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| RATP VH20 BT13YWS on the previous 13 |
These quake of changes won't go unnoticed by passengers, however the first consultation did become an earthquake TfL didn't expect just by withdrawing 13. Quite desperately they decided to withdraw 13 again but make it look like the 82 is being withdrawn instead. Though of course people still use it and the Finchley Road corridor as a whole can be busy, TfL want to cut costs as they see the Finchley Road corridor as one which wastes too much money. In my opinion things could've been twisted a bit here and there, say frequency cuts outside of peak hours. That would still require a lot of buses in the peak hours but saves money on the off peak hours, but the ratio would look a bit wonky so it's better to cut the PVR in one go.
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TEH1454 LK13BGX on the
pre-extended 139. |
The most noticeable change without a doubt is the renumbering of 82 into 13, of which 82 has been awarded to Tower Transit with new Volvo B5LH MCV Evosetis, but following the consultation, the contract will commence as number 82. The 13? The current 13 is simply withdrawn. Anything to replace it's stead in London Sovereign? 139 will be novated to them, running under the current 13 contract using existing VHs. Whilst the 139 change (extension to Golders Green) won't be much, the focus is all on 13/82 which will have severe effects on the Finchley Road corridor. Metroline themselves devised a special Routemaster service (with RML900) on the 82 as a way to send off the route they had for so long, in Potters Bar (PB) post-privatisation. Pre-privatisation the route went as far as 1986 from a depot called Finchley (FY).
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TE936 LK09EKR turned
to Park Lane (Hilton Hotel) |
My main focus will look cynical but it's going to focus more on 82 than any other route (not going to bother with 139).
The 82 as a route is an interesting route which starts off at the lively central London Victoria and goes up through the tree-infested Park Lane up to Marble Arch, from then on it starts to look typical London refurbished buildings which look expensive mind you, that's until we reach roughly Finchley Road O2 Centre where standards drop down a little bit. The roads are still spacious enough to hold capacity and the surrounding average buildings still look pricey as it's near the posh Hampstead.
We move on to Golders Green where we take a turn for the cheaper, there's less routes serving and there's less space on the roads as they become narrower like typical City of London streets.
At times the road has an up incline or a down incline constantly, which gives flavour on top of the existing decent scenery for a North West London route such as 82 (I'm not fond of other areas I've visited of North West and I consider this pretty well-cared).
Passing the A406 the roads become wider, the buildings become more apparently aged, and there's trees to supplement for better scenery as a whole, there's also shops here and there, like Finchley Central where there's the Northern Line again.
Typical North London (not North West) style houses where it looks good on the outside followed by more routes as we go through Finchley Central on our way to North Finchley, of which if you look to your right you will notice a board stating "Welcome to the area of North Finchley" which is a good greeting if you ask me.
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An allocated Voith E40D
TE1425 LK62DXY |
I always like to mention the route's history somewhere at some point, the 82 commenced service on the 21st June 1986 to replace 2B (the current 2)'s Baker Street to Golders Green section and a certain withdrawn 26's Sunday service (which also was born off one of the 2's, 2 the current 322). Enough about my addiction to my route 2, the 82 started off as Victoria to Golders Green with garage journeys to North Finchley and Barnet
Chesterfield Road on Sundays only. As years passed the route found itself having it's Monday-Saturday service extended to North Finchley, but it's Barnet section replaced by the 84A(184). Half a year after that change, the Golders Green shorts was shortened to only weekday evenings and Saturday early mornings/evenings. Later, 49 months on, on the 4th December 1993, the 82 received the Victoria-North Finchley routing as permanent on all hours it operated, plus a transfer to Potters Bar (PB) with the closure of Finchley (FY) which the route resided in and has been given the running number #1+ (in gratitude huh).
Besides low floor conversion (with VPLs, in September 2001) or type changes or even running number sequence changes, nothing has changed until this date. Commiserations to Metroline for losing one of their good central London routes and congratulations to Tower Transit for managing to win the 82. Que the passenger's new reactions on April Fools day...
I may do a post on the new changes tomorrow in general, who knows, for this was a rushed post, but anyways I hope you all a good Foolery! :P
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