70-capacity, to 100-capacity, to square 1

23108 and 23107, Crystal Palace Parade

The 293 and H37 faced this issue but this is a new first for us all. The StreetLite Max...

In any case, barring the 5 year tenure with Kentish Bus from 1992, the route has always been home with Bromley (TB). Go-Ahead's win marks the second time Selkent lost the route.

The 227 is a typical millennial route that existed as far back as history can be traced. 1934. It was number 109 prior to it's 227 number which it since kept for the next 85 years.

Penge Crooked Billet via Bromley and Chislehurst and Eltham to Welling. The latter two sections relinquished to 161 and 160 4 years later but extended the other way up Crystal Palace Park in 1951 linking up with routes that enter the city.

Chislehurst to Crystal Palace has been it's main routing, with a PVR as high as 24 with tri-axle single deckers pre-war, small buses, to actual single deckers. That's until 27 April 1991 when 161 finally killed it off between Chislehurst and Bromley making the current route, back then a PVR of 9, now 12.

©Graham Walker

Eventually the 227 crawled from step-entrance Dennis Lances to low-floor Super Pointer Darts. A type renowned for their uniqueness as the only batch in London on a busy route restricted to single deckers due to Shortlands bridge. The  Super Darts had a 6-cylinder engine like their double decker Trident counterpart, coupled to a Voith gearbox, a combination that has shaped 227's legacy for the years to come, even if they were inferior to the Citaro in aspects such as overall capacity and power and comfort. They did the job.

WS130 (SK19FAO), Penge

Now. The current era. Saving fuel for better economy and higher capacity as well as stop-start technology restricting diesels to the Voith gearbox which probably burn more fuel than save any. Between the StreetLite and the Enviro200 I'd pick the B8RLE. I know that I can only dream but until I'm proven not wright, I'll hold to my assumptions that they won't do well for a term of 5-7 years, if not a year.

Or, that was what I initially thought...?


After 23110 became the last Stagecoach 227 8 minutes after 1 am, WS124 showcased the dawn of a new age as the first GAL 227 at 05:51. Ten hours later I found myself on WS130 for a brief ride. It was lightly loaded and was rather fast in comparison to the 355 StreetLites I'm used to. Age could be a factor but I dismissed it for a while. In short, the current WS130 is capable of going up hills with decent effort required. Time will tell how these StreetLite Max's fare as a whole on the route but first impressions:
- Lack of air conditioning, bus was rather hot inside than outside
- Notable lack of capacity, what more can I say...
- Requiring a lot of power to perform the hills, wearing it down quicker long-run
- Capability of turning at Bromley North. Another clip can be seen here.
First day syndromes so the service can be excused where there are hiccups. Though from the Crystal Parade end of my journey was doing fine. The first odd working was MBK1 on Monday the 24th June, followed shortly after by the Enviro200 757 (allocated to 126) after WS130 crashed with a car.

36549 (LX12DJZ), Crystal Palace Parade

The only odd workings 227 has had was 314's medium sized 10.2m Enviro200s. This is of course at the expense of the 227's customer's displeasure. The Citaros are hardworking horses without doubt, but it isn't uncommon for them to be off road for periods of time. In their stead there could be up to 3 E200s on the 227. Rough capacity of a 10.2m E200 would be up to 60. The Citaros promise up to 100 with dozens of standees. Large difference however you look at it. Nevertheless, the Voith-boxed Enviro200s did well despite the drastic change of pace for them from their 14 mile insanity of a route, my opinion of course. You can see my video of 36549 on 227 here.

23105 (LX12DKU), Crystal Palace Bus Station
It was early 2018 when 3/227 were changed to stand
in the parade

After all these years, 227 had running numbers above 1. At Metrobus Orpington (MB), the 227 carries on as 121-132. All in all a surprise win from Go Ahead. Most of us thought it'd be an easy retain for Stagecoach, even at the possible expense of new E200MMCs instead, which seemed to have been specified as 6-cylinder variants. Nevertheless, Stagecoach did well on the 227 even if there were hiccups in service, a thanks to them in this case. To a good term with Go-Ahead on 227, and thank you for reading this post. I haven't written in a while but perhaps I could prepare a few more posts but until then, stay safe.