South London Bus News - April 2014

Welcome to the first South London Bus News edition where we recap the latest South London Bus News so far during the past month. So please make a cup of tea or coffee and sit back to enjoy the South London Bus News we provide on a monthly basis. Enjoy ;) .

Abellio London

Routes 109/N109 and 415 has been recently gained from Arriva London. Route 109/N109 will commence service under Abellio London at Beddington Cross BC garage on 30th January 2015 with 28 new hybrid double decker buses, which is likely to be Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 hybrids Euro 6 version unless the company has decided to opt for Wright Gemini 3/Volvo B5L Hybrids. Route 109 will also be Abellio London's largest route in terms of PVR. Route 415 will commence service under Abellio London at Walworth WL garage on 8th March 2014 with 9 new hybrid double decker buses which are likely to be Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 hybrids Euro 6 version.

Here is a picture of a notice Abellio London put around it's garages regarding their recent tender wins written by Tony Wilson, Abellio London managing director.

Arriva London

All of the last Wright Gemini 2/Volvo B5L hybrids there are has entered service at Brixton BN on routes 59 and 319. Unfortunately these new hybrid buses are mostly on route 59 despite it being originally ordered for use on the 319. 

(Creative Commons) Julian Walker

Arriva London has also lost routes 109/N109 and 415 to Abellio London. See Abellio London for details.

Stagecoach London

The introduction of the Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 hybrids that are Euro 6 are really slow following the "Stagecoach Shambles" in which they have had their mass hybrid order in a mess and also a lot of other buses they've gained from tenders messing up everything. Anyways, these buses 12261-12278 and 12282-12283 has already entered service for type training purposes as well as not being in the garage to waste space. Our newest blog admin GloriousWater has already snapped a few of these new hybrid buses before myself and has said that these new hybrid buses are the most fuel efficient, comfortable and light weight hybrid bus so far of Alexander Dennis LTD. Some hybrids are at Plumstead PD for type training purposes as well when they receive these new hybrids for 122 (particularly) and 472, those are back at Catford TL getting ready for the 75's take over from Metrobus on the 26th.

(C) GloriousWater

(C) GloriousWater

(C) GloriousWater

(C) GloriousWater

(C) GloriousWater

Route 136 will be extended to Elephant & Castle Newington Causeway from 10th May 2014 via route 343 the PVR is increased to 19.

Route 54 will commence service on 3rd May 2014 using 17 of the new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 hybrids swapped for the route itself and 75 which was gained from Go Ahead London subsidiary Metrobus from Catford TL garage. Route 75 commenced service on the 26th April 2014 with 15 of the new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 hybrids plus one Alexander ALX400 bodied Trident 2 from Bromley route 269 for a school journey from Forest Hall - Lewisham. 

Go Ahead London - Metrobus

Metrobus sent over 945 and 946 (YN56 FEF) and (YN56 FEG) to Rainham (BE) garage. Also, 143 (LT02 ZDS) has been sent over to Rainham as well, for route 193. 142 (LT02 ZDR) has been sent for the PVR increase on route W4 back in Feburary 2014 and these buses are obviously in bad condition already as most bus enthusiast mock Blue Triangle as "Bandit Triangle". For their silly job of running buses e.g having buses on paper blinds we call this an act of "Banditry" which is basically Blue Triangle's laziness into maintaining their buses and ensuring they run the best service with proper blinds where possible. However that fails to reach expectations as around over 75% of the time they're just running an inadequate service seriously wrecking Go Ahead London apart and giving them a bad reputation amongst the entire company itself.

Not another "Banditry" with a bus from the rest of Go Ahead London ... 

(C) Thomas Drake

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