riding them every day! The day was brilliant because of the reasonable pace, variety of great bus routes and the compulsory Costa hot chocolate- Romford's branch is pretty decent! One final journey on the 7th January covered the 235 contract award and the almost surreal experience of sitting upstairs whilst being driven through Holloway garage on a Not In Service Volvo President! The driver on the number 4 didn't serve the last stop at Archway and left me on board and decided to drive through right to the other end of the garage, the look on his face when I came downstairs was priceless!

Unfortunately I've had to rush this post, as otherwise it wouldn't have been published today, although I hope you've enjoyed this, as it's been very useful for me to reflect over how successful 2016 was for riding buses, even if it wasn't so great in other areas (I think you all know what I mean). Thanks for reading and fingers crossed this blog survives until its 5th birthday in 2018!

Random Observations: January 2017

Unfortunately the last Random Obs post was in October and since then I have been on many outings. However, the format will be exactly the same and I hope you enjoy it.

Metroline VW1385 on route W7 to Muswell Hill Broadway.

The W7 only takes 15 minutes end to end. However, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience, with brilliant views of the London skyline as the bus descends down various hills down to Finsbury Park. It's very frequent and links residents from Crouch End to the tube as quickly as possible, therefore it can get extremely busy at peak times! Also, if you ever consider riding this route and want to appreciate the views, avoid VW1385! The bus is so dirty that I could barely see anything out of the front window, and the bus honestly sounded like it was about to break down, completely different to a normal Gemini 2! Also be prepared to let one bus go at Muswell Hill, these members of the public are ruthless and you won't get the front seat unless you know exactly where the bus is going to stop!

Short Routemaster LJ16NUV on route 13 to Golders Green.

The most recent bus type to enter the London scene is the two door, Volvo B5LH New Routemaster. 6 of these are allocated to route 13 (which will be withdrawn soon, with the 82 being renumbered to compensate), but these will move onto the 183 soon. Although the windows are still the same size, these are slightly better than the LTs, because the engine noise is a little louder and the acceleration is great. Also, as there is no third door or second staircase, there is now half a window at the back, which makes the upstairs slightly brighter. However, the front window is still the same size and these buses aren't good enough to trump my third least favourite type, the ALX400.

Go-Ahead London SE230 stands at Shadwell.

The 100 is definitely one of my favourite single deck routes, passing through very interesting areas such as the London Wall and Wapping, full of cobbled streets and docks, reminding me of the Dickens era! It is unique for many reasons and managed to score an 8 on my route ratings, which is rare for a single deck route! The Enviro 200's are splendid too with their ZF gearbox, they really rev on acceleration!

Reading Buses 758 on route 205.

The tube strike last week meant that extra buses were sent out on routes such as the 205, which follows the Hammersmith & City Line for most of its journey. To partially make up for the terrible traffic conditions, passengers were treated to a luxurious bus ride home, with free wifi and USB charging! Unfortunately, this technology is too advanced for Transport For London and the capital city's buses don't provide many things that town-based operators do!

Stagecoach London 19770 stands at Barkingside on a route 247 journey.

This bus only recently joined the Romford bus fleet, as a result of the 53 conversion to Enviro 400H MMC vehicles. The 247 is a fairly interesting route, which links the residents of Hainault and Barkingside to Romford, the closest town centre to this particular part of Essex. The frequency is poor (especially on Sundays) and the bus was surprisingly busy for a route that spends most of its time in the countryside. The views around Marks Gate were spectacular, something you wouldn't normally find on a London bus. Admittedly, the sections in Hainault and Collier Row were boring but overall this route isn't bad at all.

Go-Ahead London LT50 pauses at Vauxhall Bus Station

The livery makes this particular New Routemaster stand out from the rest, even though they're all the same inside. They also come out surprisingly well in the dark, seeing as the lights upstairs are so dim. Here is LT50 on the now ruined 88, which used to be in my top 10!

Stagecoach London 12282 stands at Croydon Town Centre.

The 75 is a decent trunk route, linking two of the main town centres in South London. It runs through urban, residential and hilly areas, making it very interesting to ride on. However, my trip was slightly ruined by some works that are taking place in Croydon Town Centre, meaning that the bus spent almost 15 minutes trying to circumnavigate West Croydon Bus Station! The trip took 90 minutes in total, which is a bit too long for my taste (I honestly did feel stiff by the end of it, those Lazzerini seats are annoyingly comfortable), but this route still managed to score an 8/10 on my route ratings. For me, the optimum length of a route is 45 minutes (which may seem ironic as my favourite route is the 205, which takes over 90 minutes end to end), although the Aldgate-Paddington section is so good that the 60 minute section alone deserves the top spot! I've only used it to Bow Church once, for the sake of completing the route!

Stagecoach London 17885 works route 5 to Romford Market.

  
The 5 is another major trunk route which gets extremely busy, running from Romford-Canning Town via Barking. Many enthusiasts are waiting for the tender result of this route, especially as there are rumours of Tri-Axle buses being ordered for this route, given that an Enviro 500 vehicle was tested for the route recently. I do hope this rumour is true, as the only Tri-Axle vehicles in London are owned by tourist companies, who charge a stupidly expensive fare for a ride that's stuck in traffic most of the time!

A rare appearance of a Gemini 3 on route 607, back in November.

The Gemini 3 vehicles at Uxbridge (UX) allocated to the 114 rarely stray onto the other double deck routes at the garage, so the appearance of one on express route 607 on a Saturday attracted a lot of bus enthusiasts! I can only imagine how amazing the kickdown was on Uxbridge Road between Hayes and Uxbridge! I'm also loving those blue blinds, they look brilliant in the dark.

A Heathrow Connect service at London Paddington.

The Heathrow Connect is a very useful shuttle service from London Paddington to Heathrow Airport, stopping at all intermediate stations apart from Acton Main Line. These 5 car trains severely reduce crowding on the Great Western Main Line and provide the only train service at Hanwell Station, where GWR can't be bothered to run any of their own services. However, the more profitable Heathrow Express service is always prioritised (even though it's always empty) and the 2/3 car GWR services simply can't cope with the loadings (thankfully some 8 car Electrostars are beginning to enter service)! Also notice the funny sign on the front of the train, "Preinst aborted", which still baffles me to this day.

That's the end of the post, thanks for reading!

Busageddon: Elephant, Lewisham, Isle Of Dogs, Morden, Croydon, Ilford, Upminster

The original plan was to have all of these Busageddon posts published separately, although some posts would be over 5 months late if I stuck to it. This post should summarise all of the significant service changes and I hope you enjoy it.

Go-Ahead London MHV40 works route 63 to Honor Oak.

 Route 63 has been given a full allocation of Hybrid buses upon contract renewal and Go-Ahead London chose MCV EvoSeti's for the route. The 63 is a very frequent commuter route which can be really busy, so the 59-reg Gemini 2's that used to work the route are fairly worn out now. However, I'm not sure if the commuters will enjoy the rock hard seats these EvoSeti's have! The Gemini 2 vehicles have been displaced to other routes, which will be covered later.

Go-Ahead London EH67 works route 363 to Elephant & Castle.

Unfortunately, the powerful Plaxton President buses that used to work the route were too old to last for another five years, so new buses were ordered for route 363. The 363 isn't as busy as the 63 and doesn't venture into Central London, although it does go further than Honor Oak and terminates at Crystal Palace. It provides a valuable link between Peckham and Sydenham/Crystal Palace and is well used in the peak hours. The route has to contend with lots of hills and the E40H MMCs climb them with ease, confirming that they were a suitable choice for this particular route. The buses themselves are nice (I prefer them to the ones on the 35/40) and I enjoyed riding the route very much, despite waiting 20 minutes for the bus to show up! However, I won't blame Go-Ahead for this as the traffic in Peckham was terrible. If you enjoy residential, fast routes with lots of hills, the 363 is for you!

LT851 stands at Lewisham whilst on route 21 duties.

At the moment, the 21 is converting to New Routemaster operation, knocking it out of my top 10 with the 180 taking its place. The conversion has been really slow and most of them aren't even in service, even though the first examples have been around for almost a month! The 21 is a very long trunk route linking North and South London and if you like routes which pass lots of sights, but are over 90 minutes in length, this one is for you. However, if you don't like New Routemasters, make sure you catch a Gemini 2 soon, they're probably not going to be around for much longer. Some of the Gemini's will stay for route 321, whilst others will transfer to Belvedere (BV) garage, enabling the withdrawal of the VWL and PVL class buses currently allocated to route 180.

VWL9 will be withdrawn within the next month or so, with a Gemini 2 displaced from routes 21/63 taking its place.

If you read my last post, you would know how much I love route 180! However, I will miss these Eclipse Gemini's, as they are far superior than the examples that were allocated to route 1. They are fast and powerful and the Gemini 2's won't bring as much character to the 180, although I am grateful that the route hasn't been poisoned with MCV EvoSeti's with stupidly large pillars at the front! VWL9 represents one of the last 02-reg Gemini's in London; they will be sorely missed!

Go-Ahead London SE147 works route 152 at South Wimbledon.

The 152 is a busy single deck route running across South London, from Pollards Hill-New Malden. Before the contract was announced, the 152 was run very badly. Large gaps were a common occurrence and Abellio frequently put out Mini Pointer Darts on the route, which didn't help with the crowding at all! In terms of reliability, Go-Ahead are doing a fairly decent job with the route, although there is certainly room for improvement. The allocation is strict (although one double decker sneaked out a couple of weeks ago), which means that higher capacity existing ADL Enviro 200s and Optare Esteem vehicles work the route full time, from Merton (AL) garage. Overall, a successful operator change!

Arriva London T108 stands at Morden, working route 157.

The 157 is an extremely long and indirect route from Morden-Crystal Palace, running via Croydon. The total journey time can be over 2 hours on a bad day, making it very hard to run. Abellio London tried their best when running the route, although large gaps and bunching were frequent. Arriva London were very brave and submitted a bid for the route, with existing Enviro 400 vehicles displaced from route 133. Buses are parked up at Norwood garage, although the route is based at Thornton Heath. The route used to run with a mixture of ALX 400s, Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 1 vehicles and a couple of E400 MMCs from route 109. The E400s haven't been refurbished and are fairly worn out after their seven year stint on the 133, although they are a suitable replacement for the ageing Tridents. The reliability has been reasonable, considering the length of the route and the amount of traffic hotspots it serves. I wish Arriva success for the next 5 years!

Quality Line MCS08 stands at Bushey Road, working route 413.

Small operator Quality Line managed to win another route from Go-Ahead, which should partially make up for the loss of route X26. The 413 is a short route from Morden-Sutton, serving the houses around Gander Green Lane in the middle. The route stands outside Go-Ahead's Sutton garage, much to the annoyance of all the staff working there, watching another operator intrude on their property (although the 413 stands outside now)! Quality Line were brave enough to order non-standard vehicles for the new contract. The Mercedes Citaro K vehicles are lovely buses, with an interesting moquette, comfortable seats and an interesting interior design, including bells which literally wrap around your hand. The route is running reliably and on the whole, this is a successful operator change. However, Quality Line have given the route far too much running time, meaning that the drivers are being forced to regulate at every stop, making the journey much longer than it needs to be! The extra running time has helped the reliability, although it can be frustrating for the passengers.

Arriva London SLS14 terminates at West Croydon on route 450.

Route 450 has received brand new buses, to replace the Dart Pointers that used to work the route. The 450 runs from West Croydon-Lower Sydenham, through various side roads around Crystal Palace. Wrightbus StreetLite vehicles are currently my least favourite single deckers in London, although they do suit the route quite nicely. However, there have been complaints that some of the buses are quite unfit already, struggling to climb the hills this route has to contend with. The reliability has always been substandard and in order to improve the service, I would curtail the route to Crystal Palace, meaning that it would no longer run between there and Lower Sydenham. However, a route that Transport For London want to axe could make a suitable replacement, with an obvious increase in operating hours and frequency.

Abellio London 8211 at Lewisham Centre.

Although I covered this route in great detail previously, I just want to remind you guys that this route will be axed within the next couple of months, so if you have a spare Friday, please make the most of it and ride the 931! Coming back to the 450 idea, I think that this route could replace the section of the 450 between Crystal Palace and Lower Sydenham, running via Hillcrest Estate and Sydenham. From Lower Sydenham Sainsbury's, the route could run through Catford and up to Lewisham, perhaps every 10 minutes as a starting frequency. It would significantly improve the reliability of route 450 and give Hillcrest Estate and Sydenham Hill the bus service they deserve!

The next set of changes are about the results of a consultation TFL published a few months ago, concerning changes to the bus network around Isle Of Dogs. In short, these are the changes that took place:

• Route 135 was re-routed between Mudchute and Crossharbour, to serve Spindrift Avenue and Cubitt Town, replacing route D3 on this section.
• Route D3 was withdrawn between Canary Wharf and Crossharbour and extended to Leamouth via Billingsgate Market, replacing route 277 on this section.
• Route 277 was withdrawn between Canary Wharf and Leamouth and re-routed to Crossharbour via Westferry Road, following the former 135 routeing. All of these changes were to bring additional capacity to the Westferry Road corridor.
• Route 108 was re-routed between Poplar and Bow Church via Devons Road and sent to Stratford International through the Olympic Park, instead of running to Stratford (main) Bus Station. 
• Route D8 was re-routed away from Devons Road and sent to Stratford (main) Bus Station via the A12. It was converted to double deck operation.

Two changed bus routes stand at Crossharbour Asda.

The re-routeing of the 135 has been successful, with the extension into Cubitt Town proving popular with the locals, assisting route D7. The 135 now almost serves the whole of the Isle Of Dogs, making it even more scenic and a better route in my opinion. The 277 extension has also been popular, with Westferry Road benefiting from a more frequent bus service with vehicles that have a higher capacity! The lightly used Leamouth-Canary Wharf section now has a bus service more suited to the small demand on this section and the D3 is more reliable now that it is shorter. For these three routes, it's been a great success! It's a shame the same can't be said for the other two routes involved...

MEC10 departs North Greenwich, in the middle of a tortuous journey on route 108.

Since the re-route, the 108 is now an exceptionally long trunk route, taking over 2 hours end to end. Bearing in mind this route has to use one of the most incident-prone roads in the country (the Blackwall Tunnel) and it has to deal with significant crowds, given that it is the only route linking North and South-East London, sending it through a dense housing area was never going to be a good idea, considering the route doesn't run North of the river when the Tunnel is closed (at least once every day). As a result, the residents of Devons Road have an extremely unreliable bus service which doesn't turn up regularly. When the bus does show up, it is often crowded following the long gap. Given the extended journey time, the route is now unappealing for passengers travelling between North Greenwich and Stratford, as well as the fact that is does not serve Stratford Town Centre anymore. People of Devons Road are starting to use the DLR and commuters travelling from North Greenwich-Stratford are using the Jubilee Line, as I have noticed the buses aren't as crowded as there were a couple of months ago. Transport For London are now receiving more money following the move to the tube, and it's a win win situation for them. In other news, the route has been upgraded to 12m Citaro buses displaced from routes 507/521, which are being fitted with additional seats during refurbishment. Overall, the refurbishment has been overlooked and the 108 change has been a total failure!

The D8 change has also been unsuccessful, but for completely different reasons. Since the re-route, it now doesn't serve any housing in Devons Road, but it goes through a couple of industrial estates with barely any passengers needing a bus service along this section. A busy route like the 108 was well-suited to this section, as crowded buses could speed past the bus stops and reach Stratford quickly. However, many links have been broken and people from Canary Wharf have no choice apart from to use the DLR. The double deckers are not carrying any passengers, and a driver said that the most amount of passengers that boarded his bus in the evening peak was 14. For a bus that can carry 87 passengers, that is ridiculous. The route now has no purpose and could easily be withdrawn, which just goes to show that these two changes were a big mistake!

CT Plus 1224 works route W19 to Walthamstow.

 The W19 is a busy single deck trunk route running from Ilford-Walthamstow, providing many key links between town centres and residential areas. Go-Ahead London ran the route terribly, with huge gaps and extremely short buses working the route. However, it was a shock to all enthusiasts when CT Plus managed to win the contract for this route, from a brand new garage in Walthamstow. However, the length of the buses was a disappointment to everyone, especially as 10.8m had worked this route in the past. 9.6m vehicles aren't big enough for an overcrowded route like the W19 and people are being left behind frequently. The frequency has been increased to every 12 minutes, but the decrease in capacity has not done the route any good. The service has been pretty poor, with lots of bunching and gaps, but the "classic" E200s do look very smart in the TFL interior. On the whole, not a great service change, but I wish CT Plus success for the next five years.

Go-Ahead London 232 stands at Upminster Station.

The operator change on route 346 was neglected by most enthusiasts, as it is a very quiet route running on the outskirts of London, and the contract change coincided with the Isle Of Dogs changes. However, I got a chance to ride the route over Christmas and I was very impressed. It is a 20 minute shuttle service between the tube station and the estates at Cranham/Upminster Park and Arriva London managed to lose this service to Go-Ahead. Three Optare Esteem vehicles were drafted in from Orpington and have been the main allocation of the route since October. They have excellent manoeuvrability and are well-suited to a residential route like the 346, which has to contend with some very tight roads. The bus drivers are very experienced and have no problem with thrashing the bus at 40mph and even accelerating whilst turning round a corner! The service hasn't been great, with the two buses running the route bunching quite frequently! However, the 346 certainly has more character now and has scored highly for a single deck route on my ratings page!

Now, we have finally caught up with the service changes at the end of 2015 and I hope I don't have to cram all of these posts into one again! Thanks for reading!