Blog Updates 30/05/14

Hi All,

Sorry for the closure of the blog, I have been closing it temporarily whilst work was done to edit the slideshow, posts and pages. Not all work have been finished but these will be done live on the blog.

We are sad to announce that the second member of the blog has left following his decision that he did not want to be on the blog anymore and we thank him for the work he'd done for the blog.

The SLBB would also like to remind people that when commenting and using our chatbox or any other blog's chatbox that you need to treat others with respect and respect people's points even if you may disagree over it. Furthermore failure to comply with these basics rules found on our blog when using our chatbox will result in ramifications and if you comment on the blog and fail to comply the rules you comment will not be approved on the blog.

Thank you for reading this post and for visiting our blog.
Remember to stay safe.

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Stagecoach London Catford Garage (TL) Open Day

Firstly I must apologise for the lateness of this post, I've been busy studying lately and didn't have much time to write for the blog.

Old and new vehicles lined up in the front of TL, nearest is wartime utility Guy G351.
  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

On the 10th of May 2014 Stagecoach were holding an open day at Catford (TL) to celebrate the garage's centenary. There were many things to do and I went to the garage intending to do them all.

I arrived at the garage at 9:20am to find a lot of people waiting, mostly old men. Everyone was milling around the front gate waiting. The opening was late due to several vehicles from the display being late, which annoyed several people in the crowd. At around 10 the garage was announced open and people poured in. Inside the garage were many old vehicles on display and some were still arriving an hour later. There were also many sales stalls selling models, books and even destination blinds, and you could go on bus wash rides on new Enviro400H 12284 from around 11.

12284 carries a full load through the bus wash.
  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

Also from 11 there was a heritage service running on the Bellingham-Elmers End section of route 54. There was a heritage service running to the garage in the morning on route 47 but I missed it. The first heritage 54 out, at 11, was Stagecoach Bedford 14000, a tri-axle Leyland Olympian new to Hong Kong. The 100-seater bus filled up quickly, mostly with enthusiasts and it was off towards Elmers End. At practically every turn someone took pictures of the bus. After a short 20-minute ride we had arrived at Elmers End. Many of the passengers, including me, got off to take pictures. The break lasted about 2 minutes before the bus went back towards Catford. Many people waiting were visibly surprised to see the old Olympian roll up and there was a full load by the end of the trip.

14000 generates quite a stir at Elmers End.

  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

On arrival back at TL the queue for the heritage service had gotten massive. My original intention was to get on the other heritage buses which were two Routemasters and RLH61. However the queue was off-putting so I sneaked off to get some food and found that the buses passing the garage were extremely crowded. On the 208 people were noticing my camera (which was rare) and asking questions about the event. Soon I had eaten and went to Catford Bridge as the 171 was standing there as a result of the open day. The stand was packed with buses parked on the crossroads behind, making the road a lot more congested than it usually was. Some of the 171 drivers looked a bit annoyed at the diversion.

I walked back to the garage in one of the rainstorms of the day and walked to 12284 ride through the bus wash. Like 14000 earlier, it filled up quickly, this time with a lot of small children. The bus was off 5 minutes later and entered a passageway behind the garage that led to the bus wash. It entered the wash not far from the sales stalls, I imagine some of them got a bit wet over the course of the day. As the rollers powered up the children on it started to get really loud and excited, meaning my ears were ringing by the end of the ride. It exited the garage through the maintenance pits.

After going on all these rides I decided to sample the interiors of all the buses on display. I started with utility Guy G351 and immediately noticed how hot the interior was. Not spending much time boiling to death I walked to one of the new Geminis for Plumstead, 13015. The seats aren't as padded as on Tridents and the seats look like they're a slightly different colour too. However it was nice inside and it was clearly the most popular of the buses on display as it got a bit crowded. There's also some contraption on the windows to break them in an emergency like on Borismasters.

The emergency window smashing ...thing on 13015.

  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

Back inside the garage near the bus wash was an Optare Excel with posters inside detailing the history of Catford garage. These showed a lot from the opening of it by Tilling in 1914 to the conductress who saved a bus from a bomb by ringing the stop bell in 1944 and more recent things like the arrival of low-floor buses in 1999. It was an interesting read and I spent several good minutes inside. There were several other things to do but unfortunately I didn't have time for them as I had to go to Elephant & Castle as the 136 had been extended on the same day. Still the experience was great and I'd definitely rate this open day highly. I recommend going on a garage open day, it's a great chance to see behind the scenes which not many people usually get to do. There are several open days throughout the summer and one will probably be near you so try and go. These are:

7th of June - Alperton (ON)

21st of June - Stockwell (SW)

28th of June - Fulwell (FW)

5th of July - Potters Bar (PB)

19th of July - Walworth (WL)

7th of September - Dartford (DT)

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

Remember to stay safe.

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New Route 456 Proposal

So a couple months back I was reading in a monthly magazine issued by Wandsworth council called 'Brightside' that Wandsworth council were in negotiations with Transport for London to bring 3 new routes to the borough to provide new links between Wandsworth and Balham, Barnes and Roehampton and Tooting and Fulham. They are also were also trying to get the tube extended through to Clapham Junction.

So I thought it would be a good idea to mock up one of the potential routes between Battersea and Balham via Clapham Junction, Wandsworth, Southfields and Tooting Bec. The route would have a PVR of 13 and be operated by Abellio from their Battersea base using 10 single decker buses and 3 double decker buses.

The buses will initially use spare Darts and the Nimbus' at Beddington for the single decker allocation. It will also use spare Enviro 400s at Battersea.

During peak hours the route will be predominately double deckers and will also be diverted to go past Earlsfield and then go left on Magladen Road then back to normal line of route. This is to reduce the emissions further up Trinity Road and allow the route to miss most of the heavy traffic.

The single deckers

This post was written in December 2013. Photos of the two buses are not owned by any of the admins on the South London Bus Blog.

Thank you for reading this post and for visiting our blog.
Remember to stay safe.

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Picture of the Week - 05'05'2014 to 11'05'2014

South London Bus Blog presents to you the final Picture of the Week...

Retro: On the left is a MCW Metrobus on route 49 and on the right is a Leyland Olympian on route 45A.
(c) Unknown

Route 45A and 49 along Battersea Bridge Road at the Petworth Street stop. Today, the 45A is known as the 345 and has been diverted to serve Peckham Bus Station instead of Elephant & Castle and the 49 has moved to London United but the 45A/345 has remained with London Central. This photo was taken 5 years before my birth, so 1993 and it is in my local area which makes it a special picture to sign off to. Thanks for the regular viewers of PotW and I hope this series restarts in the future!

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South London Bus Route 136

E40D 19844 in Catford on a service to Grove Park, this bus is allocated to the 199.
  Glorious Water

 Route 136: Grove Park Station - Elephant & Castle Newington Causeway

Operated by: Stagecoach London

Garage: Catford (TL)

PVR: 19

Length: 11 miles/17 kilometres

Allocation: Alexander Dennis E40D 10.2m and Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400 9.9m

Timetable: http://www.londonbusroutes.net/times/136fullnew.pdf

Route 136 started as route 36B in November 1958 and ran from Grove Park to Victoria with a Sunday extension to West Kilburn. It was operated using RTs of London Transport from Rye Lane garage in Peckham. From June 1959 the Kilburn section was run Monday-Friday as well as Sundays. From 1963 the route was run with Routemasters and from January 1964 it ran to Kilburn all week. From when Rye Lane closed in 1969 to 1972 it juggled allocations between Peckham, Camberwell and New Cross. before finally settling down at PM. In 1976 MD-class Metro-Scanias were introduced on the route,  replacing Routemasters. Their stay was short due to reliability issues and the Routemasters returned in 1980.

During November 1985 the route became a bit more like it is today, gaining a partial weekday allocation at TL. In October 1986 the route was curtailed to Victoria and TL had the main allocation at this point. In June 1987 the TL allocation was converted to one-person operation. In 1989 a Monday-Friday peak extension to Paddington was introduced, but from 1990 the service ran as a shuttle from Victoria to Paddington except for through garage journeys. The shuttle was short-lived and in 1991 it was withdrawn along with the partial allocation at PM. Some Routemasters went to TL to keep vehicle numbers even. In March 1992 the main route was cut to Camberwell Green except for certain morning/evening and Sunday journeys continuing to Victoria. The route was fully converted to OPO at this time. Just 2 months later the route had another conversion, being changed to operation by single-deck Dennis Lances.

In March 1994 the 36B was renumbered the 136 and the Lances were again replaced by Titans. This route ran Grove Park to Peckham and was operated by Selkent from TL. The Titans ran until August 1995 when they were replaced by some of the last Leyland Olympians built. These ran on the route until February 2001 when they were replaced by new Alexander ALX400-bodied Dennis Tridents with a 3-speed Voith gearbox. These buses weren't that great to travel on in my opinion but they frequently mixed with newer ones off the 75 and later 47. They were partially replaced in 2011 by slightly newer ones displaced from East London by new Enviro 400s and were much better to travel on as a result of their ZF gearbox. Few of these remain in TFL service, but by chance one of these is at TL.

The 136 was retained by Stagecoach with new Enviro 400s due in May 2012, these arrived 2 months early. These buses were similar to those that had replaced Tridents in East London. They mix all the time with the 61-reg batch for the 199. Though the seats are comfortable I don't really like these buses, the Voith gearbox on these is a bit tight and they're rather slow as a result. In April 10136 was repainted in classic livery for TL's centenary and promptly went on the 199 as TL aren't the best with allocations. The first Trident and Enviro400 respectively, TA1 S801 BWC and 19000 LX55 HGC were expected to appear but didn't come.

Trident 18463 at Elephant & Castle on the first day of the extension, this bus is allocated to route 47.
  Glorious Water

On the 10th of May 2014 the first route alteration since 1994 happened. It was extended from Peckham to Elephant & Castle to relieve crowding on the 343 through North Peckham. The confusion surrounding the Stagecoach mass hybrid order left us wondering what buses the extension would use and these eventually appeared in the form of Euro2 Dennis Tridents cascaded from Plumstead. However on the first day the route's Enviros and the old Tridents mostly went on the 47 in return for that route's Tridents. Nevertheless it was great to see the old Tridents get a new leash of life, even if it is only for a month or two while new Euro6 Enviro400s are ordered. One of the Tridents is a ZF gearbox one, one of four left in TFL service. The route is decent enough but nothing very special and can get very crowded in the peak hours. With the Tridents you can get a good thrash up Downham Way near Grove Park but the Enviro400s aren't the fastest buses and don't thrash well as a result. Even the Tridents don't go very fast on the Peckham - E&C section however.

Anyway here is the fleetlist, note that these buses frequently go on other routes as a result of TL's fleet mixing. Also a personal note, 10129 is one of the slowest buses in London in my experience.

Trident/ALX400s:
17441 Y441 NHK
17466 LX51 FLC
17478 LX51 FLP
17487 LX51 FMF
17503 LX51 FNF
17505 LX51 FNH
17507 LX51 FNK

Enviro400s:
10124 LX12 DDY
10125 LX12 DDZ
10126 LX12 DEU
10127 LX12 DFA
10128 LX12 DFC
10129 LX12 DFD
10130 LX12 DFE
10131 LX12 DFF
10132 LX12 DFG
10133 LX12 DFJ
10134 LX12 DFK
10135 LX12 DFL
10136 LX12 DFN
10137 LX12 DFO
10138 LX12 DFP

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Remember to stay safe.

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South goes West: A Trip to Uxbridge

Metroline West ADL Enviro200 DE1803 at Brunel University.
  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

As people who know me may know, I'm on a series of bus trips to get on old buses before they leave London. Today I went to Uxbridge to get on an old Caetano Nimbus (and pick up my brother from an exam on the way) and it ended up being a really hectic journey...

Abellio ADL Enviro400H 2410 at Canada Water.
  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

It started at Canada Water Bus Station around 9:50am with me waiting for a 188. It pulled up on time and I was off, unfortunately for me this was 2410, the hottest bus in London. Last summer I nearly boiled to death on it. Today it was going very fast but it was almost as hot at it was before. The seats were hard as I was sitting over the wheelarch, a notoriously hard position on Enviro400s but the bus made steady progress and we arrived at Aldwych an uneventful 30 minutes later. I got off and walked to the 23's bus stop. Rather worryingly many 23s were passing bunched on the other side of the road. 20 minutes later, nothing had arrived. Some people were giving up waiting by now and the weather had turned rainy.

Tower Transit ADL Enviro400 DN33785 at Aldwych.
  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

What seemed like half an hour later, it arrived in the form of DN33785 which amazingly wasn't turned short. The bus soon filled up but there were still seats on the upper deck. It took unusually long for the bus to get to the next stop, and the bus was barely exceeding 10mph until it reached Regent Street and I found the cause of the delays, roadworks. The road had a lane closed causing huge delays. Several extremely tedious minutes later, the bus had escaped from the traffic and was making slow progress towards Paddington. It didn't seem to be going very fast even on the rare empty stretches of road, meaning I was an hour behind schedule by the time the bus reached Paddington.

Even the walk to the platform was really long, with three (yes, three) ticket barriers along the way. I probably missed a shorter route like I usually do, but this was almost funny. I made it to the train just in time, which was a mere two-car Class 165 diesel multiple unit (DMU). Having only been on one DMU before, the train seemed very loud to me. However it felt a bit smoother than many electric ones I've been on. 20 minutes later and now really behind schedule I ran out of West Drayton station and straight for DE1803 on the U1. The trip went smoothly for all of 3 minutes before the bus got stuck behind a bin lorry. There was no room to overtake it so the bus was late by 10 minutes when I arrived to meet my brother. However he had misheard something over the phone and was now in Ealing. Typical.

Metroline West Transbus Dart/Caetano Nimbus DC1546 at Brunel University.
   All rights reserved by GloriousWater

Giving up on my original plan, I walked to the U2 stop where a Nimbus, DC1546 was already on stand. Feeling confident, I walked calmly towards it until I heard the engine start up. I immediately made a run for it. I made it just in time to get a photo and get on the bus. Apart from a few rattles it was a really nice bus, one of the best single-deckers I've been on. A pleasant half an hour later I was in Uxbridge. Having checked the LVF on my phone I saw that there were no Voith TPs (Trident/Presidents) on the 607. Disappointed, I walked to the bus station to take pictures. It was very crowded and many buses were late for some reason which I would later find out the hard way. TE1582 on the 607 was one of them. I had been hoping to get a Volvo, but this would do.

Metroline West ADL Enviro400 TE1582 at Uxbridge bus station.
  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

The bus filled up very quickly but I got a seat at the front just behind the door, one that's usually very hard on other E400s. This one was actually really comfy, the bus has been refurbished well. The driver wasn't very fast though, which I suspected was the reason for the delay. Still, progress was steady although the bus was becoming very full. Then disaster stuck at Southall. Emergency roadworks due to a burst sewer pipe had created a massive traffic jam. Pretty much everyone got off the bus, including me.

I was now walking forward hoping that was the way to go while really I was hopelessly lost. Rather worryingly, I couldn't see any end to the traffic. I was looking for a bus stop to see the map and get an idea of where to go. A very long and boring walk later I found one, but inexplicably it had a map for Becontree in the case, making it of no use to me. I walked to the next stop and noticed the traffic was thinning, and I had a chance of catching the 607 in front, which was TE1580 which I caught with seconds to spare. This was much faster than TE1582 before and it was a really nice ride. It didn't take long for the bus to reach Ealing where I got off.

1992 stock driving car 91192 at Ealing Broadway.
  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

At Ealing Broadway station I went for the Central Line platforms intending to go to Liverpool Street. The train itself was stopping a lot outside stations though and was really hot and stuffy inside making it an unpleasant ride. Having endured a really long and hot ride I got out onto Liverpool Street station. Or at least one of the many subways leading to different roads. Having found the right one I walked to the 47's stop to see my bus disappearing into the distance. A long wait later 18463 pulled up bound for Bellingham. It was like almost every other Trident, comfortable and fast. The trip went well despite a full load and I was home after half an hour.

Overall despite all the incidents this was a very fun trip and I think everyone should do such a trip. However try to avoid the peak hours as obviously everything filled up. Also you shouldn't expect to stick to any sort of plan as it can change at any minute.

Thanks you for reading this post and for visiting our blog.
Remember to stay safe.

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South London Bus Route 54

Stagecoach 12288 in Bellingham on the first day of the new contract.

  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

Route 54: Elmers End - Woolwich

Operated by: Stagecoach London

Garage: Catford (TL)

PVR: 14

Length: 10 miles/16 kilometres

Allocation: Alexander Dennis Enviro400H 10.2m

Timetable: http://www.londonbusroutes.net/times/054full.pdf

Route 54 started on the 3rd of October 1934 running from Plumstead Common to Selsdon Farley Road. It was run using STs from Elmers End garage (ED) with a PVR of 21. It gained STLs in April 1936 and at the same time the Monday-Saturday allocation transferred to TL. The route together with the 75 and 194 has been hopping between ED, TL and Croydon (TC) for decades but has never stayed long at any garage other than TL, this stopped in 1985 when ED was closed. It was fully at TL when it got converted to RT operation in May 1950. The route itself remained unchanged until October 1959, when the Plumstead Common section was curtailed on Sundays to Woolwich. This section was axed entirely in May 1963, replaced by a 51 extension.

In June 1965 two Monday-Friday peak extensions were introduced, from Woolwich to Woolwich Industrial Estate and Selsdon to Riddlesdown. One morning and one evening journey ran the whole route, taking an hour and 45 minutes. From July 1969 Sunday journeys southbound only went as far as West Croydon. In January 1973 the southern terminus was cut to Croydon Park Lane on weekdays and West Croydon on weekends. In October of that year the northern end was cut to Woolwich Arsenal Station and Routemasters introduced on Sundays. Another two months later RMs were introduced on Saturdays from ED and DMSes used to convert Sunday journeys to one-person operation (OPO). TL introduced RMs on Saturdays in March 1975.

The route was one of the last to use RTs, they were fully replaced on the 22nd of April 1978 by DMSes converting the entire route to OPO. In July 1983 the Monday-Saturday allocation was converted to Leyland Titans. The Sunday allocation went to Titan operation in April 1985 with the closure of ED garage. In November of that year the route was rerouted to terminate at West Croydon every day and the Woolwich Industrial Estate extension was withdrawn. Around the same time a Saturday shopping hours extension to Charlton Asda was introduced. This was withdrawn in June 1986.

On the 19th of November 1988 the Sunday allocation was transferred to PD with Leyland Olympians. Some Sunday journeys were extended to Plumstead as a result. in January 1991 the Sunday allocation was split between PD and TL using Metroriders. In April later half the Monday-Saturday allocation went to PD. Then in November the Monday-Saturday allocation returned to TL while the Sunday minibus service went fully to PD. In July 1993 the TL allocation was withdrawn.

The Sunday service returned to double-decker operation in September 1996 with Leyland Olympians, these lasted until December 1997 when they were replaced by new Volvo Olympians with Northern Counties bodies. The route transferred to TL in January 1999. Due to the Croydon Tramlink starting, the route was curtailed to Elmers End Green on the 10th of June 2000, and a partial PD allocation returned in March 2001. The PD allocation was withdrawn in February 2003 to make way for new route 453 and new Transbus Tridents were introduced on the route, though these were a year late.

In May 2009 the route went to Metrobus at Orpington (MB), using new Scania N230UDs with Optare Olympus bodywork. These buses were also late and the last arrived in September, in the meantime Metrobus used the old Tridents. The next change was in February 2011 when the route was extended around the corner to Elmers End Station. In May 2012 the route was transferred to C and it started to mix the Olympuses with the 75 batch.

Metrobus 879 in Bellingham in the final month of the old contract.

  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

In 2013 it was announced the route was returning to Stagecoach at TL with new Volvo B5LHs, however due to a shuffle of hybrids it ended up getting ADL Enviro400Hs, the first of which was delivered in March 2014. These went on the route on the 3rd of May 2014 following on from the 75 a week earlier. As I wrote in the 75 post these are really nice buses and the best hybrids I've been on. The route itself is nothing special in the northern part but Beckenham Hill Road is one of my favourite sections of any bus route in London. I recommend you go on it when you have the time. It usually isn't as crowded as the 75 too. In short, a much nicer route than the 75.

12284 in Bellingham on the first day of the new contract, bound for Elmers End.

  All rights reserved by GloriousWater

Here is the hybrid fleetlist, these buses are shared with the 75:

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

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Travel Updates - RMT Union Tube Strike 5th May 2014 - 8th May 2014

Following from this morning's talks (5th May 2014), the RMT union has suspended the strike action.

Read here for further information about how the strike was called off.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27282596?ocid=socialflow_facebook

Who do you blame for the strike actions that happened last week and do you think the dispute between RMT and TFL has been over with? Tell us your thoughts by commenting below. 

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

Remember to stay safe.

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