Picture Archive Post 68

Stagecoach London 17575 on Route 230 & Arriva London DW335 on Route 41, Tottenham Hale, 02/02/2013
(© Aubrey Morandarte)

The area of Tottenham Hale has changed over the past 5 years, and is still undergoing change. The bus station layout has changed most notably so far. The photo was taken with the old layout of the bus station.

Route 230 is one of the very few double decker routes with a hail & ride section, with the section at Upper Walthamstow being hail & ride. Introduced in 1973 between Manor House and Stratford with Routemasters from Leyton Garage (T), the route stayed at Leyton Garage throughout its life at London Transport, London Forest, East London and Stagecoach. In 1981, the route was shortened to Whipps Cross-Manor House, before later extended to Finsbury Park and Leytonstone in 1982. In 1981, the route was also converted to OPO, with Leyland Nationals. 1987 saw the introduction of Titans, and the route diverted to run Wood Green-Leytonstone. Sectorisation saw the route fall to London Forest initially, but as London Forest collapsed, Leyton Garage and the route moved to East London (later Stagecoach). The current route came about in 1996 when Darts (initially Alexander Dash/Dennis Dart, then Alexander ALX200/Dennis Dart SLF) arrived on the route. After trees were chopped by 2004, Dennis Tridents as seen plyed the 230 until 22nd June 2013. Arriva London took the 230 over from Tottenham (AR) with new VDL DB300/Wright Pulsar Gemini 2s, and thus this is the route today.

Route 41 gained its current route back in 1937, when it was extended from Crouch End to Archway. Having been based at Tottenham (AR) for most of its life, it has mainly seen weekday route extensions to Dagenham Dock (1941-1942, daily), Ilford (1942-1960 during peaks), Stratford (1960), Victoria & Albert Docks (1961-1968), Ferry Lane Estate (1981) and Highgate Village (1984-1985). By 1989, the route was OPO, based at Tottenham (AR), Wood Green (WN), and Holloway (HT). Under sectorisation thus, it ran from Leaside Buses and London Northern. In 1994, the route was tendered to MTL London Suburban Bus from Edmonton (ED), using Leyland Titans. 1996 saw the route go back to Cowie Leaside Buses with Metrobuses from Wood Green, before moving to Tottenham in 1998. 2001 saw the low floor conversion, with introduction of the DAF DB250LF/ALX400 on the 41. 2013 saw these buses be replaced by the VDL DB300/Wright Pulsar Gemini 2s.

Stagecoach 17575 started out as TAS574 at Catford (TL), before being renumbered 1575s. It transferred to Macquarie Bank (ELBG) in 2006. In 2009, the bus was loaned to Metrobus for the 75 as their Scania N230UDs were late. July 2009 saw this bus move to Leyton (T), as seen in the photo above. In July 2014, the bus was withdrawn from London service and moved to Stagecoach Scotland West for the Commonwealth Games. After the event was done, it moved to Manchester as reserve, then Merseyside for Merseyrail replacement services. In May 2015, the bus was deroofed for sightseeing purposes, and is now at Stratford-upon-Avon for sightseeing purposes.

Arriva DW335, a significantly newer vehicle, was at Tottenham (AR) from introduction to  9th December 2016, when the bus thereafter moved to Edmonton (E) for the 349 mainly. . March 2017 saw the bus move to Brixton (BN) for mainly the 50 and 319, until September 2017. October and November 2017 saw the bus go to Wood Green (WN) mainly for the 144 and 221. After a few months, it reappeared on the 14th February 2018, at Edmonton (E), where it is now.