South London Bus Route - 75

Stagecoach 12272 in Croydon on the first day of the new contract.
  Glorious Water

Route 75: Croydon Fairfield Halls - Lewisham Station

Operated by: Stagecoach London

Garage: Catford (TL)

PVR: 14

Length: 9 miles/14 kilometres

Allocation: Alexander Dennis Enviro400H 10.2m plus one E40D from route 208 for school journeys

Timetable: http://www.londonbusroutes.net/times/075full.pdf

Metrobus 891 bound for Lewisham Station in Penge.
  Glorious Water

Route 75 started way back in 1934 running from Woolwich to Caterham Valley using STs. It was run from Croydon (TC) and TL. In 1939 the route was cut from Caterham to West Croydon and the TC allocation was withdrawn. STLs were also introduced. RTs were slowly introduced between 1949 and 1951 at which point there was a partial Elmers End (ED) allocation. In 1960 weekday journeys were extended to South Croydon garage. By 1964 this extension was once again withdrawn together with the ED allocation and the route was cut to Blackheath on Sundays. In September 1969 the route got a Sunday allocation of Routemasters and was cut to Norwood Junction.

In February 1977 the route was converted to one-person operation using Daimler DMSes and the Sunday route was restored to West Croydon. July 1983 saw the route changed to Leyland Titan operation and start moving between garages as a result of closures. By 1989 it was back at TL. In July 1991 it was cut from Woolwich to Blackheath then cut from Blackheath to Lewisham then extended to Surrey Quays on Sundays barely 4 months later. Rather foolishly the Sunday service used minibuses which got crowded really fast. The Sunday service was converted to single-deck Dennis Lance operation 2 years later.

In February 1994 the Sunday extension to Surrey Quays was withdrawn and exactly one month later the route was fully converted to single-deck operation. These buses didn't last and in August 1995 the route got its Leyland Titans back, in the interim Selkent was bought by Stagecoach as part of the privatisation of London's buses. In 1997 the Titans were replaced by Northern Counties-bodied Volvo Olympians. Its contract was renewed in February 2002 specifying low-floor buses in the form of short-wheelbase Transbus Tridents, however these came 7 months late. A night service was introduced at the same time, numbered N75 and running the same route. In my opinion this was one of the best batches of Tridents I ever took and many are still running in East London. Their days are numbered though so get them while you can.

Metrobus 878 bound for Lewisham in Catford.
 Glorious Water

The route went to Metrobus together with the 54 in 2009 with new Optare-bodied Scania N230UDs, these were really nice to ride on and it's a shame these are going to Blue Triangle after only 5 years. As of this post they have 5 days left on the 54 so you still have a chance to ride them. The delivery of these buses was late again so they had to use the old Tridents for the first few months of the contract. In 2013 it was announced that Stagecoach had gained the route with new hybrids, which were later announced to be Volvo B5LHs. However due to the 8 getting Borismasters a shuffle of hybrids was announced which confused the enthusiast community and ended up giving the route new Enviro400Hs while the Volvos are to go on the 53.

Stagecoach 12267 in Croydon bound for Lewisham.

 Glorious Water

On the 26th of April 2014 the route returned to Stagecoach at TL using the new Enviro400Hs. The majority of them had already been in service on other routes, the first, 12261, starting in early March. The route's a pretty average suburban route and not very special to travel on, but the hybrids themselves are really nice buses and some of the best in London. If you want to get them however be warned that the route gets very crowded at peak times and is one of the only routes I've used where I had to wait for the next bus as the first one was full.

Here's the hybrid fleetlist, these buses will be shared with the 54 from the 3rd of May.

12261 - SN14 TVW

12262 - SN14 TVX

12263 - SN14 TVY

12264 - SN14 TVZ

12265 - SN14 TWA

12266 - SN14 TWC

12267 - SN14 TWD

12268 - SN14 TWE

12269 - SN14 TWF

12270 - SN14 TWG

12271 - SN14 TWJ

12272 - SN14 TWK

12273 - SN14 TWL

12274 - SN14 TWM

12275 - SN14 TWP

12276 - SN14 TWU

12277 - SN14 TWV

12278 - SN14 TWW

12279 - SN14 TWX

12280 - SN14 TWY

12281 - SN14 TWZ

12282 - SN14 TXA

12283 - SN14 TXB

12284 - SN14 TXC

12285 - SN14 TXD

12286 - SN14 TXE

12287 - SN14 TXF

12288 - SN14 TXG

12289 - SN14 TXH

12290 - SN14 TXJ

12291 - SN14 TXK

12292 - SN14 TXL

Thank you for reading this post and for visiting our blog,

Remember to stay safe.