Picture Archive Post 51

London United TA246 on Route 57, Wimbledon Station, 30/03/12 (© Aubrey)

Route 57 currently shares a very small part of its current route with the route it had when it was introduced. It started out as a route between Tooting Broadway and Victoria via Brixton. Introduced in January 1951 to replace trams, the original allocation was RTs from Brixton Garage. Sunday service was withdrawn in August 1958. In January 1964, the route was withdrawn between Victoria and Stockwell, but extended to Kingston via the current route. The route was also re-allocated to Merton Garage. The route was retracted to Streatham in 1966 due to the Victoria line. In September 1971, it gained SMSs and thus became single deck OPO. November 1977 saw the DMS give the 57 an extra deck. Part of the route was turned single deck again as a partial allocation of Leyland Nationals were given in 1982 (and taken in 1985). In September 1989, the route moved to Norbiton Garage before moving swiftly to Fulwell in 1991. This gave the route MCW Metrobuses, and put it under the London United sector.

In September 1992, competitive tendering was at its early stage. Route 57 was gained by London & Country, and a Sunday service was added between Kingston and Tooting, with the Streatham terminal also changed to Atkins Road (Clapham Park). The route was operated jointly by Croydon and Leatherhead garages with Olympians and Dennis Dominators. In June 1997, the route passed to Westlink (which later became London United) from Kingston Garage. New Volvo Olympians with route branding were bought for the route. In November 2001, it moved to the Kingston garage replacement, Tolworth Garage. Tridents started to enter the route in 2002-2003 and it was fully converted to low-floor by mid-2003. A night service was introduced in June 2007. Some Tridents were replaced by VLEs off the 9 when it was converted to LT in 2013, however due to noise complaints, Tridents were still the mainstray for the 57N. Then, the 57 was tendered to London General from Merton Garage from 2nd July 2016.

TA246 is part of a larger batch of Tridents for Fulwell routes like the 65 (when gained from Armchair), 71, 267. New to London United, it is one of a notable large batch of Tridents London United ordered between 2002 and 2003 for various routes. It joined some Tridents at Tolworth for the 57, and moved there between 2011 and early 2012, where it is seen on the photo. This particular bus then did a garage merry-go-round. In November-December 2013, it moved from Tolworth to Hounslow, where it is seen:


London United TA246 on Route 81, Hounslow, 25/02/14 (© Aubrey)

It also, interestingly, found itself doing shorts on Route 203:


London United TA230 and TA246 on Route 203, Abellio London 8487 on Route H25, British Airways G-EUPD at Hatton Cross (CC Aubrey)

The bus later moved from Hounslow to Fulwell on July 2014. It returned to Tolworth after only three months, where it spent only one month. After a brief period of no usage, in January 2015, the bus returned to Hounslow Garage. This bus is still with AV, and lives on with the few dotted Tridents around the London United empire. Weirdly, the current Tridents are older than the newest ones new to Hounslow (which are all at Tolworth and 03 reg). The Tridents at Hounslow now usually provide the bulk of the H32 allocation, with some on the 81, 111, 120, 222 and H98.