First London Hayes Garage [HS]...New VNs for the Route 18

Today we paid a visit to First London's Hayes Garage in West London. The reason for this visit was to evidently photograph the VNs on the Route 18 which converts from the Citaro Artic type to Double Deck operation from next month. 

The Garage which is adjacent to the Great Western Mainline which links London to the west of England & Wales was opened in 2005 to house the new reformed 207 operation which commenced operation on the 9th of April 2005 using Articulated Mercedes Citaro buses. I'll just give you some background information as to why a new base was opened if you don't already know.

In 2002 the Route 207 was trialed with 6 Articulated Wrightbus bodied Volvo B7LA buses all loaned from First's Manchester Garage. This was part of the Mayor Ken Livingstone's plan to introduce higher capacity buses on London's trunk routes. Their trial which was a supplementary service run from Greenford Garage was deemed a success and a year later at next tender it was announced that the 207 would be converted to Articulated bus type operations.

The 6 loanee vehicles were all by one in First's provincial barbie livery, bar one, AV1 Y101 ROT which was repainted into London colours finished off with the famous swirls. The two-axle vehicles only had two doors which was also weird for an articulated vehicle. However although the trial was a success, the vehicles were not, with TfL citing that only the Citaro was built to their ever changing specification.

The 200 Plus capacity base opened for operations on the 9th of April 2005, it featured a large shed, which was used to store decommissioned vehicles amongst other things. The huge base lacks maintenance facilities, which means the Citaros on the 207 have to be sent to Willesden Junction (WJ) for maintenance and the Trident Presidents on the 427 sent to Greenford (G).

The purpose of this visit was to photograph the new Gemini2 bodied Volvo B9TLs for the Route 18 which take over on the route from the 13th of November 2010. Pictures of the vehicles can be seen below.

New Buses for the Route 18

New Buses for the Route 18

TN32956 X956 HLT is seen in the forecourt of the garage

The nearside of VN37911

Inside the shed, a few Marshalls are visible

Inside the shed, a few Marshalls are visible

DML41329 is seen inside the shed