Picture Archive Post 59

London Central DWL35 on Route 108, Bromley-by-Bow, 09/05/15 (© Aubrey)

A fairly recent photo for this month's Picture Archive, the VDL SB120 is not normally seen on London's streets. So when East Thames Buses (TfL in-house operator) ordered new buses to replace Excels for the 108, these (albeit badged as Volvo Merits) were the bus choice. Unfortunately, these were plagued by reliability problems, and eventually were withdrawn when sufficient Darts were available.

DWL35 started out as an East Thames Buses (TfL) bus operating the 108 and 132 from Belvedere (BV) in January 2005. In October 2009, due to the policy of Boris Johnson to withdraw the role of physical bus operation of TfL, the bus moved to Go-Ahead London (London General). East Thames Buses was only formed after the collapse of Harris Bus. These buses were allocated on the 108 for most of its life, moving with it to New Cross (NX) in May 2010. By the end of 2010, the buses were refurbished into full Go-Ahead livery. This lasted until 2015, when it went into brief storage at Bexleyheath (BX), being withdrawn in January 2017 after spending its final few days on the 225.

Route 108 itself started out as a route from Bromley By-Bow to Crystal Palace with double decker buses. Each double decker bus for the 108 at the time were especially modified for the route. The NSs had solid tyres and a rounded body with the roof curving further in, thus allowing it to fit in the tunnel, and scrub against the kerb within the tunnel. They were replaced by STLs which had steel reinforced pneumatic tyres and a special profiled roof. The reason for all these modifications for the buses was due to the Blackwall Tunnel. When the tunnel was lowered, normal buses appeared in 1954 and RTLs were the mainstay. In 1960,the route was withdrawn on weekdays Lower Sydenham-Crystal Palace. Poplar (Atholl Street) (C) closed, moving the route to Poplar (PR) in 1961. In 1967, the new southbound bore of the Blackwall Tunnel was opened, and it could fit deckers comfortably.
Then in 1968, the old, now northbound tunnel was raised again to widen the roadway. This meant the 108 was converted to single deckers (AEC Merlins), and thus was cut to run only between Bromley By-Bow and Blackheath. The route was extended to Eltham in 1970. AEC Swifts replaced the Merlins in 1973. In 1977, the route was extended to Stratford on Monday-Saturday, and on Sunday in 1978. 1978 also meant the unsuccessful Swifts were replaced by Leyland Nationals. In November 1985, Poplar (PR) closed, and the route moved to Bow (BW). In June 1986, the route was modified to Stratford-Lewisham. This state did not last long, and in 1988, due to the withdrawal of Route 10, the 108 was extended from Stratford to Wanstead.
Under sectorisation, the route passed to East London for only a few months, before tendering moved it to Boro'line Maidstone based in, erm... Maidstone. New Leyland Lynxs were ordered for the route, which stayed when Boro'line Maidstone realised there was not as much money in London as they'd think. Kentish Bus took over, and a more local base of Crayford (CR) was chosen. In September 1993, the route was shortened back to its 1986 state. Part of the allocation moved to Lewisham (LM) in 1994, along with new Volvo B6/Northern Counties buses. The Lewisham allocation lasted only between February and August 1994, as that section moved to Cambridge Heath (CH). Tendering moved the route back to Crayford but with Harris Bus in April 1997. New Optare Excels converted the route to low-floor.
Harris Bus themselves only lasted until March 2000, before TfL took over. A night service (as N108) was introduced in September 2001, before the N108 lost the N in November 2003. East Thames Buses got new Volvo Merits (re-badged DAF SB120s) in 2005 for the route. However, by then, the Optare Excels were so unreliable, ex-Limebourne Dennis Dart/Caetano Compass buses were drafted in to run the service. In 2010, the route moved to New Cross. 108N had a special escort arrangement when the tunnel was closed at night, but otherwise the route was either split or worked via Tower Bridge when the Blackwall Tunnel was closed.

On 1st October 2016, the route swapped ends with the D8 between Poplar and Stratford, thus allowing the D8 to go to empty double deckers. The 108 gained Mercedes-Benz Citaros from the electrification of Route 507 and 521, and thus the route finally now has full-sized buses:


London Central MEC3 on Route 108, Stratford City (© Aubrey)