Hello,The I-bus project [installing passenger info system and GPS] goes on [scheduled to conculde in March 2009].
It is now the turn of the East London Bus Company [trading as East London north of the river, and as Selkent south of the river].
An extra factor is that the company took over the working of route 248 from Blue Trinagle, requirng 15 double decks.
The Polish built Scanias are only starting to be shipped to the UK from Poland..
The I-bus requires creating a 'float' of 12 buses [each working day 12 buses are sent for I-bus equipment installation] as cover.
In east London, the company is leasing 11 East Lancs Tridents from Wealden PSV for 6 months.
In 2001/2, Metrobus won the operation of some routes in South London. They leased 28 east lancs tridents and numbered them 401-428.When the routes were re-tendered, and won again by Metrobus, new buses were specified, and Metrobus eventually returned all of them [except 427/8] to the leasing company-Wealden PSV
Earlier last year, Metroline leased 6 of them Wealden PSV, and used them at HD garage on routes 140 182 H12. They were returned off lease a couple of months ago.
Carousel also leased 4 buses, but those were returned to Wealden PSV a couple of weeks ago.
Bigbus bought some of those tridents and converted them to open top configuration for sightseeing work.
Now East London are taking a lease on 11 of those buses:Those would go to route 248, replacing the alx400 tridents , and when the new Scanias are delivered, they will be allocated to West Ham garage and routes 86 241 257 to act as the I-bus float for East London. So far, 6 such buses entered service on route 248, displacing alx400 tridents back to their garages.
in the South- Selkent, a batch of 11 alx400 tridents have been hired from Metroline, and at least 6 are now at PD garage, operating alongside the alx400 tridents on routes 53 96 99 122 177 472.
So, here are some photos:We start with route 248:I show the operation of Blue Triangle: TL922- and east lancs trident- coming under the bridge at Romford station: They lost the route at the end of September 2008.
now, let's go back in time:here is - in Metrobus days- 428- on route 353 in Orpington;the vehicle is now 18878 with East London on route 248:Those east lancs tridents are identical to the batch that was run by Blue Triangle when they operated the 248...
Both companies bought examples of those East Lancs bodied tridents.
The Metrobus ones had a 2 piece destination blind [see the photo of 353 earlier], and they retained this arrangement.
Blue triangle examples were delivered with the normal arrangement for blinds in London- see photos of TL922 on route 248 [the first shot] and TL912 on route 88.
That's the easiest way to tell one batch from the other.
Blue Triangle examples are still serving route 474.
