Queenstown Road Depot: New hybrids for Route 188

Queenstown Road Depot is situated in Battersea, South London. Opened in May 2009 by Boris Johnson, Queenstown Road Garage is able to house around 200 buses. Most of the buses held at QB are Enviro400's and Trident/ALX400's. Queenstown Garage currently operate routes routes 35, 156, 211, 344, 414, 452, C3, C10, N3 and N35.


As many of you know route 188 is bound to get a partial hybrid allocation within the next month. Originally planned to recieve new Enviro400H Hybrid's in the month of October, ADL (Alexander Dennis) were overflowing with orders causing these buses to arrive 2 months late.

Abellio London (WL), 2412, SN61DGU stored at Queenstown Road Depot

Currently the new hybrids are being stored and prepared at QB until some point in early January where they will transfer over to Walworth Garage and enter service from there. Route 188 operates between North Greenwich and Russell Square via Elephant and Castle with B7TL/Gemini's. When all hybrids enter service on route 188 some of the Gemini's at WL will transfer to Beddington Cross Garage to operate on route 157.

Abellio London (WL), 2409, SN61DGE stored at Queenstown Road Depot

This set of hybrids are built to the new E.U specification/Whole Type Approval. They all weigh U.W 11950 KGS and are Abellio's first set of Double Deck Hybrids in London.

Lower Saloon Interior of 2412/SN61DGU

Upper Saloon Interior of 2412/SN61DGU

Upper Saloon Interior of 2412/SN61DGU

As many of you know route 3 is bound to convert to a full hybrid allocation from 11th February 2012. Some say that the hybrids were bought for the route as it is Abellio's flagship. Reason being...TfL did not even fund the hybrids for Abellio. This is showing that Abellio went into their own funds and bought the hybrids for route 3. The conversion will see route 3 transferring to Queenstown Road Depot from Beddington Cross Depot. Route 3 operates between Crystal Palace and Oxford Street via Herne Hill.

Abellio London (WL), 2403/SN61DFP, 2404/SN61DFU and 2409/SN61DGE

Abellio London (WL), 2403, SN61DFP stored at Queenstown Road Depot

Abellio London (WL), 2405, SN61DFV stored at Queenstown Road Garage

Abellio London (WL), 2406, SN61DFX stored at Queenstown Road Depot

Abellio London (WL), 2408, SN61DFZ stored at Queenstown Road Depot

The allocations of ALL of the new hybrids for Abellio are as followed beneath
- 2401-13: Route 188 from Walworth Garage
- 2414-37: Route 3 from Queenstown Depot
- 2438-43:Route 211 from Queenstown Depot

Abellio London (WL). 2402, SN61DFO stored at Queenstown Road Garage

Other shots from the day!

Abellio London (QB), 9451/LJ09CDE and 9415/LJ56VTU at Queenstown Depot

Abellio London (QB), 9409, LJ56VTL seen at Queenstown Depot

Abellio London (QB), 9464, LJ09CCN seen at Queenstown Depot

Abellio London, W612UGM seen at Queenstown Road Depot

Ex-Abellio London, 9724/V324KGW, 9713/V313KGW and 9704/V304KGW all noted at QB

Abellio London (QB), 9736/Y36HWB and 9790/KV02USF noted at QB

Abellio London, 9812/LG52HWN and 9784/KV02URY noted at QB

Abellio London, 9509, SN59AVW noted at QB's repair centre

Abellio London (QB), 9822, LG52XYZ noted at QB

Thank you for reading my post I sincerely hope that you've enjoyed it. A lot of time and effort went into this post. I would also like to thank the staff at Queenstown Depot for letting me visit their garage all safety instructions were followed whilst on the premises.

I would also like to take this time to wish everyone a happy new year and Good Luck for 2012 and 2012 is where this blog will be adding a lot of variety into each and everyone of it's posts. So cheers to that