S2 and SL2.
This day could've gone swimmingly with only two things focussed on, after everything else executed to some quality...:
Publicity
Displays.
Many blind display issues across operators, though a lot worse at one operator.
Before going into 455, it is worth noting it's two routes in one.
Of course, as a result, it's an indirect route. So indirect you can walk from Wallington to Purley and just about beat the actual 455 bus.
Many an enthusiast has the need to split or draw crayons because a route is indirect. They don't question why/how/what, of why/how it came about, or what it's purpose is.
The 455 in this case lasted several decades with no change in routeing. If it was broken, it wasn't fixed for this long.
Heck, the real reason it is being withdrawn is because Old Lodge Lane has developments... therefore requires extra capacity (frequency increase).
Increasing the whole 455's frequency was a non-starter, understandably.
One half is more industrial, with Roundshaw as a local traffic to Wallington.
One half feeds to Croydon along with the schools mid-way as well as general shopping traffic in addition.
There is a small percentage that use it to get from Croydon to the industrial areas of Beddington too.
So I'll be drawing my crayons out in text.
How I'd have gone about it:
166: Unchanged on Brighton Road
403: re-extended to Sutton
The 403 returning back to before it was replaced by 407, since 403 is largely reliable as it has a quieter section east of Croydon as opposed to 407 being mostly traffic from start to finish.
405: re-extended to West Croydon, via Old Town
(to make it seem like TfL have admitted a wrong but providing something new, alternatively; swap 405/407 between Purley and South Croydon and then:)
Frequency increased to every 12 M-Sat, every 15 Sunday.
407: cut back from Sutton to West Croydon
For reliability purposes.
439: Whyteleafe South - Higher Drive - Purley - Pampisford Road - Waddon Marsh Sainsbury's - Beddington ASDA.
Retains some link to shopping along Pampisford Road to the Waddon Marsh and Beddington areas, with a change onto S4 needed for other hardware stores or bus garages. Also serves the many large schools along Pampisford Road, as opposed to a section of Purley Way that is mostly desolate highway.
470/S2/S3/S4: Changes go as planned. S2 extended in Epsom to Epsom General Hospital.
410: Rerouted at Church Street along withdrawn 455 to Waddon Marsh Sainsbury's. Preferably every other bus terminating at West Croydon, with half the frequency at every 20 (route 455's freq) terminating at Waddon Marsh. TfL don't like shorts these days.
433: Extended from East Croydon via 410 to Wallington.
So yeah, short opinion piece, thanks for reading, stay safe until the next one, bless you.
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As for the day itself...
There's plenty of enthusiast videos regarding the changes, or predominantly about SL2. One being clipped running for DW333 across towns. With that energy the kid could do well in a marathon and run for Britain in the Olympics.
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Very little publicity if none at all. Some Oyster members received emails, some have not.
In East London, 325 changeover and new Superloop SL2.
Route 434
The intended reroute of 434 to accommodate 439 using some of 434's roads south of Purley has been indefinitely delayed due to road infrastructure issues in Kenley with 434 routed along 407's route instead in the interim, the 407's cut south of Croydon also delayed indefinitely, this means no new 443.
Unlike the other route changes today, there has been no need for paper to be displayed, as buses were binded for the Caterham extension.
It goes from 20-25 mins stand time at Whyteleafe to having 20 mins stand time at both Caterham and Coulsdon.
Route 439
No timetables posted on route. Very little publicity if none at all. Some Oyster members received emails, some have not. Stopping arrangements constantly changing in the background before the date came in the Waddon Marsh area, Go-Ahead essentially chasing TfL for confirmation.
Oddly, some 455 bus stops in Croydon gained 439 e-tiles.
Day 1 was rather empty, with plenty of confusion understandably.
Day 2 (Sunday) had some buses with near-full seated loads, people immediately understanding on their own terms, since TfL have little to help in awareness of the service. Waddon Marsh has an S4 timetable but no 439 timetable for example.
Route S2 started with new SEe304-312, replacing St Helier-Sutton from route S4, whilst also replacing Sutton-Epsom from route 470. Notably S2 terminating at Clock Tower instead of General Hospital as planned and consulted on whilst the section belonged to route 470.
It's first Sunday in service has proven more popular than anticipated with relatively healthy start, for a section that had no service under route 470 - the Epsom end that is.
Route 470 has been cut back from Epsom to Sutton, standing with route 407 at Marshall Road (it converted from dual door to single door for a while in anticipation of this happening earlier).
Route S3 and 470 had a minor swap in routeing in Sutton Common, allowing S3 to be a little faster/more-direct whilst the shortened 470 has been made the more local route.
Route S4 has been cut back from St Helier to Sutton. It's been extended from Roundshaw to Waddon Marsh Sainsbury's part replacing 455, with a frequency increase to match 455's frequency of every 20 Mon-Sat and 30 Sun/eve.
TfL's incompetence this time is on iBus, "Sutton Bushey Road" (no comma). The S4 shares it's terminus with 407 which is on Marshalls Road, 407s displaying "Sutton Town Centre" whereas Bushey Road is at Sutton Station where 164 terminates, now joined by 470.
Route 455 withdrawn, meaning no buses serving St Peters Road in South Croydon. No indirect route end-to-end on largely two flows either side of Croydon stitched into a singular mesh.
Neither 166 nor S4 will provide replacement for 455's schoolday extras (Waddon-Old Lodge Lane in morning, Haling Park School to Wallington in afternoon). Arguably 645 already provides for one morning journey of 455, if only 645 was introduced in tandem now as opposed to much earlier. Now we have real capacity being taken away.
Route 166 rerouted away from Brighton Road, onto Pampisford Road. Perfectly replacing 455's frequency of every 20 with route 166's every 20 frequency. This doesn't consider the already long route 166 being made even slower for long distance users unfortunately.
Route 312 extended from South Croydon via Purley onto Old Lodge Lane, replacing route 455 and giving the area a capacity boost that TfL argues is needed, especially in the future. It's EMCs have been towed away from Croydon (TC) to Sidney House whilst ENLs freshly freed from loss of 325 has replaced the allocation. Some mentioned being driven into Beddington. Perhaps that's Sidney House.
These ex-325 ENLs didn't have blinds put in so 312s have been running around banditised, with small A4 paper in the windscreen only on the front, not on the side and/or rear. No blinded number displays even, unlike with SL2.
Notably the 312 is still on it's electric contract, downgraded to diesels as the existing electrics can't handle the route. This fact seemingly overshadowed by the storm caused by 28's tender award some while prior.
Route 450 temporarily partially converted to 10.2m SEe's to release 9.7m models to 439.
To accommodate space for S2 at Sutton (A), the 80 moved to Goat Road (GM) whose allocation there consists of WHV71-80 meaning Sutton (A) is fully electric minus the DOEs due to 151's issues at Worcester Park.
Route S1 moving back from Goat Road (GM) to Croydon (C) whose space freed by 455 withdrawal.
Throughout the Croydon/Sutton changes there's still been poor publicity, with some stops having correct tiling, some not.
Over in East London.
Superloop SL2 started on this date, using HAs freed from 133/333 loss which required mechanical work upgrades as apparently only in the last month did Brixton (BN) neglect them as opposed to most of their life with the odd weird roaring bus or even weirder issues obvious to bystanders, let alone engineers. In the same hand Brixton (BN) maintained HVs stellar well, but the HAs clearly an unwanted child. The HAs have the old Brixton (BN) blindset but with inserts plastered on.
Only a few buses were wrapped in Superloop livery [HA39/45/52/53], a far cry from a decent fraction on other routes (and pretty much all LTs on SL3). This is a TfL issue, granted. Same people who do adverts on buses. All the buses had their Brixton (BN) codes removed with most receiving Barking (DX) codes. Some priority of visuals I suppose.
There is a contingency plan for SL2s to divert via 325/366 in the case North Circular Road is difficult to pass through.
On first day the first non-Superloop bus was DW333! Banditised with a large paper "SL2"
Drivers lost. First bus 20 minutes late. All buses not displaying adequate blinds (only SL2 on number blinds), despite apparently HAs receiving inserts (rather than blinds, TfL cost cutting apparently). What a mess this day was for SL2.
End of the first day during enthusiast space, the forum was focused on the blind issues whilst on Facebook it's been focused on the excess of enthusiasts. During the evening, someone was sent by Arriva to adjust DW333's blinds to display white, with a laminated SL2 card.
Day 2 (Sunday), buses have been seen blinded. May have been a programming issue all along, albeit some have their rear displays stuck on other routes [e.g 19] but this certainly a marked improvement, one where new potential passengers immediately recognise this new route's termini and can decide if they should ride or not.
Turns out blinds may have been delivered late on Friday night. Indeed the buses have been in use on Tramlink rail replacement, but doesn't excuse the fact none could display a destination(s) at all on the first grand day of a politicised network of express buses. No TfL media posts unlike with previous first days either, it seems.
Apparently someone also got into trouble for not making enough effort into the blinds, as some buses definitely could've been blinded. Drivers refused to take buses out until given printed paper.
In addition, DW333 was sent out on 175 on the 5th March with it's "SL2" card in the front number blind, free advertising for the people in Romford I suppose.
In good news, Gants Hill to Barking link restored after 14 years (since 179 was cut from Barking to Ilford).
The 325 changed hands from Arriva to Go-Ahead, having been at Barking (DX) for over a decade since 2010. Starting life not at Henley Road (DS) allegedly but at River Road (RR)...
One could look back on Arriva's tenure on 325. Going from a genuine improvement over Stagecoach at the time with lacklustre service then, Arriva then providing good service. To later years after Deutsche Bahn found themselves as owners of Arriva whereby multiple slips and cracks in the wider company have occurred. Least of which, Barking (DX). In service and one could argue, maintenance. Morale has certainly been worsened from loss of 173, a route that has been there for several decades dating to Grey Green era.
Fun story, a health and safety union member was the reason the route failed an ENX test despite every other driver safely operating an ENX on the route, the member even alleging some TfL diversions are unsafe in ENLs which TfL promptly ignore.
Now it goes from one batch of diesel Enviro200s to a batch of Enviro200s.
At it's new home, it's had temporary allocation sorted from 61-reg SEs new to 276 which have found themselves as temporary buses on route 200 whilst Metrodeckers are still grounded, the few 61-reg have been topped by homeless 65-reg SEs too which have been temporary allocations on routes 265 and 366. Some of these that transferred from Merton (AL) had their rear blinds stuck on 200, which isn't bad as front displays were blinded, compared to the atrocities shown on 312/SL2 this date.
Last 455: OM8 at 00:52
Last 325: ENL66 at 01:04
First 325: SE123 at 04:45
First SL2: HA53 at 05:15
First 439: SEe257 at 06:45
First S2: ???
Route 164's supposed extension from Sutton to Sutton Hospital did not occur, still delayed, as no doubt infrastructure still not present to terminate the route there.
In addition to this chaos, iBus department changed "Ilford" display to "North Woolwich" weirdly, definitely in conjunction to new route SL2 which merely passes Ilford.
58 97 101 215 238 309 W11 retained on this date
Route 309 had it's evening frequency increase as part of the Aberfeldy reroute consultation,
Route 238 transferred from West Ham (WH) to Barking (BK), this route move was long speculated until this point.
Perhaps the blind issues were down to McKenna not delivering in time one argued, 12 weeks they usually took. Being the only supplier now, with the push to LEDs, they've also increased prices of blinds accordingly, making use of the scarcity in demand.
Apparently future bus refurbishments will mandatory have LED displays and USB charging. Frankly a shame it's taken this long when new buses were specified in 2024 to contain these as mandatory, whilst being optional between 2020-2024 for LEDs, USB mandatory since 2019 with 232's StreetLites being the first mandatory.
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| My meme GIF Split second frame of Merton (AL)'s greatness included I simply had to make fun of the situation. |
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| My meme GIF |
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