2407 leaving Elephant & Castle for Old Kent Road (© Jacek)
On the 7th of March route 415 passed from Arriva to Abellio with a short extension to Old Kent Road Tesco. It's a short route running in a straight line north from Tulse Hill with less than massive passenger loads, but somehow uses double-deckers (hybrids, for this contract).
So when people checked the LVF in the morning, it came as quite a shock to see Darts 8434/7 show up on the route leading to speculation about the dreaded "first day syndrome" being worse than usual. The reality was far from that, as this was probably the smoothest operator change London has seen in years. Not all the new E400 hybrids were ready on time, so 61reg from the 188 were used with a mix of full white blinds and white inserts, as well as MMC 2514, an extra from the 109 batch. And the Darts? They were actually MMCs as well, 15reg 2515/7 using old iBus equipment.
2515, YX15OWD at Tulse Hill Tavern (© Jacek)
The service was unusually good for the first day as well – not a single curtailment or bunching on the route. Since the passenger loadings were very low one or two drivers had to drive at a crawl to keep to the timetable but it could be worse.
2514, Upper Tulse Hill (© Jacek)
2413, Elephant & Castle (© Jacek)
On the second day diesel MMC demonstrator 2400 went out, so I went to cover that. This didn't go too well as the rear door and wheelchair ramp got stuck in Brixton leaving Trident Enviro 9446 to do a few rounds while this was fixed. A rare case of things going wrong on the second day? Either way, 2400 went back out two hours later so this is still pretty close to a perfect operator change.
2400 in Brixton after some door trouble (© Jacek)
On the 7th of March route 415 passed from Arriva to Abellio with a short extension to Old Kent Road Tesco. It's a short route running in a straight line north from Tulse Hill with less than massive passenger loads, but somehow uses double-deckers (hybrids, for this contract).
So when people checked the LVF in the morning, it came as quite a shock to see Darts 8434/7 show up on the route leading to speculation about the dreaded "first day syndrome" being worse than usual. The reality was far from that, as this was probably the smoothest operator change London has seen in years. Not all the new E400 hybrids were ready on time, so 61reg from the 188 were used with a mix of full white blinds and white inserts, as well as MMC 2514, an extra from the 109 batch. And the Darts? They were actually MMCs as well, 15reg 2515/7 using old iBus equipment.
2515, YX15OWD at Tulse Hill Tavern (© Jacek)
The service was unusually good for the first day as well – not a single curtailment or bunching on the route. Since the passenger loadings were very low one or two drivers had to drive at a crawl to keep to the timetable but it could be worse.
2514, Upper Tulse Hill (© Jacek)
2413, Elephant & Castle (© Jacek)
On the second day diesel MMC demonstrator 2400 went out, so I went to cover that. This didn't go too well as the rear door and wheelchair ramp got stuck in Brixton leaving Trident Enviro 9446 to do a few rounds while this was fixed. A rare case of things going wrong on the second day? Either way, 2400 went back out two hours later so this is still pretty close to a perfect operator change.
2400 in Brixton after some door trouble (© Jacek)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.