Routes T33 and 266 25/5/12

On Friday, I decided to finally cover the T33 and 266 changes, with some lucky escapes en route... I did plan to start at North Acton, but because of certain events with certain friends, I decided to go to Addington instead.

Abellio London 8785 (YX12 DLV) on Route T33, East Croydon Station

Rear of Abellio London 8785 (YX12 DLV) on Route T33, East Croydon Station

Legal letterings

Side blind

It's massively overcrowded - I had to get on a 64 behind!!

Abellio 8784 (YX12 DLU), T33, East Croydon

Abellio 8781 (YX12 DLK) on Route T33, South Croydon

Abellio 8783 (YX12 DLO) on Route T33

Abellio 8785 at Addington Interchange

Directly behind, Abellio 8786 (YX12 DLY)

Abellio 8786 ready to go to West Croydon (apart from changing blinds)

Rear interior of 8785

Facing front interior of 8785

Stopping Bells of 8785

Front seats with armrest.

Information sheet on 8785

After two train rides, and a lot of luck on the second, I found myself at a chaotic, 'closed for entrance' Willesden Junction.

First London VN37968 (BN61 MXS) on Route 266, Willesden Junction Station

Interior (upper deck) of VN37976

iBus screen on VN37976

First VN36293 (BX12 CVK), not in service.

First VN37970 (BN61 MXU) on Route 266

Rear of First VN37976 (BN61 MYA)

And finally, a video of rides of a bus ride on T33.

Ride on T33, Abellio 8786

T33 iBus

New Croydon Trams 25/05/12

When I exited East Croydon Station in order to cover T33, I saw a new, unfamiliar thing: A New Tram (Variobahn). Trams are just trains on roads? But, as they charge bus fares, here it is on the bus blog...

Tram 2557 entering East Croydon Station

Tram 2557 at East Croydon Tram Stop

People looking at 2557, whilst I experiment with camera angles...

New (left) and old (right) trams meet at East Croydon. This will be a reality soon...


These German trams should be in service pretty soon!

Ex-X26 Bus. On T32.

30th Post :)
After Metrobus, part of Go-Ahead lost X26 to Quality Line, part of Epsom Coaches, now part of RATP, the buses had not much of a place to go. Well, fancy seeing one of the on the soon-to-be-withdrawn route T32... Odd, isn't it... But true.

 Metrobus 540 (YN03 WRP) on Route T32 at Addington Interchange

 The white sticker tells of how X26 is not part of Heathrow Freeflow (nice tongue twister!!) scheme. This means this odd working is even odder as it is ex-X26.

Metrobus 540 (YN03 WRP) on Route T32 at New Addington Tram Stop

Refreshed SLE on Route 267 19/05/12

The SLEs on Route 267 (and 27) date back to 2006-ish. A refreshment for those buses is in process (?), and I have a picture of one refurbished/refreshed unit, taken from a 237, by surprise...

London United/RATP SLE13 (YN55 NHG) at Brentford, Brent Lea, on Route 267.

These buses have unusually small roundels. Why? It just looks funny/odd with small roundels. Anyway... I will have 266/T33 covered pretty soon in one post...

WLTM Novel Update: it is now at Chapter Five (Powerhouse), 16834 words long and going well. Writing is slow thanks to exams/revision. But, the novel should be done by 2013!

Special Post: T33 with Metrobus

Sorry about the delay to the post. I will cover the T33 and 266 under their new operators as soon as I can, but I can't give any guarantees...


Anyway, until Friday 18th May, T33 was operated by Metrobus:

 Metrobus 215 (SN03 WMK) on Route T33, East Croydon Station, 27/04/12

 Metrobus 326 (V326 KMY) on Route T33, East Croydon Bus Station, 12/05/12

 Metrobus 325 (V325 KMY) on Route T33, near Addington Village, 12/05/12

 Interior of 326 with people

 Interior of 326, without people (yes, the rest of the bus was empty before and until Addington Interchange!)

Ride on 326, on Route T33 at Addington.

 Metrobus 214 (SN03 WMG) on Route T33, Addington Village Interchange, 18/05/12

 Old Metrobus timetable, East Croydon Stn, 12/05/12

New Abellio timetable, Addington Village Interchange, 18/05/12.

Special Post - 266 with Metroline

NOTICE ON BLOG: *Posts may be slowed down/be delayed because of the GCSE exam period starting. In order to get the best out of them by revising, I'll have to slow down in volume and amount of posts. "Picture Archive" posts may fill in gaps if I have time to post them up. Sorry in advance.*

Back to the actual post:
Metroline have lost Route 266 to First London, so I decided to go to the 266 route twice in order to get some more photos of the current array of buses used on the route, as the 05 reg  TAs have gone for the Olympic contracts.


But first, back to before the TAs:

 A Metroline VA, back in 2003 on Route 266 at Brent Cross Shopping Centre. This was taken by a disposable camera (and scanned), so sorry about quality.

Then, Metroline were forced to buy TAs to make the route low-floor by 2005. Since then, it has been low-floor since. Now, the current pictures.

 Metroline TAL130 (X342 HLL) on Route 266, Hammersmith Butterwick Lower Bus Station, 10/05/12

 Metroline TE988 (LK59 DZN) at Hammersmith Lower Bus Station

 Route 266 Metroline timetable at Bromyard Avenue, Acton.

 Metroline TE831 (LK57 AXJ) at Bromyard Avenue, Acton, 12/05/12

 Metroline TE880 (LK08 DXR) at Bromyard Avenue, Acton, 12/05/12

 Metroline TA69 (T69 KLD) on Route 266, Acton Market Place, 12/05/12

Metroline TE1087 (LK60 AFY) on Route 266, Willesden Junction Station, 12/05/12

And, as a footnote:

The buses intended for the 266 are STILL in service on the 23, one week before moving to the 266...

First London VN37978 (BG61 SXJ) on Route 23, Oxford Circus, 12/05/12

First VN37978 (left) and an unknown VN at Liverpool St Station, 12/05/12

So, First London will be running 266 with existing buses. The changeover will take place on 19/05/12.

Routes 206 and C2 04/05/12

I never got the time to cover both routes when the contract change occured for personal reasons, so I had to go a week after. So, after being stuck at Ealing Hospital bus stop with a friend for twenty minutes because of an unfortunate incident on one bus and a fares row on a second, which made me get on a third. All were Route 207... After some more traffic, I finally got to Wembley:

 First London DMV44309 (YX12 AYK) at Wembley Park Station

 New timetable at Wembley Park Stn

 Various interior shots of DMV44309

 First London DMV44309 and an unidentified Uno bus at Wembley Park The Paddocks terminus.

 Driver allowed me to take photos of the cab :D Here is the dashboard

 iBus and CCTV control

 Wayfarer ticket machine. Thanks to the kind driver who allowed me to take photos of the cab!

 First London rear of DMV44309 (YX12 AYK) at Wembley Park Station

First London DMV44311 (YX12 ATF) at Wembley Park Station

After a Tube journey, I got to Victoria:

 Abellio London 2415 (SN61 DGY) on Route C2, Victoria

 Interior shots of 2415

 Rear of Abellio London 2415 at Green Park Station

Abellio London 9539 (SN12 ACV) on Route C2 at Green Park Station

iBus on 2415