Route 125 - Dirty Wrights, Fairly Wrong.

31st January 2015 was the day where the 125 left Arriva London's grasp and into Metroline's claws. Practically all the attention was on the Enviro 400 MMCs on Route 109, hence this took a back seat in terms of people covering it. Massively. It was nearly like the Arriva London takeover of Route 230 being overshadowed by the LT-class conversion of the 24 on the 22nd June 2013, but the 230 did have a few enthusiasts and some photos were on the internet later on within the week. I've seen not many photos of the 125 with Metroline so far, and a week and day after the changeover, Aubrey (I) set off to cover it, because I got bored. Literally.

Metroline VWH2028 on Route 125, Southgate Station

The Sunday service was being run with uneven headways, including headways of 7-8mins on an every 15 minute Sunday service. But thus it meant there was a large gap in the service as well.


Metroline VWH2034 on Route 125, Southgate Station

Notably these buses are dirty.


Rear of Metroline VWH2034 on Route 125, Southgate Station
REALLY dirty. Only one certain Uno bus I've seen was dirtier, but it had a face drawn on in the dirt. This is oddly dirty for such a new bus.


Metroline VWH2038 on Route 125, Southgate Station
The buses seem like your average B5LH/Gemini 3 from Metroline. Indifferent overall, decent ride, seats that won't break your back or let you sink in and not too slow either.


Metroline VWH2040 on Route 125, Southgate Station
This bus seemed slightly less dirty.


Metroline VWH2032 on Route 125, North Finchley Tally Ho! Corner
Yep, it's the place with the exclamation mark. But this bus looked quite substantially cleaner, unlike it's nutty counterpart VWH2028:
(see Twitter: https://twitter.com/L1Group/status/564455983423188993)


Metroline VWH2024 on Route 125, Finchley Church End
The gap between VWH2032 and VWH2024 was larger than 15 minutes, probably countered by the 7-8 minute gap on the other end.

Overall, doesn't look too bad, a few operation problems that may iron out over experience and time, but then again, could be a better. And the possible TE conversion is under wraps so far, as it's mainly TEs on the 82 still. A very dirty takeover by Metroline, it seems!