Strike Three for Stagecoach

On 30th March 2019, Stagecoach lost a large amount of work, with the 262, 396 and 473 all going to different operators, all using used buses, with the ULEZ playing its part in allocating buses. Yes, it's a tad tardy, but oh well.

Route 396 is a short shuttle between Ilford and King George Hospital, serving Little Heath, thus it can get fairly busy at times. It also was one of the few areas in London where Optare Versas still operated.
© Aubrey Morandarte

Route 396 had been operated by Stagecoach London at Barking (BK) since 2002, when they won it from First Capital, and thus has lasted 17 years with the operator (three contracts, one with extension). The second contract led to the 396 gaining Versas, and as the 2009 Versas aged for two contracts, Stagecoach would either have to find newer existing buses, or order new buses for the route in order to bid for the route.


On occasion, the 396 saw double deckers, an example being 10326 as seen at King George Hospital.
© Aubrey Morandarte

Go-Ahead Blue Triangle instead had existing buses of their own, being existing Enviro 200s from the loss of Route D6 to CT Plus. The route was allocated to River Road (RR) as part of the operator change.


SE115 standing at King George Hospital
© Aubrey Morandarte

The route itself can get very busy, with an Enviro 200 just about fitting the crowd from Newbury Park Underground towards Little Heath. These buses are only 3 years younger than the replaced Optare Versas, and are likely to be used for this contract only.


The double decker presence on the 396 shown by E207
© Aubrey Morandarte

Akin to the previous operator, Go-Ahead also occasionally use double deckers on the route, but otherwise the age profiles aren't too dissimilar from the previous vehicles (by 3 years, thus within one contract cycle).

Two more losses by Stagecoach were the 262 and 473, both to Tower Transit.


262 was one of the final stays for the Stagecoach Trident, with 18211 seen on the latter days of Stagecoach operation.
© Aubrey Morandarte

262 has been with East London (later Stagecoach) since privatisation, whilst 473 has been with Stagecoach since the first contract change in 1996. Although they were juggled over the past few years, with the garage situation in East London changing due to events like the Olympics demolishing the garages causing a chain reaction that did end up with Upton Park (U) closing, moving both said routes to the very large West Ham (WH) garage in September 2011.


473 had been the mainstay of these Scania Omnicity double deckers from West Ham (WH)
© Aubrey Morandarte

Both routes join up with Tower Transit at Lea Interchange (LI/HO). Although these contracts did end up having new buses ordered for the routes, they did not end up on the route. Instead, existing buses from a singular other route have been nabbed for these routes.


VN36118 shows the temporary assignment of buses for Route 262
© Aubrey Morandarte

VNs from the 25/N25 have been taken, and their well worn bodies are now turning out for East and West London's suburban routes. The 25's buses have been spread to as far as the 262, 452, 473 and D8. All allocated from one formerly very well patronised bus route.


473 is also subject to the use of Volvo B9TLs from the 25, with VN36134 entering Stratford
© Aubrey Morandarte

These buses, fairly recently refurbished and converted to Euro VI under the 25 contract, have since been forced to move from the route they were allocated to because of the London Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), which covers the Central London congestion charging zone. As Routes 25/N25 do penetrate the zone, they are required to have Euro VI hybrid buses. Transport for London, however, has not said the proportion of the propulsion which has to be electric, so hybrid Streetdecks with flywheels and regenerative braking are now the use for Route 25.


The reductions on Route 25 have allowed a large amount of buses cascade for use on other routes. The ULEZ allowed the last few B9TLs move away. This bus enters Stratford Bus Station towards City Thameslink, a situation only created by both the Stratford two way system and the TfL budget spending priorities.
© Aubrey Morandarte

These, admittedly under-powered buses now ply the truncated, reduced use 25/N25 from City Thameslink (Oxford Circus at night) to Ilford. As part of Crossrail changes, the 25 would have been truncated to City Thameslink, as there would be enlarged capacity towards Ilford on Crossrail. However, due to the delays, most of the cuts caused by Crossrail...still went ahead due to the TfL funding crisis caused by multiple factors, not including the cut from central government under Boris, and the cut of fares caused by cheap votes for Sadiq Khan. These funding cuts show. The cut to the 25 is an implied TfL forced transport mode shift towards the tube. Which is already overcrowded in the central area, especially for the Central Line. But that's another post for another time.


WH31122 on the N25, a route born by the Central London bus cuts, caused by a need for saving a large amount of money.
© Aubrey Morandarte

Overall, these are good gains for the company Tower Transit, and Go-Ahead. However, Tower Transit only have these existing buses on the 262/473 as a stop-gap, and some are expecting the buses to return to their contracted routes from when the 25/N25 gets re-tendered at some point in the future.

Post and photographs by Aubrey Morandarte

All rights reserved © WLTMTB 2019