Country 403

E198 (SN61BKD), Fairfield Halls, Croydon

It might not look at it at first glance, but the 403, like the 401, was a London Country route which ran far out of London to places now considered a myth for today's standards. Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Westerham. Tatsfield. Actually that's round the corner from Warlingham.

Namely 403, recognised as a 'London' route in August '86, ran as far as Tonbridge and Sevenoaks in it's heyday. In it's previous life, it was a 'Country' route, it had variants 403A and 403B, to Warlingham Park Hospital or Farleigh. As well as that, current 470 also had a purpose with 403 in the long-gone past, but that's no more, as neither meet.

DW508 (LJ62BDO), 

Sanderstead All Saints Church

It's only recently I noticed Tatsfield, Chelsham and Warlingham were close enough for a feasible bus service, but didn't have a direct one, to what I searched at least. What relevance does this have to 403? It linked pretty much all three, further on to Croydon, then to Cheam via Sutton and Wallington. As per today's 407.

Gradually until 2000 the route was chopped into today's Warlingham-Croydon route, which takes about half hour end to end. It provides a 12 minute weekday service, 20 on Sundays/evenings, with a Peak Vehicle Requirement of 7, formerly allocated ex-Tottenham (AR) DW318-325, now allocated ex-468 E194-201. Some existing DB250s new to the route have made it to the end of the 403 contract. Those LJ60-plate DB300 it releases will be used on new 301 (Bexleyheath-Woolwich) in the future.

T61 (LJ08CXR),
Sanderstead. Purley Downs Road

As a route, it's mostly alone. Upon leaving West Croydon, it arrives at Fairfield Halls, only served by 154 as the other through route, and has a healthy load to itself. Afterwards, it joins Brighton Road with routes 60, 166, 412 and the like, before immediately setting off again alone to Sanderstead, which it is direct there.

From there, it bypasses 412 which it met twice prior, this being it's last. Surrey territory from here out, whereby 403 is the only TfL route to Warlingham, a place which has only Southdown PSV's 357/409 as other routes, joint half-hourly Monday-Friday.

DW36 (LJ53NJK), West Croydon

The change wasn't expected, but the possibility was there. Croydon (TC) have had the route for most of it's London tenure. In this dire climate, those that can cost cut win, Go-Ahead prevailed with existing Enviro400s, taking up the route for their first time.

Before the day of the 27th, a gas leak resulted in buses to Warlingham being diverted away from the route via Selsdon, back on line of route by Sanderstead All Saints Church. Whilst it did miss out majority of the route with no alternative in the Sanderstead area the 403 serves mostly alone, the Croydon-bound service was uninterrupted. This in turn meant the contract ended on a diversionary note.

Operation of the predecessor has been punctual in my infrequent use and observations, though operation didn't go as well due to the aforementioned diversion. Successor Go-Ahead have managed as well as Arriva did with the same diversion.
Arriva's last bus was DW504 at 01:03 and Go-Ahead's first bus logged on was E197 at 05:29.

First day. The route was solidly Enviro400s as intended. Here and there were also bunchings on Saturday. On Sunday from what I've seen was also okay. The first unallocated strays were already on Saturday, different Enviro400s from the 127 and then later on the ex-36 E98. It was until Monday when there was a different bus type on the route, as illustrated below, a Volvo B5LH with the Wright Eclipse Gemini 3 bodywork.

WHV56 (BP15OMK), West Croydon

First Euro6. First hybrid, on 403

Thank you for reading this rather short post, see you in the next one, and stay safe.

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