The first day of September 2018 (01-Sept) saw RATP-Dev London Sovereign begin a new chapter in North West London, with the tender wins of routes 288, 303, H12, H18 & H19 as well as contract retentions of routes H14 & H17, all on the same day. The Arriva loss of the Garston routes, including the 305 almost closed their chapter in the area, except for the 340, now run out of Palmers Green.
This loss by Arriva also saw the closure of their Garston garage in North Watford, along with the withdrawal of their last remaining fleet of DWL cadets, PDL pointer darts, and he last VLW[95]. Some of the last VLAs have since seen further use with Arriva over the east side of London. A move that some of the Garston ENLs have taken as well.
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Arriva London's Garston garage (GR) in its last days as a London bus garage.
© Tommy Cooling |
Metroline's loss of the H12 from Harrow Weald saw its last remaining examples of the once vast Volvo President fleet withdrawn, all bar VP614 for now. The loss also triggered a minor route reshuffling within the Metroline ranks that saw the 186 take the H12s place at Harrow Weald, followed by the 32 moving out of Cricklewood to take the space left at Edgware by the 186.
Due to the TfL Colindale bus consultation, routes 303 & 305 would be combined, and renumbered 303. Route 303 used to run as Edgware to Colindale Superstores, with the 305 running from Edgware to Kingsbury Circle.
The Edgware Changes
The old Arriva order
The 288 under Arriva was predominantly allocated with the 'DWL' Cadet class, with the 303 and 305 running with the 'ENL' E200 and 'PDL' Dennis Dart classes. All three routes saw instances of double decker allocations including the DLA, VLA, DW and SW types used.
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288 DWL92 at Queensbury Station.
© Tommy Cooling |
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303 VLA171 in Edgware.
© Tommy Cooling |
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305 PDL152 at Burnt Oak Station.
This bus was the last 305 to operate.
© Tommy Cooling |
The new Sovereign era
As a temporary measure to cover for the late arrival of a complete allocation of DLEs, the spare former NCP Challenger E200s were scrambled to run over the 288 and 303 to begin with, before moving back to the London United side at Atlas Road. They were then used on the 224 to cover for the late arrival of the 224s DLEs, then on the 440 ousting the non-standard Optare Versas (OVs). The 288 and 303 now run with a full compliment of DLEs.
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288 DE20071 at Edgware Bus Station.
© Tommy Cooling |
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303 DE20058 at Edgware Bus Station.
© Tommy Cooling |
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303 DLE30242 at Edgware Bus Station.
© Tommy Cooling |
The Harrow Changes
The old order
The H12 was the last remaining outpost in London for the once popular Plaxton President fleet. The H14 was a home for the standard Sovereign DEs. In the past year there had been a double deck working introduced for peak loading concerns. The H17 was also a standard DE allocation. The H18 and H19 under Arriva were both predominantly allocated with the DWL Cadet and ENL E200 classes, but in practice, saw appearances of the entire Arriva Garston fleet, including a couple of rare appearances from the Hampstead Suburb Optare Solos!
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H12 VP622 in South Harrow.
© Tommy Cooling |
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H14 DE[201]85 at Harrow Bus Station.
© Tommy Cooling |
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H17 DE[200]50 in Harrow.
© Tommy Cooling |
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H19 DWL92 in Harrow.
© Tommy Cooling |
And bringing in the new
A number of Sovereign's new DLEs were late to be delivered, and all of their new ADHs were also delayed. However, the new VHs ordered for the 79 were delivered early and thus were pushed out into service on the H12, until the ADHs arrived later in Autumn. The H14 utilised a few spare SPs along with other 183 VHs and VHRs based at Harrow, prior to their ADH fleet arriving. The H17, H18 and H19 utilised existing E200 DEs before their DLEs were delivered.
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H12 VH45299 on Long Elms in Headstone Lane.
© Tommy Cooling |
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H12 ADH45288 in South Harrow.
© Tommy Cooling |
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H14 SP40075 in Harrow Town Centre.
© Tommy Cooling |
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H14 SP40076 on Long Elms in Headstone Lane.
© Tommy Cooling |
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H14 ADH45293 at Harrow Bus Station.
© Tommy Cooling |
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H19 DE20178 in Harrow Town Centre.
© Tommy Cooling |
London Sovereign had further gains later on in 2018 with the tender wins of routes 223 and 224 from Metroline from October 13th, and the 79, also from Metroline, from December 8th. The later win for LS however was coupled with the loss of the 292, which headed in the opposite direction to Metroline.
The Wembley Changes
Old order
The 223 and 224 used a general batch of E200 DEs from Alperton that were also shared with the 487. These were stood down and returned off lease when the routes moved on Saturday 13-October.
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Metroline 223 DE1962 in Harrow.
© Tommy Cooling |
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Metroline 224 DE1969, caught changing blinds.
© Tommy Cooling |
New order
The 223 and 224 are now also operating with a fleet of DLEs, based at London United's Atlas Road (RP) garage site.
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223 DLE30292 on Preston Road.
© Tommy Cooling |
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224 DLE30312 in Alperton.
© Tommy Cooling |
Further Edgware Changes
The final set of changes for the year involved the 79 and 292 swapping operators between Metroline and Sovereign at Edgware on Saturday 08-December.
Under Metroline the 79 was operated with Volvo B7 VWs, with frequent appearances of the VWH class used on the 7. The VHs ordered for the 79 were diverted onto the H91 during late Autumn to upgrade the route to Euro VI standards for the Chiswick Low Emission Bus Zone (LEBZ). The H91s SP allocation headed in reverse to Sovereign and are now in use on the 79.
The 292 ran with the last surviving examples of Scania OmniDekkas (SLEs) in London. These were progressively phased out during the route's last month as the SPs moved in in preparation for the 79. Some of the VWs which operated on the 79 moved into Edgware on the last day of the 79, to begin in service on the 292 the following day. The VWs 1200-1209 form the allocation however TEs, TEHs and VMHs have all featured during December already.
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Metroline VWH2011 on the 79 in Edgware. The 79s predominant allocation was B9TL VWs.
© Tommy Cooling |
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RATP SLE40635 at Edgware Station.
© Tommy Cooling |
Post by Tommy Cooling
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