Break up of the 68 corridor

The 68 corridor has been long been a corridor that has always been within the same operator, and one of the few corridors to have an express route (the other corridor with that distinction is the Uxbridge Road (207) corridor). However, on the 31st March 2018, the four routes went their own separate ways. 68/N68 moved to pastures new, but only across the road as it went to Abellio London from Walworth (WL). Arriva London South saw the return of the 468 into their clutches, albeit at Norwood (N). Finally, the X68 stayed put, as it was retained by London Central from Camberwell (Q).

Route 68

The route transferred from Go-Ahead to Abellio using the existing batch of LT-class vehicles. In the final weeks of the Go-Ahead contract, the LTs were running around with company stickers removed. However unlike when Go-Ahead took over the 15 with its LTs off of Stagecoach, Abellio had fitted all of their "new" vehicles with full company logos and legal lettering from day one.

Go-Ahead LT668, November 2017
© Tommy Cooling

Abellio London LT674, Elephant & Castle, March 2017
© Aubrey

The Abellio LTs had normal sized logos on the nearside, but for some reason, the offside logos are smaller and placed very close to the fleet numbers. The buses allocated to the 68 were transferred directly as the batch for the 68. Now, they can be found on any of Abellio's LT routes, as they have new blinds which include the 3/N3 and 159 too.

Abellio LT676, Waterloo Bridge, March 2018
© Tommy Cooling

Route N68

This route passed from Go-Ahead to Abellio with the 68 day service, as part of the 68 contract. The night route is also based at Walworth (WL). Existing Enviro 400 hybrid buses are used from the existing fleet.

The first Abellio London operated N68 at Old Coulsdon, run by 2581.

(© Aubrey)

With the operator change, the changeover between 68 and N68 is now with a notable timetable gap, for some reason. That means the northern part of the route (Elephant & Castle-Holborn) service would be covered by other routes (e.g. 171).

Abellio London 2600 on Route N68, Tottenham Court Road
(© Aubrey)

The N68 first night was uneventful, and operation since has been smooth enough. Nearly every single bus on the route has been these Enviro 400H/Enviro 400MMCs, but some LTs are still capable of straying onto this route.

Route 468

This route passed from Go-Ahead to Arriva London South, with a batch of brand new Volvo B5LH/Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 HVs based out of Norwood garage. This marks the return of the 468 back in Arriva hands, after it moved to Go-Ahead London Central back in 2006. However, as the 468 is not based at Croydon (TC), as in the previous operation, so there has been no extension from the Swan & Sugar Loaf in South Croydon.

Go-Ahead E59, November 2017
© Tommy Cooling

The last Go-Ahead London operated 468 was run by MHV72
(© Aubrey)

The 468 now has a different garage, and is based where the 68 was based the last time Arriva operation was on the 68 corridor (Norwood N).

The platforms of West Norwood Rail Station provide this unusual viewpoint of HV402.
(© Aubrey)


Some of the first 18 plate buses were the HVs for the 468, as seen by HV411 on its first run.
(© Aubrey)


As the Volvo B5LH/Wright Gemini 3 is one of the dominant types at Norwood (N), inevitably, buses from other batches will run on the 468. This bus is from the 2.
(© Aubrey)

Other than a notable road traffic incident early in their operation, the 468 was only notably plagued by delays from West Norwood road works.

Route X68

This was the one "68" route on the corridor that has stayed with Go-Ahead. This route was won with new vehicles, a small batch of E40H MMCs. It was announced by TfL that a tri-axle BCI double decker, in new TfL spec design would also run on the route as a demonstrator. However, the bus would not fit in West Croydon Bus Station, thus that demonstrator (TA1) will run on a different route instead (12).

Go-Ahead PVL304, February 2016
© Tommy Cooling

In order to comply with the Brixton ULEZ, the X68 had to be converted to Euro 6 (irregardless, it would be converted with the new contract). During the operation of the Brixton ULEZ, buses which were not hybrid had to run via Camberwell, which is the longer route.

WHV175 off the batch for Route 188 is seen on an AM peak X68 at Aldwych.
(© Aubrey)

The issue with the new style blinds is the re-introduction of partial reverse coloured text (black text on white box). Unfortunately, this has seemingly been unreadable at distance, and as seen in the photograph above, condensation can prove to be an issue too.

MHV72 at West Croydon, back in 2016 when hybrids on the X68 was not so common, at the end of a PM peak journey.
(© Aubrey)

As seen on this photograph, the white bar is barely readable with the LED blind backlight.

The allocation of hybrid buses on the X68 allows the route to run direct via Brixton between Waterloo and West Norwood, allowing faster journeys. As the 468 has been lost, the X68 has resorted to borrowing from the 176 and 188 allocations in the morning, and from the 624 and 658 in the evenings. It also has its own allocation of 8 buses, which are linked with the 188 otherwise.

Post by Tommy & Aubrey
Photos by Tommy, Aubrey

All rights reserved © WLTMTB 2018

Please do not reproduce any images without permission