It is a bit of a tragic that London United lost the route 49 after servicing it for 15 years. The route is currently under Abellio's hands using E40H 10.3m Alexander Dennis Enviro400 hybrid buses (numbered 2465-2486). And the route runs from White City to Clapham Junction via Shepherd's Bush, Holland Road, Kensington High Street, Gloucester Road, South Kensington, Chelsea and Battersea Bridge. The new timetable link is here: http://londonbusroutes.net/times/049.htm To make stuff short, frequency is Monday to Saturday being 7-8 minutes, Sunday being 10 minutes and evenings being 12 minutes.
As far as history goes back on the route, the route once ran from 1934 between Shepherd's Bush Green and Lewisham Rennell Street which is by far a tad long. Running via Holland Road, Kensington High Street, Gloucester Road, Harrington Gardens, South Kensington, Chelsea, Oakley Street, Battersea Bridge, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Common, Tooting Bec, Streatham Common South Side (Streatham Common North side westbound), Crown Point, Beaulah Hill, Church Road, Kirkdale, Forest Hill, Crofton Park and Adelaide Avenue to get to Lewisham Rennell Street.
The routeing has changed since until 24th of May 1991 where it was running from Shepherd's Bush Green to Crystal Palace, which eventually on the next day (25th of May 1991) was cut to Clapham Junction from Crystal Palace, with routes 249 (Monday-Saturday) and 349 (Sunday) replacing the Clapham Junction to Crystal Palace section. The current PVR of the route was 13 Metrobuses (Monday-Friday), 14 Metrobuses (Saturday) and 10 Metrobuses (Sunday), with it running from Stockwell (SW) with a running number of SW #151+.
Five years later, the route got partly allocated to Battersea (B) with a PVR of 6 from B and 9 from SW (Monday-Friday). 6 from B and 6 from SW (Saturday). Then 3 from B and 9 from SW (Sundays).
Just two years on 27th of June 1998, the Battersea (B) allocation was absorbed into the Stockwell (SW) one, making PVR 15 (Monday-Saturday) and 13 (Sunday).
Following on to where London United first got the contract of the route 49. The start of the contract was a bit of a mess due to the buses London United ordered came a bit late, if I'm mistaken tell me in the comments below. Armchair temporarily got the contract until London United got the buses due for 49. With PVR as of 15 (Monday-Friday), 16 (Saturday) and 13 (Sunday). This change occurred on 29th of May 1999. And the route was [temporarily, under Armchair] based out of Brentford (AH), which currently is now Metroline's base.
From the 30th of October 1999, London United finally got their hands on the 49. Based from Shepherd's Bush (S), with running number of #201+, an allocation of Alexander Dart SLF 10.8m Plaxton Pointer 2 buses (coded DP). This route was pretty much one of the busiest single-decker routes in Battersea, with 319 and 345 being the busiest too. Today lies 39 with no double-decker allocation yet. But 49, 319 and 345 do. As of this route got converted to double-decker mid-contract, in 2004. PVR was 17 DP (weekday) and 14 DP (weekend).
On the 05th of October 2002, which is 3 years later. Had London United reallocate the 49 to Stamford Brook (V) with a running number of #41+ and a PVR of 18 DP (Monday-Friday), 19 DP (Saturday) and the Sunday PVR remains 14 DP.
The double-decker conversion finally happened after the route not able to cope with it's 10.8m DPs. It was reallocated back to Shepherd's Bush (S) and was converted to Volvo B7TL 10m Mylennium Vyking (VE 1-10) which had a Voith 4-speed gearbox. The Darts had an Allison gearbox by the looks of it. The Darts are currently at the scrapyard (well, at least some of them). The PVR pretty much stayed the same with the weekend PVR decreased by 1 (18 VE Saturday and 13 VE Sunday).
The day Westfield came made every route that terminated at Shepherd's Bush (Except 95 and 272) extended to White City Bus Station (mainly for Westfield). The fact 95 and 272 weren't extended because they already serve near Westfield at Wood Lane Station (also White City Station). The Sunday PVR was increased by 2 to 15 VE.
The contract of the 49 was retained by London United with it's current buses in 05th of September 2009. At some point Scania OmniCity DDs were ordered, plausibly for the 49 as top-ups.
Now this year was in interesting year, even to the fact it was Abellio's big year. Their loss of 100 and 322, the retain of 407, and the winning of S4, 49 and 201. I have said it, but will say it again. The 49 is allocated E40H 10.3m Alexander Dennis Enviro400 hybrid buses (2465-2486).
Odd working 2463 (SL14DFA) on 49 to White City on Falcon Road (in Clapham Junction) in junction with St, John's Hill and Lavender Hill
I hope you enjoyed this shorter post!
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