Route 207 is due to loose the last of it's articulated buses in less than two weeks time. Much to our surprise, First- the operator of the route hired 4 articulated buses for service on route 207.
Here is former MAL85 shown at White City, and a standard 'First ' vehicle on the route for comparison.
First hired 4 buses [and currently use only 2] for two weeks, because they don't want to fix mechanical problems with their own buses- so soon before their artics are withdrawn from service.
29: Wood Green <----> Trafalgar Square (北倫敦<----->倫敦市中心)
453: Deptford Bridge <-----> Marylebone ( 東南倫敦<---->倫敦市中心 )
207: Hayes By Pass <-----> White City (西南倫敦<---->倫敦市中心近郊)
Just left them in London Bus fleet....rigid Citaro....507, 521, 203
Luckily, it wont be happened anymore.....
the order for the 465 specified 11.3m long versas- the same as the ones currently on route 411.
citaros in London can be found on the following TfL/LB routes:
-50 citaros on route 507/521- Red Arrow
-7 citaros with Lodnon United- route 203
and they were ordered for:
9 for route X26
and 12[?] for route 227 - Stagecoach- TB garage.
You can see citaros on other non TfL routes within the London area:
- Heathrow airport:
First Berkshire runs a series of routes serving Slough Windsor, Eaton and Langley - partially paid for by the BBA [the people who run the airport]. those buses are painted blue and ply routes 71-77.
Arriva runs route 724 into the airport - hourly- using citaros.
-Unibus has a large nubmer of citaros for their services north of London.
the citaros can be sometimes seen on route 614 -goes to Queensway, or route 610.
in addition, around airports, citaros are used on park and ride services..
One of the reasons citaros are relatively uncommon in London is that usually TfL/London Buses do not favour using 12m long single deck buses- they would specify double deck buses instead.
the exception is made for routes that pass under low bridges [227 358 H37], considered not suitable for d/d operation [521/507 and the X26!!] etc.
the list of routes using 12m long s/d buses:
Metrobus using scanias: 358 293 & X26 [lost to Quality Line- but using citaros instead], 227 [low bridge- stagecoach-when the citaros are introduced], 203[citaros] & H37[using tempos], 507/521 .
thx for the correction, Yeah i did see on some website that states QL will introduce 11m Citaro to 465 but was changed last week. But still Versa are good as well.
