A transitless 266...

I'll be honest, I noticed my last post was at the end of April and was not quite happy that I didn't make more posts (well, I don't have a quota, self-employed pay-less job), so I decided to rush something in rather than nothing in. I have an upcoming post and possibly another, just that I need to gather more time to execute it efficiently into a reasonable, readable post that's not that much of a bore.

VN37975 (BG61SXK) at it's stop in the Lower Bus Station of Hammersmith.

I head to West London planning to do the 266 for my first and last time under Tower Transit, though I didn't quite get the time to do the 266 as I originally planned with my later tight schedule, so I decided to take one photo. My only photo of a 266. Currently.

The reason I insisted on venturing West for the 266 is that it changes over to Metroline tomorrow (as of posting 28/07) from Cricklewood (W) with existing TEs cascaded from 17 and 217 for 28 months until the Elizabeth Line changes which means the day service of 266 gets cut to Acton Vale from Hammersmith. The night service of 266 renumbered into N266 and remains unchanged from Hammersmith to Brent Cross.

As I have nothing else to mention, let's get over something else to keep the 266 train going and not dying early...

So, the 266 currently stands at 55 years old from 3/1/62, originally routed from Edgware to Hammersmith, replacing trolleybus 666 which traversed the same route. As decades went by the route found itself only going as far north as Colindale at rush hour, or Brent Cross otherwise (daytime), and Cricklewood (W) for Sundays/evenings.
     Then it was 1981 when the current route formed, being withdrawn from it's Monday-Friday peak hour extension from Mill Hill (in 1978), and only 4 years later it was converted from it's proud Routemaster operation to One Person Operation.
     Of course, there was still route changes like an extension to a school and minor rerouting along the existing route as well as the length of time it could serve Brent Cross.

2012.
The year the 266's streak of being housed from either Willesden (AC) or Cricklewood (W) was put to rest for an entire contract term as First Centrewest won the route from temporary base Atlas Road (AS) [due to Crossrail works at Westbourne Park (X)] which is now claimed back by RATP as their Park Royal (PK).

As we mostly know of Tower Transit, they came into the London bus society as First departed from London, Tower Transit took a nice chunk of First's operation into their own.

From what I heard, the service has been iffy at times, though, commiserations to Tower Transit for the loss of 266 and a good 2 and a third years!

Last Tower Transit 266 was VN37981 and first Metroline 266 was TE1090.

I hoped this was a decent read, sort of a warmup for something bigger, stay tuned, and peace!

Note: Usage of any photos on this blog isn't permitted where no name is present (meaning it's mine, ©Unorm), or an All Rights Reserved symbol © is present. If you desire to use a photo, you must contact the original author. In my case, you should contact my Flickr.

Source: Ian Armstrong's London Buses

Note to self: Prepare next post less than a month.