The Borismaster Muddle-Up
This Spring and Summer sees a few Central London routes convert to the New Bus for London operation. We've already seen a few conversions already, such as routes 38 (partial), 24, the 11, 9, 390 and most recently the 148.
More routes are due to convert, the next planned conversions are to be:
Let's look at routes 8, 10 and 38 before they convert to Borismaster operation. The routes have their own unique fleet. Let's look at the last few months of operation with their normal conventional double deckers.
Route 8:
Route 8 is one of Stagecoach's flagship route, reaching to the heart of London: Oxford Circus. It runs between Stagecoach's Bow Bus Garage near Bow Church DLR station and Oxford Circus. In most recent months, the route was cut back westbound to Tottenham Court Road station and previously eastbound cut back at the same time to Old Ford Roman Road Market both due to crossrail works.
Route 8 is allocated Alexander Dennis ALX400s, on the Dennis Trident 2 chassis which are tuned to a Euro III standard. They have a Voith gearbox hence why they scream through the streets of Old Ford. The buses are shared with route 277 which runs between East India Leamouth and Highbury & Islington station.
Here's a short gallery of the ALX400 buses on route 8:
That's some of the similarities and differences rounded up for you, I'm going to leave you, the reader, to find the rest out for yourself! Above image shows Stagecoach's 18234 (LX04 FYA) on route 8 towards Bow Church. It's one bus that can still be found on route today, in fact.
Other routes that operate out of Bow (BW), as we have already mentioned is 277. On top of that, other Stagecoach flagships also operate from here, such as route 15 (Excluding heritage service, which operates out of West Ham garage) which runs between Blackwall DLR station and Trafalgar Square. This route is allocated Enviro 400 Hybrids, which often tend to sneak out onto the 8 quite frequently. More hybrids (Enviro 400Hs) are to be ordered for Bow and are to be delivered at a later point this year, this time for route 205. However, it doesn't look like they will make it into public service until after route 8 has been converted to LT operation. However, the ones on the 15 make it onto the 8 almost daily. Here seen is 12149 (LX61 DCU) on stand at Oxford Circus back in 2012.
Most of Bow garage will be hybrid by the end of this year, but beforehand there are still diesels. Back when East London Bus Group existed, Scania Omnicity was in huge favour and since they won route 205 back in 2009 off Metroline, a large batch of these vehicles were delivered to route 205 and the route was extended to Bow Church from Mile End about the same time. These Omnicities appear on route 8, on a regular basis.
Route 8 had it's contract retained in Autumn last year, and will be converted to Borismaster operation upon contract renewal on the Saturday 28th June 2014.
Route 10:
Route 10 is the westernmost future conversion, running between the upper bus station at Hammersmith, and King's Cross St Pancras station. This will be the third LT-operated route to be operated by London United, the most out of any operator so far.
.jpg)
Here is SP137 (YP59 ODT) seen at Oxford Circus on route 10 curtailed to Kensington, Holland Road due to earlier traffic. Most of route 10 is made up of loaned Scania Omnicities from route 148, though, and this bus hasn't been in service for the best of a month, but it won't re-enter service until late May.
The route has the youngest allocation out of these three routes, using 59' reg Scania Omnicities numbered SP135-62 out of Stamford Brook (V) garage, already home to LT69-94 which operate on route 9 and also chrome coloured version, LT150 for 'Year of the Bus' celebrations.
Lately, since the conversion of those on route 148, the SPs have either been sent to refurbishment or been sent to Stamford Brook (V) garage for refurbishment covers whilst the ones on the 10 are refurbished too to get ready for their new life on the E3, which runs between Chiswick, Edensor Road (New Chiswick Riverside Pool) and Greenford Broadway, whose new contract starts on the 31st May 2014.
Prior to this in 2010, this route operated with First out of Westbourne Park (X) garage with Trident ALX400 vehicles, although in 2009 it was announced it would be lost to route 10.
The night service is currently operated with 3 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 Hybrids (ADH) from route 27, who also operates out of Stamford Brook (V) garage. It is very hard to spot these vehicles on the daytime service, although I was lucky to spot one without the use of London Vehicle Finder. At the time of trying to photograph this bus with my camera, it failed to work due to low battery so I had to use my phone instead to photograph, so sorry for the poor quality.
Route 38:
This route has the highest PVR in London with buses passing a stop between Hackney Central and Victoria up to every 2 minutes! The 38 is also London's most frequent and is Arriva London, the operator of this route, flagship route. The night service, N38 which runs the whole 38 route, and then extends to Walthamstow Central Bus Station will also convert and become the first night route to be on LT-operation.
The 38 is the 4th busiest route in London at the moment, and also was one of the few bendy-bus routes. The bendies were the Mercedes Benz Citaro O530G articulated model, at a length of 18 metres. Route 38 was one of the first routes to be de-bendified, after Red Arrow Routes 507 and 521, of which 507 also operates services to and from Victoria Bus Station.
Journeys on route 38 don't end at Clapton Pond all the time, some journeys only go as far as Hackney Central Station.
Route 38 is already home to some Borismasters, known as LT1-8, with LT8 moving to Metroline. LT1, LT2 and LT3 are on tour leaving LT4-7 in service, who operate out of Ash Grove (AE) garage. The route already obtained a part-NBfL allocation starting from the 27th February 2012, with crowds of enthusiasts, media, bemused public and general public at Victoria Bus Station waiting for the bus to come in. The original date was the 20th February 2012 for introduction of these buses, however the target date could not have been met.
When the first Borismaster entered service, which is LT2 (LT61 BHT/ LTZ 1002) on the 27th February 2012, Mayor of London and creator of these buses, Boris Johnson was driving the first ever bus in service. At one point, the doors were having trouble closing and were deemed faulty however this problem was quickly rectified.
The route 38 converts on the 10th May 2014.
All photos and text are copyrighted by those who have taken the photos, and the text is copyrighted by All Over London Bus Blog. Please do not use anything without permission.
More routes are due to convert, the next planned conversions are to be:
- Route 10, on the 26th April. Currently operated by London United RATP Group from their Stamford Brook base, where NB4L route 9 is already operated from therefore this conversion is predicted to go rather smoothly.
- Route 38 is to fully convert to NBfL type on the 10th May, only 2 weeks after the 10 conversion. The buses have already started to be delivered to Clapton (CT) garage, which many enthusiasts have already photographed too.
- Route 8 is to convert on the 28th June 2014 operating from Bow (BW) garage.
Also, TfL are introducing a few Euro VI Borismasters, making modifications to the fleetnumbers and also to some of the existing fleet.
When Arriva's LT8 (LT12HHT) returns, it will firstly be re-registered as LTZ1008 and secondly be upgraded to Euro VI (6) standards. It'll also make a return, to be in the Metroline fleet, not of Arriva's.
Metroline will also receive LT190, to be delivered to Holloway (HT), probably to help out with the same time on route 390's temporary PVR increase at Tottenham Court Road to stop ousting VW's out on the route again.
The fleetnumbers actually start getting quite confusing. So the layout has been made much easier to read and interpret.
- LT148-171 (Note LT150 has already been delivered quite a long while ago) will be delivered to London United RATP Group at their Stamford Brook (V) garage for route 10. Then LT174 and LT175 will be part of the batch too.
- LT172, LT173, LT176-187, LT191-234 will/ or has been delivered to Clapton (CT) garage for Arriva flagship route 38 between Clapton Pond (Or Hackney Central Station on some journeys) and Victoria Bus Station.
- LT188 and LT189 will be delivered to Go-Ahead London Stockwell (SW) for their sole NBfL route 11 as top-ups, as if there wasn't enough already (Considering LT118 and LT119 already joined the fleet to cover for the loss of LT62 and as a top-up).
- LT190, as stated above will be sent to Metroline's Holloway (HT) garage for routes 24-hour routes 24 and 390.
- LT235-261 will be sent to Stagecoach London's Bow (BW) garage for route 8 between Tottenham Court Road (Link currently cut off to Oxford Circus due to Crossrail works) and Bow Church DLR Station.
Let's look at routes 8, 10 and 38 before they convert to Borismaster operation. The routes have their own unique fleet. Let's look at the last few months of operation with their normal conventional double deckers.
Route 8:
Route 8 is one of Stagecoach's flagship route, reaching to the heart of London: Oxford Circus. It runs between Stagecoach's Bow Bus Garage near Bow Church DLR station and Oxford Circus. In most recent months, the route was cut back westbound to Tottenham Court Road station and previously eastbound cut back at the same time to Old Ford Roman Road Market both due to crossrail works.
Route 8 is allocated Alexander Dennis ALX400s, on the Dennis Trident 2 chassis which are tuned to a Euro III standard. They have a Voith gearbox hence why they scream through the streets of Old Ford. The buses are shared with route 277 which runs between East India Leamouth and Highbury & Islington station.
Here's a short gallery of the ALX400 buses on route 8:
©EHBusman1958
Here illustrated at City Thameslink station is one of the elderly Euro 2 ALX400s, on route 8. It's worth noting you can't find anymore YxxxNHK's anymore at Bow Garage, including 17407 (Y407 NHK) shown in the image above. There is a massive difference between the newer and elderly ALX400s. One thing to notice is the bonded windows on the older ones, a feature also found on the 51' plated ones too. On the newer versions, the buses have been specified to have rubber mounted windows, which is a more common sight on our streets now as bonded windows have fallen out of favour, it seems.
Another difference is the engine noise, this is due to the Euro Emission standards. The elderly ones are of Euro 2 type, whereas the newer ones are Euro 3. In my personal opinion I've always preferred the Euro 3 ones as they sound better to my ears.
You may notice the old style destination blind on the elderly ones, especially for the destination to be written in CAPITAL LETTERS IN BOLD. Some of the newer ones of this generation of buses, such as some of the Arriva 55' plated VLAs indeed do have this style as well, usually destination sets taken out of older buses and put in newer ones to save money and to use the sets until they are fully worn out.
 |
| ©EHBusman1958 |
Other routes that operate out of Bow (BW), as we have already mentioned is 277. On top of that, other Stagecoach flagships also operate from here, such as route 15 (Excluding heritage service, which operates out of West Ham garage) which runs between Blackwall DLR station and Trafalgar Square. This route is allocated Enviro 400 Hybrids, which often tend to sneak out onto the 8 quite frequently. More hybrids (Enviro 400Hs) are to be ordered for Bow and are to be delivered at a later point this year, this time for route 205. However, it doesn't look like they will make it into public service until after route 8 has been converted to LT operation. However, the ones on the 15 make it onto the 8 almost daily. Here seen is 12149 (LX61 DCU) on stand at Oxford Circus back in 2012.
 |
| Stagecoach's 15121 (LX09 FZT) is seen on route 8 towards Oxford Circus. © EHBusman1958 |
Route 8 had it's contract retained in Autumn last year, and will be converted to Borismaster operation upon contract renewal on the Saturday 28th June 2014.
Route 10:
Route 10 is the westernmost future conversion, running between the upper bus station at Hammersmith, and King's Cross St Pancras station. This will be the third LT-operated route to be operated by London United, the most out of any operator so far.
Here is SP137 (YP59 ODT) seen at Oxford Circus on route 10 curtailed to Kensington, Holland Road due to earlier traffic. Most of route 10 is made up of loaned Scania Omnicities from route 148, though, and this bus hasn't been in service for the best of a month, but it won't re-enter service until late May.
The route has the youngest allocation out of these three routes, using 59' reg Scania Omnicities numbered SP135-62 out of Stamford Brook (V) garage, already home to LT69-94 which operate on route 9 and also chrome coloured version, LT150 for 'Year of the Bus' celebrations.
Lately, since the conversion of those on route 148, the SPs have either been sent to refurbishment or been sent to Stamford Brook (V) garage for refurbishment covers whilst the ones on the 10 are refurbished too to get ready for their new life on the E3, which runs between Chiswick, Edensor Road (New Chiswick Riverside Pool) and Greenford Broadway, whose new contract starts on the 31st May 2014.
Prior to this in 2010, this route operated with First out of Westbourne Park (X) garage with Trident ALX400 vehicles, although in 2009 it was announced it would be lost to route 10.
The night service is currently operated with 3 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 Hybrids (ADH) from route 27, who also operates out of Stamford Brook (V) garage. It is very hard to spot these vehicles on the daytime service, although I was lucky to spot one without the use of London Vehicle Finder. At the time of trying to photograph this bus with my camera, it failed to work due to low battery so I had to use my phone instead to photograph, so sorry for the poor quality.
Route 38:
 |
| The second in the batch: LJ09 SUO (Arriva DW202) is seen at Victoria Bus Station, serving route 38 on the full route to Clapton, Lea Bridge Roundabout. ©Jacob Cartmann |
The 38 is the 4th busiest route in London at the moment, and also was one of the few bendy-bus routes. The bendies were the Mercedes Benz Citaro O530G articulated model, at a length of 18 metres. Route 38 was one of the first routes to be de-bendified, after Red Arrow Routes 507 and 521, of which 507 also operates services to and from Victoria Bus Station.
Journeys on route 38 don't end at Clapton Pond all the time, some journeys only go as far as Hackney Central Station.
Route 38 is already home to some Borismasters, known as LT1-8, with LT8 moving to Metroline. LT1, LT2 and LT3 are on tour leaving LT4-7 in service, who operate out of Ash Grove (AE) garage. The route already obtained a part-NBfL allocation starting from the 27th February 2012, with crowds of enthusiasts, media, bemused public and general public at Victoria Bus Station waiting for the bus to come in. The original date was the 20th February 2012 for introduction of these buses, however the target date could not have been met.
When the first Borismaster entered service, which is LT2 (LT61 BHT/ LTZ 1002) on the 27th February 2012, Mayor of London and creator of these buses, Boris Johnson was driving the first ever bus in service. At one point, the doors were having trouble closing and were deemed faulty however this problem was quickly rectified.
The route 38 converts on the 10th May 2014.
All photos and text are copyrighted by those who have taken the photos, and the text is copyrighted by All Over London Bus Blog. Please do not use anything without permission.
Thanks for Reading!
Feel free to Comment Below!
Probably AOL's Best Post here, Well Done Jacob. Keep Up the Good Work! :)
ReplyDelete