Picture Archive Post 41

London United DPS719 on Route 33, Hammersmith 12/01/13 (© Aubrey)

Route 33 has long been one of the trunk routes to spurt out of Hammersmith over Hammersmith Bridge. It has run between Hammersmith and Hounslow twice. Once as a route in itself made by 1933, and once after it had split from the 73 in 1966. The 1966 incarnation ran to Kensington as well. Routemasters from Mortlake Garage, initially. In September 1982, the route was rerouted away from Hounslow to run to Fulwell instead, replaced by the 281, which had grown to being a trunk route as such. The route later became the preserve of MCW Metrobuses. A short period between 1988 and 1990 saw it extended to Nurserylands. In May 1992, however, the Hammersmith Bridge became weight restricted and the route had a dramatic capacity decrease to single deck midibuses. In November 2000, it was converted to low floor with the X-UAT DPSs. In November 2015, the route passed to NCP Challenger with the Darts shown above.

DPS719 is part of the batch for the 33 and 419 as part of the shock win by NCP Challenger of the two routes in November 2005. Since that unexpected win by the then new operator, that operator was renamed NSL Services and in 2010, was bought by, ironically, Transdev. However, it did not undergo an immediate transfer to London United, initially going to London Sovereign in September 2010 before passing to London United. The bus was renumbered from NCP19 to DPS719 in October 2010. In November 2010, the bus was moved from NC (Twickenham) to AV (Hounslow). In July 2012, the bus returned back to NC, as seen at this time here. Later on, the bus moved with the 419 initially to Stamford Brook in March 2013 before moving to its current location with Shepherd's Bush after the win of the E3.

Route 33 later was moved back to Fulwell in 2013, however, the route still terminates at Stanley Road. New buses had arrived for the route in March 2011 (Enviro 200s), and still does so as of today.