Back With GAL - 7 Years On: Route 196

7 years ago, today. Go Ahead London saw its first 15 Enviro400 buses enter service on a 9 mile, South London suburban route. Route 196. The contract of the route was successfully won from Travel London whom had previously won the contract off of GAL in 2001. Route 196 is one route which has its mark in South London purely due to the areas it serves and the crazy routing between Elephant & Castle and Norwood Junction (South Norwood).

Copyright Lawrence Living

Copyright Brian Creasey

Route 196 dates back all the way to the 1950's when the route ran between Tufnell Park and Waterloo. Shortly after in 1951 the route was extended from Waterloo To Norwood Junction, I know what you're thinking that a massive extension of 10 miles. which is longer than the route itself in the present day! The route remained this way until 1971 where it was withdrawn between Tufnell Pk and Euston which then 3 years later it was cut between Euston and Herne Hill and diverted to terminate at Brixton instead. This short 6 mile route remained around until April 30th 2005. Over the years route 196 saw its operations bounce between Go Ahead London's London Central and London General diversions until the chain was was broken on the 5th May 2001 where the route was successfully won by Connex from their Beddington Farm Garage.

Travel London/Connex had trouble running the 196 due to the distance of the garage from the route. We see that its possible to run routes from garages quite far off. Take the 82 for example, its ran from PB which is no way near the route, but Metroline still do a great job with the route. Anyway this too had a knock-on effect on Route 322 which in 2002 was named the "Worst Route In London" due to the infrequent service, since then the route has vastly improved.

April 30th 2005 saw the 196 gain an extension to Elephant & Castle from Brixton via Stockwell, Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall and Kennington Lane. This extension saw route 322 being cut back between Brixton and Elephant & Castle and diverted to serve Landor Road and Clapham Common as well as being won by Go Ahead London on the same day! The reason this extension took place was due to Kennington Lane needing double deckers due to the high demand for bigger buses over the years. Route 322 cannot take double deckers due to a low bridge in Brixton. So the 196 came into the agenda. Shortly after the extension it was announced that Go Ahead London would gain the 196 from 6/5/6 running it with a PVR of 14 with some of the worlds first state of the class Enviro400's from Stockwell Garage. 

Go Ahead have now ran route 196 for 7 years now and personally with the 196 being my local route, I will have to say they do quite a good job. The 196 has seen many un-allocated workings occur on the route over these 7 years with the most common being the E's for the 333 (Ex 24) and the least being the brand new WVL's/WHV's for the 19 which has only ever happened twice. Odd workings seem to become much more frequent on the 196's ever since the 24's departure last November.

WVL482 seen in Herne Hill

WVL138 seen in Herne Hill

EH3 seen in Herne Hill

WVL482 in Herne Hill

E6 in Herne Hill

 


So what will the fate of the 196 be when its contract is next announced in 2015! Stay tuned!

Also I would like to apologise for having a lack of posts this year, just have had so much to do lately!

Thanks for Reading! 

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