Good Bye Arriva - Operating for 17 years - on the 159!

Firstly, I'd like to thank you all for the over 60 pageviews on the 10/12/2015!

And, thank you to Arriva for operating route 159 since foundation (1998)!

Let's get into business shall we?

On the 2nd of June (2015), the tenders were released, and much to the shock and horror, Abellio gained Arriva's flagship route, none other than the 159! Everyone was upset, like you, unless you're not a fan of relation to the 159. But as expected, got New Routemasters which was ultimately obvious. Which is the main purpose it was removed from Paddington Basin, rather than the lie of overbussing Oxford Street.

Continuing on from the Abellio win, everyone was curious as to how and why, that Arriva let down such a route? I'll tell you the secret if you keep reading.

DLA345 (LJ03MDY) in Streatham. Now withdrawn from London service.

I'd like to however, start with the history of this route as part of my "Let's look at London Bus Routes" series.

I will say that, routes 139 and 250 are children of route 159, just saying.

Right, we teleport back to the 30s, to 1934 when the route ran from Camden Town (weekdays) or Oxford Circus (Sundays) to Thornton Heath (weekdays/Saturday AM) or South Croydon (some weekdays/ otherwise Saturday/Sunday) via pretty much today (C2>30>159>109>60).

Seven years later by 20th March, the Sunday service got extended to Chipstead Valley and on the 7th November the same year (1940), an express service was given from Thornton Heath Clock Tower to Camden Town). However the express was cut off on the 19th March 1941 and the Chipstead Valley Sunday extension on the 13 October 1946.

The next change to occur was a West Hampstead reroute (via 139 today) on the 12th November 1947 and stayed at that terminus until the 90s when replaced by 'new' route 139.

By the way, when 159 was cut from Chipstead Valley it ran as far south as Old Coulsdon. Terminus change to South Croydon Bus Garage (TC) occured on the 2nd May 1956 with a Sunday service withdrawal.

1958 timetable from Red Book from London Buses by Ian Armstrong

By the 29th January 1964, the whole Saturday service was known to end at South Croydon while the whole weekday service ended at Thornton Heath Clock Tower. Excluding minor changes like reroutes in between small sections and PVR changes (not to mention garage reallocations), nothing much occured. But on the 28th October 1978, the 159 regained it's Sunday service but at the expense of the Saturday service cut to Thornton Heath garage. Thus only ran as far as Thornton Heath on all days of the week.

On the 21st July 1990, the 250 which was born on the 14th May 1988, fully took over the Streatham to Thornton Heath section of 159.

Then on the 14th March 1992, another birth, the 139 replaced the Baker Street to West Hampstead section of the 159. 

By 18 September 1999, the 159 back then was the 159 today. Obviously excluding allocations and other minor factors.

The 159 made itself far more popular for being the last crew operated route using Routemaster types, of which on the 10th December 2005, an order of low floor vehicles arrived.

VLA161 (LJ55BSZ) in Brixton

And that was in the form of Volvo B7TL 10m Alexander ALX400 buses. VLA144-173 was the full batch, however VLA164-173 went to Arriva The Shire's Garston (GR) base for their own needs.

The replacement of VLA164-173 were some VDL DB300 Wright Pulsar Gemini 2 buses ordered along with route 59's batch. DW277-297. But don't worry, Brixton (BN) had sufficient amount of buses to maintain an allocation* on their routes.

* - Disclaimer: There was always mix of bus types across routes 59, 137, 159 and 319

DW121 (LJ05BNA), ex-19, in Brixton, curtailed to home garage Brixton (BN)

We then move on to the extension to Paddington Basin to replace routes 15/N15 which gave an advantage of removing routes from Oxford Street corridor. This change occured on the 28th August 2010 which also needlessly removed the N159 for the N64 (including N109 but not much of a factor).

Recent transfer to oust remaining VLAs, is DW298 (LJ10CVE) from Tottenham (AR)

It was on the 29th of March 2014 when TfL decided to make the commuters from Paddington [Basin] to Oxford Circus angry for a loss of an alternative/direct service. Most of the people disagreed to the withdrawal of 159 to Marble Arch, but TfL stubborn as always, do not care.

RM613 (WLT613) on Brixton Road

A special running day occured on the 9th of December 2015 to mark the conversion from crew operated Routemasters to one-person-operation low-floor buses.

RM9 (VLT9) turning left onto Lambeth Road

Rear of RT1790 (KYY628) in Westminster

RT4421 (NXP775) terminating in Lambeth North albeit wrong display

ex-38, DW230 (LJ59AEZ) leaving the Loughborough Road stop

Thank you all for viewing this post and thanks for the views on this blog!

DW130 (LJ05GKZ) in Kennington, Kennington Lane stop

Key facts:

• Gave birth to routes 139 and 250
• Last route to be allocated with Routemasters (excluding heritage 9H/15H)
• Lost due to driver salary
• Arriva's flagship route of all time
• 17 years under Arriva, since foundation
• 2nd Busiest route in Brixton (133 and 2 behind in respective order, 109 in first)

External links:
History of route 139

History of route 159
History of route 250

Notes:
Unless stated, all pictures on this post are copyright to ©Unorm001 (me).