Prepared on Notepad by Ian Smith,
This page created 6th November 2017.
Part8: 2012Further retrenchmentBexleyheath lost seventeen PVLs at the end of January 2012, when the 89 and N89 were replaced by Es. That left just nineteen PVLs there, for the 401, 321 and schools services - not quite enough. One spare was drafted in from Merton.Northumberland Park taken over: PDN1-6 and PVN1-17On 31st March 2012 Go-Ahead London took over the First London garage at Northumberland Park, with its routes and 130 buses. These comprised 6 Trident-Presidents, 17 Volvo Presidents, 53 Wright-Volvos, 1 Dart-Marshall and 29 Enviro200 Darts. They were all renumbered, with class codes similar to Go-Ahead's codes but finshing in N, each class numbered up from 1. So the 6 Trident-Presidents were PDN1-6 (ex First TNs or TNLs), and the Volvo Presidents PVN1-17 (ex First VNLs). The PDNs came in two different lengths: PDN1 and 2 were the longer 10.6m variant (ex-TNL), while the others were 9.9m (ex-TN). The PVNs were all the longer sort, with the extra bay.The routes sporting the Presidents at takeover were (I think):
First London's VNL32306 on route 476 to Euston, at Kings Cross back in July 2004. Both bus and route were transferred to Go-Ahead London with the transfer of Northumberland Park at the end of March 2018. The bus became PVN 1 and the 476 was worked by newer WVNs by the time of the transfer. The other bus is First's Trident/Alexander TAL1359 on route 10.Preparing for the EventA few more PVLs went off-lease, but as the summer approached Go-Ahead were stockpiling buses for use in association with the large international Games that were to take place in Stratford, the Dome and Woolwich, amongst other places. All buses used in connection with the Games, or going anywhere near, had to run devoid of fleetnames or advertising, unless it was advertising for one of the official Games sponsors. Certain words were not allowed to be used except by the Games officials or sponsoring businesses - so I shall not use them either. The Games would disallow free speech in some areas and the right to travel over some of the Queen's Highways. Thus the stranglehold of big global corporations over what should be a democracy. I did not approve, as you may gather! Anyway, rant over. PVLs started to go to Eastleigh for repaints to remove anything offensive, like London Central, London General, Blue Triangle, Go-Ahead London or logos.Perhaps connected was the growing number of PVLs used on the 129 (Greenwich - North Greenwich), which was a single-decker (ED) route, but which would be double-decked properly once the Games arrived.
Commercial servicesBy early 2012 there were substantial numbers of PVLs in the Commercial Services fleet. These began to appear from repaints without black skirts, black window surrounds or orange coach-lines, but with a fairly narrow white band between the decks. Due to the Stratford Games stipulations, at this stage they had no logos, although they did carry gold fleetnumbers.August 2012The Stratford Games brought special contract hires and route diversions. With an emphasis upon public transport for the hoi-polloi (but with enormous multi-storey car-parks for the privileged), there was a need to double-deck some routes. Route 129 (Greenwich - North Greenwich (The Dome)) was an easy one: New Cross replaced EDs (and other older types) with spare PVLs. The EDs could go onto supplementing the 108 through the Blackwall Tunnel, which linked The Dome with Stratford. Route 108 also saw double-decking at its south end, between Lewisham and The Dome. Again New Cross obliged.Silvertown's service D8 (Stratford - Poplar - Isle of Dogs) had its single-deckers replaced by PVLs. Camberwell provided a much increased service on the 74 (Putney Heath - Baker Street) adding twelve PVLs on top of the scheduled service. These were scraped together from the commercial fleet, two of Camberwell's dual-purpose trainers, and from the south-east London school bus fleet. Two VPs from Belvedere were included. Northumberland Park gained a group of PVLS to increase the allocation to the 425 (Clapton - Mile End - Stratford) by six buses. Several other Go-Ahead routes were given extra buses to maintain services during the severe disruption to normal traffic patterns. After the festivities had passed the re-allocations were nearly all reversed, getting the PVLs and VPs back where needed before the start of the school terms in September. Post-GamesWith London - and the rest of the UK - having spent many a fortune on the big event, the politics of bus-buying was changing. TfL was buying the very expensive "New Bus for London" at the behest of the Mayor of London for use on Central routes. Experiments were half-heartedly going ahead with hybrid or alternative fuel buses, with distinctly mixed results so far. London was facing court action over air quality. Out in the suburbs some new contract awards specified "new" buses but it was clear that refurbished buses would be acceptable. So the younger PVLs got a renewed life-span. PVL390-419 would be refurbished to service new contracts on the 44, 77, 270 and the renewed 280 contract. To get the ball rolling, New Cross shifted fifteen (PVL390-404) to Merton, released now that New Cross was not having to put PVLs on the 108 and 129. Bexleyheath sent ten older ones (PVL346-355) to New Cross for the 321.
Northumberland Park gets 257Go-Ahead won the contract for the 257 (Stratford - Walthamstow Central in October, and drafted in WVLs for it. But it was not long before PVNs began to appear on it.
Bexleyheath double-decks the 132Having used double-deckers on the 132 (Bexleyheath - Blackfen - Eltham - Blackheath - North Greenwich) during the Games, the route reverted to provision with DWL Cadets and "spare" LDPs until December, when fourteen PVLs from Merton took over pending the arrival of Es.
PVL160 and PVL167 were two of the ex-Merton PVLs transferred to Bexleyheath for the 132 in November 2012. They were still there in January 2015, PVL160 still wearing London General logos!
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Part 9: 2013 onwards
President Index
2010-11
2013