Another loss for Metrobus

This Saturday route T33 passed from Metrobus to Abellio London and is now operated from Beddington Cross Garage in Croydon.

Abellio London - 8786 - YX12 DLY - Route T33

The T33 has its roots in Tillingbourne's 'shopper route', numbered 354. Introduced in May 1982, it connected Sanderstead to Bromley via Forestdale. Soon after Tillingbourne's London operations were bought by the local management and became known as Metrobus, the 354 was altered to run from West Croydon to Bromley.

In 1986, the service was upgraded to a regular Monday-Friday service, but was withdrawn between Selsdon and Croydon town centre. One year later, after considerable opposition from local residents, the 354 was routed via Selsdon Vale, providing the estate with its first bus service. To coincide with this, it was also re-extended to East Croydon, terminating at the Fairfield Halls.

When Metrobus' main route in South Croydon, the 357, was withdrawn, both the 354 and 353 underwent major timetable overhauls. In the case of the 354, the Forestdale-Croydon frequency was increased to every 20 minutes, while the Bromley section was cut back to operate only from 8:30 until 18:30 

The route became the T33 in May 2000 as part of a scheme of bus route changes introduced by TfL to coincide with the opening of Tramlink. The Bromley section of the route was withdrawn, and the new T33 terminated at the Addington Village Interchange. The route moved from commercial operation to a TfL tender, which until 19/05/2012 was still retained by Metrobus using the same V reg Dart's like these.

The route would also see odd workings by other buses and amazingly every type of bus at "C" Croydon garage has been on this route From MPD's to Full size 12M scania omnicity's and Double Deck's, Here are a few pictures of what has been on route.

Now these are probably the only buses you will now find on the route now that it is will Abellio, You may also see some slightly older E200's on route as they have had inserts fitted. Hope you have enjoyed this post, Please rate and comment.

Now a special treat for you guy's as you know I like my blind changes here is what is on the T33's buses so here is Abellio London's 8780 

A Quick Visit to CELF

Yes we were at Metroline's CELF Centre again as we had a suspicion that a new TE would be there and we were correct

Metroline - TE1307 - LK12 AVD 

As many of you know, Metroline have their own engineering centre which is called the CELF centre situated in Perivale. The word 'CELF' stands for Central Engineering & Logistics Facility. Our main focus for today was to check out the brand new 10.25m E40D/E400's bound for (W) Cricklewood. The new E40D/E400's or should I say 'TE's' shall see its self entering service for Olympic shuttle routes before they begin their new life from September 2012 at (W) Cricklewood. 

Many seem to be excited over the new TE's but have to say that they are nothing special and they are just like the TEH's at W. Personally I think they look that great with Metroline because of the black headlight surrounds, but other than that they are just as good as the batch for the C2 except these have a better looking interior. We all have different opinions.

Some things what the new TE's contain are:

-a weight of U.W. 11655KGS 

-a body length of 10.2 metres

-a horsepower of 250 on a ZF 6HP1203B 6 Speed Gearbox with a Euro 5 Cummins ISB6.7EV  6 cylinder turbocharged and intercooled Engine

-a seating spec of H41/24D
-Estaban Civic seats






Below is the rest of my observations at the CELF. I hope that you have enjoyed this post.

A Metroline Blind Change Special

On Saturday we were at CELF checking out the New TE1307 (Blog Post Coming soon) and since there were a lot of buses just lying around we thought it would be a good idea to see what is on the blinds.

 First up we have a VPL from (HT) Holloway garage 

Followed by a VPL from (HD) Harrow Weald garage

and lastly a SEL from (PV) Perivale (East)

Hope you enjoy

The All Over London Blog Post

First I would like to apologize for the delay in this post 

Secondly I would like to apologize for all the spam comments that have been posted on this blog, the problem has now been sorted :)  

Third of all Last Saturday I (Dave) met up with Jamaal from The circle of London Blog , First of all we went to Metrolines CELF centre to see if one of there new TE's was there but with no luck we left after getting a few pictures and decided to check out the new VW's as they were straying on to the W7.

Metroline - DLD707 - LK55 KMF - Back from refurb at Metroline's CELF Centre
This bus will be used for Olympic work 

Line up of MM's at Perivale West Garage

Also because the central line was not running between Bethnal Green and Marble arch we had to walk from  Marble Arch to Oxford Circus to get the Victoria line and on the way TA1 passed me along with the first "First" coded DNH to enter service on route 23

Stagecoach London - TA1 - S801 BWC - Route 55

First London - DNH39127 - SN12 ATV - Route 23

 Now we also paid a visit to HT garage to find out some information on the early TP's and what ones were going, I can also tell you that route 24 should be getting Volvo B9TL's but noting is confirmed yet, TP36 has also been withdrawn from service. We then quickly made our way to Muswell hill and just as we got there a VW turned up so we did a quick rounder on the route to see how the cope with the hills and I can tell you that they find Muswell hill no problem and climb it better than Wood Green's new Enviro 400's (I had T265 a few days ago on the route and after getting to the top the overheating alarm was going off and various lights flashing on the dash board)

Metroline - VW1258 - LK12 AEF - Route W7

 While we were at the top I had a good chance to finally get a picture of the new VW's on routes 43 and 134 together and this is where Jamaal left me to make his way home

Metroline - VW1254 - LK12 ADV - Route 134 / Metroline - VW1251 - LK12 ACO - Route 43

 Now this is strictly not an all over London post as we kinda forgot about South London... Sorry

but I did cover Romford and Brentwood Even though both these places are in Essex they do receive London bus services and since there were some rare workings it was a good time to get some pictures even if it was Half 9 at night when they were taken  

First off is Stagecoach London - 19739 - LX11 BBE - Route 294, These are for the 496 on paper but  do stray a bit 

Second is Stagecoach London - 19853 - LK12CZG - Route 5  These are for the 101 on paper  but they do and have strayed a bit since being delivered only recently 

Now off to Brentwood to get home and I get one of the friendly driver from DM who was quite happy for me to get a picture of his bus on stand in Brentwood.

First London - DML44073 - YX58 HVC - Route 498, On paper these are for the 165 but for some reason they seem to spend more time on the 498.

Below is one of the buses intended for the 498 and is the first one in the batch and the first one ordered for first which has been coded incorrectly DM44001 which should be in fact DML44001, The only difference between the 57 and 58 Plates is the first batch has Manual blinds, Yellow logo's and the old First seat moquette.

First London - DM44001 - LX57EJD - Route 165

Hope you enjoyed this very overdue post here are some of the other pictures taken that day. Please rate and comment

Apologies

The team and I would like to apologise for what may happen over the the next two months. Over the next two months, Dave, Mark and I will all be sitting GCSE Exam's and it is vital that we balance out our social lives and our academic lives evenly.We will still be posting during the next two months but maybe not as frequent. Who knows? Once again sorry for the inconvenience

Rhys and the Team