All change Route 313!

The Route 313 which runs between Potters Bar & Chingford was successfully retained by Arriva London North back in early 2011, prior to the new contract starting, TFL specified that the route must be run with 7 single deckers 1 double decker. So Arriva went straight to Alexander Dennis and placed an order for 8 10.8 Enviro 200 Buses and 1 Enviro 400.

Arriva London ENX7 LJ61 CHY seen outside Ponders End Tesco © Peter Horrex

The new contract commenced on the 5th Of November 2011 although at least one of the new E200s was seen out on the route a day for the contract started, presumably to iron out any issues with the vehicles. The vehicles were quite early with the first arriving in October, although the sole Enviro 400 will arrive in January, so the garage for the time being will have to fish for any spare double deckers that are available in the garage, whether that be DLAs or DLPs. Interestingly the new E200s which are coded 'ENX' are the first of the new W.T.A (Whole Type Approval) specification for the company which sees the vehicle have a range of new features such as powerblinds and sidelights. They do look very nice indeed and I do look forward to seeing more of these buses built to this specification. Cheers to Arriva for another 5 years, in which I hope are 5 successful ones.