All Over London Bus Blog: Observations and Odd Workings: 2nd September

Here are some of my Observations from the week dated above. This contains some of my best/rare shots during the past week.

Observation 1: Route 35

On 23^rd June 2012 Abellio decided to transfer Route 35 from Battersea Garage to Walworth Garage which was quite a shock as many think Walworth thought the garage was already full!

Travel London (now Abellio London) won both Routes 35 and 40 from Go Ahead London on 2^nd May 2009 and ever since that date only Enviros have ever appeared on the 35 as Battersea Garage did not update any of their older buses with 35 on the blinds apart from Route 452s 56/57 Reg E400s.

In the photo below is a bus allocated to Route 381.

Geminis are on the 35 a few days a week now and are on the 40 every single day when is should be Enviro operated, but a bus is better than no bus! Walworth Garage enjoy intermixing their fleet!

Route 35 - BX54DHY - 9009 in Clapham Junction on 03/09/12

Observation 2: Route 266

Route 266 was previously operated by Metroline until 18/05/12. It is now operated by First from Atlas Road Garage using Volvo B9TL/Gemini 2 buses. Routes 70, 206, 266 are the most recent takeovers by First London all previously operated by Metroline. The photo below is one of my best and only shots of Route 266.

Route 266 - BN61WXR - VN37967 in Hammersmith on 03/09/12

Observation 3: Route 485

Route 485 is one of London’s many Low frequency routes, running every 30 mins between Wandsworth - Hammersmith with a PVR of 3 buses. The official allocation is LDP292-LDP294, but here we have a rare visitor from the 493 batch which has actually happened more than once this week; SE186 SN12AVC 03/09/12; SE191 SN12AVJ 04/09/12; SE193 SN12AVL 05/09/12 (Source: Bus Checker).

Route 485 - SN12AVC - SE186 in Hammersmith on 03/09/12

Observation 4: Route R5 & R10

Routes R5 and R10 are Circular Routes which share the same bus normally taking up to 40-50 minutes. If you look closely in the Photos the running number is the same.

Both routes are exactly the same running in different directions.

Route R5: Orpington Station - Green Street Green - Pratt's Bottom - Halstead - Knockholt - Cudham - Green Street Green – Orpington Station (Clockwise)

Route R10: Orpington Station - Green Street Green - Cudham - Knockholt - Halstead - Pratt's Bottom - Green Street Green – Orpington Station (Anti-Clockwise)

The bus shown here in the photo is actually allocated to Route R8 and is quite a rare visitor.


Route R5 - YJ56WVF - 101 in Orpington on 04/09/12

Route R10 - YJ56WVF - 101 in Orpington on 04/09/12

Observation 5: Route R1

The bus shown in the photo below is one of my best Pics of an E200 on this Route. In December 2007 First London sold their operations in Orpington to Metrobus along with Routes T31, T32, R1, R3, R4, R6, R9 & R11 all were operated with existing First London Marshalls which moved to Metrobus and Green Street Green Garage, the Garage in St Mary Cray was closed after that and some are still currently in service as refurb floats, 3 of them are now training vehicles . Route T31 was awarded to Arriva London a few weeks later. Metrobus now operate all of the R Network in Orpington and have successfully retained Routes R1, R2, R3, R4, R6, R9, R11 in 2011 with new buses for Routes R1, R9 & R11, new/existing for Route R4 and existing buses for Routes R3, R6.

Route R1 - YX61ENM - 170 in Orpington on 04/09/12

Observation 6: Route 654

It is not often anyone snaps School Routes as they only run early AM and late PM during in the day. Here we have Route 654 which runs between Addington Village – Ramsden Estate using a bus from the 353 doing the PM return journey to Addington Village.

Route 654 - YN55PZC - 901 in Orpington on 04/09/12

Observation 7: Route R6:

Here we have a stray E200 on Route R6. The R6 is a short route running every 30 mins between Orpington Station – St. Mary Cray Station running via side roads, this journey will be 5-10 mins on the 51, but of course the size of the bus on the R6 tells you it is not a trunk route!

Route R6 normally takes 25 mins to reach St Mary Cray, but the Route does not actually terminate there it does a loop around and returns to Orpington Station. The R actually stands for ‘Roundabout’ and all of the Routes from R1-R11 actually go around via side roads or circular.

Route R6 - YX60FUY - 157 in Orpington on 04/09/12

Observation 8: Route 178

The 178 is a short and quite busy route between Lewisham Station – Woolwich via Kidbooke. Very soon the Route is to be even quicker as both routes 178 and B16 will no longer serve that loop via Tudway Road, Moorhead Road and Weigall Road in Kidbrooke and run straight via the main road to Kidbrooke Station. New bus stops will be placed on the main road.

If you saw the post last week I stated ‘Occurrences like this happen on the 178 and P4 at least 3 – 4 times a week’ so here we now have two 8.9m buses on Route 178, but 34253 is the only ALX 200 at Catford Garage and has worked the 178 this week.


Route 178 - Y253FJN - 34253 in Woolwich on 05/09/12

Route 178 - LV52HGO - 34376 in Woolwich on 05/09/12

Observation 9: Route 354

This week the 354 has had a change of scenery other than Enviro 200s. This week saw the first appearance under Catford Garage operation of not one but two MPDs on the 354 which are 34369 and 34370 seen in the pictures below. MPDs have been loaned to Bromley Garage before for use on the 354 as probably no available bus was in the garage to use. Previously the 354 was the only 8.9m route at Bromley Garage, but is now at Catford which is now the official Home of Stagecoach 8.9m operated Routes!

Route 124: 36528-36540 12 Reg 8.9m
Route 273: 36301-36308 56 Reg 8.9m
Route 354: 36314-36319 58 Reg 8.9m
Route 356: 36320-36326 58 Reg 8.9m
Route 380: 34366, 34367, 34369-34376 8.9m & 25111-25115 10.6m, the 380 may be set to change if the former batch for the 314 (34354-34365 10.2m) is transferred to the 380 and the MPDs replaced.

Provided below are a few pics of the 354 this week including the MPDs and 36326 which is from the 356 batch.