Picture Archive Post 64

Stagecoach London 17575 on Route 230, Wood Green, 05/04/2013 (© Aubrey)

Ordered for Routes 54 and 160 at Catford Garage, initially noted as TAS575, this Trident plyed routes from Catford (TL) Garage for Stagecoach Selkent. Under the national renumbering scheme, this bus became 17575s, albeit the s was dropped later on in life. When Stagecoach sold their London bus operations in June 2006, the bus initially stayed at Catford. Under Macquarie Bank ownership (East London Bus Group, Selkent), the bus went to all-red from Stagecoach swirls. When the 54 and 75 was lost to Metrobus, this bus initially moved on loan to Metrobus for two months from April 2009. This was due to their Scania N230UD/East Lancs Olympus buses being late. Only one month after returning back to Catford (TL), the bus moved to Leyton Garage (T) and thus became part of the East London sector. Thus, this bus ran routes such as the 48, 55, 56, 69, 97, 230 (as shown) and 257. In October 2010, ELBG fell back into the hands of Stagecoach, as they bought back the sector for a profit, showing that an investment bank can't run a bus operator. Its last day of London service was 9th July 2014 on the 55.
After London, the bus moved to Stagecoach Scotland West for the Commonwealth Games being held in Glasgow. In August 2014, it moved briefly to Stagecoach Manchester's reserve fleet before moving onto rail replacement on Merseyside as Merseyrail Replacement when Hamilton Square station closed. This bus was then converted to open top in 2015 and entered service as a sightseeing vehicle for Stratford-upon-Avon (Stagecoach Midlands), where it is today.

(Current) Route 230 started out as a Monday-Friday route from Leyton Garage (T) between Stratford and Manor House with Routemasters (RMs). From 1977, the route became OPO with Leyland Nationals. From 1981, the route became Finsbury Park-Whipps Cross, before only extended a year later to Leytonstone. June 1987 saw Leyland Titans re-deckering the route, with the route being diverted at Seven Sisters to Wood Green. Under sectorisation, the route initially went with Leyton Garage to London Forest. However, this sector was ill-fated, as due to a low-ball tender on Walthamstow routes in March 1991, wage cuts were proposed thus drivers went on strike. London Forest later lost the routes anyway, LBSL (later TfL) would never tender routes as a area-based package ever again and the route (along with Leyton Garage) moved to East London in November 1991. In June 1996, the route was rerouted to its present state, diverted at Whipps Cross to run to Upper Walthamstow. The route was also single-decked again, with Darts (Alexander PS, and later Alexander ALX200/Dennis Dart SLF). Only in 2004, the route was re-converted to double decker using Tridents after trees at Upper Walthamstow were sorted. As the Upper Walthamstow section was hail & ride, the route became one of the few double decker operated hail and ride sections in the TfL area. Then, albeit overshadowed by the other changes that happened on that day, 22nd June 2013 saw the route move to Arriva London North from Tottenham (AR), with new VDL DB300/Wright Pulsar Gemini 2s, which is the current state today.