Picture Archive Post 38

London United/Transdev DPS516 on Route H91, 25/07/2009 (© Aubrey)

Initially ordered for the 33, these buses were initially allocated to Fulwell for most of its life, shuttling over Hammersmith Bridge. Obviously, the 33 was single deck due to the Hammersmith Bridge being severely weak after an overloaded lorry nearly killed the structure off. This left busy routes like the 33 and the 72 to convert to single deck and be eternally cursed with heavy loads. The 9 had to be split into the 9A and 9 as well. Then when the low-floor revolution happened, the 33 was converted using these Darts. They were similar to the ones ordered for the 72, hence for quite some time, they had Darts. They were initially DP5xx instead of DPS5xx, from 2000 to 2001. This specific bus then went to Hounslow Heath in 2005 (when NCP Challenger took over the 33) for the H22 and 411 (when refurbished under the 81 contract). In 2009, it went to London Sovereign (under Transdev), but stayed with them when Transdev London split later on in 2011. In September 2011, it was withdrawn from London use, and has since found a new life in Scotland with JMB Travel.

Route H91, yeah... One half of the 91. Split off from the other half in 1991, it is the western half of the route. Noting that the route did garage journeys to Hounslow until August 1996, then started to have LLWs from 2000 (yes, those Dennis Lance SLFs!). Eventually, it has turned into a double deck route and even ended up with the odd hybrid today.