176

Another route that changed operator on Saturday 11th November was the 176, which Go-Ahead nabbed off Arriva London. This spelt this end of the VLA, Volvo chassied Alexander Dennis ALX400s, operation in Central London.


 Route 176
One of the last remaining homes of the VLA class of bus was on Arriva's route 176, route 142 being another solid VLA home albeit until early 2018 only when RATP take the route.

VLA74 crawls along the Strand in heavy traffic with a curtailed 176 behind.
It should be noted that VLA74 was the second in a procession of three 176s caught up in this traffic.
© Tommy Cooling

VLA65 calls at Waterloo Station.
© Tommy Cooling



Arriva London VLA17 circles St. George's Circus near Elephant & Castle on a Route 176 service to Penge.
The routes passes to Go-Ahead's Camberwell garage.
© Tommy Cooling



The route passed to Go-Ahead at Camberwell garage using a fleet of existing Euro 6 vehicles with a small top-up batch of 67-reg EHs. The 176 sees a daily allocation of MHVs and WHVs, with EHs (new and "old") forming the majority.

EH75 was one of the existing hybrid vehicles used on Route 176 which was won by Go-Ahead on a mixture of new and existing hybrid vehicles. The route uses older WHVs and EHs topped up with a small batch of new EHs.
© Tommy Cooling



EH170, part of the small batch of E400 MMCs for the 176, waits for time outside Waterloo Station.
© Tommy Cooling

WVH112 on the 176 at St. George's Circus shows some of the existing vehicles used on the route.
© Tommy Cooling

MHV55 at St. George's Circus also demonstrates the use of existing vehicles.
© Tommy Cooling

Post by Tommy Cooling
Some of these images and more can be found on my Flickr page:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127662272@N07/

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