The Circle of London : Metroline Cricklewood Garage [W]...Revisit

The caption to the left shows Metroline's TEH1108 one of 10 new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 Hybrid Buses for the Route 139. We visited the Garage back in July when TE1073, TE1074 and TE1075 had just been delivered.

Now in January the Garage is undertaking the biggest delivery of new Buses to the location since 2002. At the moment the Garage is quite busy with vehicles being delivered and some departing for store every day. Only a few of the original TAs remain in service, one of them being TA67 which seems to be going strong. Word has it that the TALs are set to depart from the Garage next year by this time they will be the only Euro 2 Buses in the Garage. Minor news can confirm that Double Deck vehicles can be used on the 316 however only under extreme circumstances such as a shortage of DEs (Alexander Dennis Enviro 200) and under this they must be curtailed at North Kensington. I must send out a big thanks to the Metroline staff for their hospitality and their kindness for letting me explore and take shots of this truly wonderful facility.

The garage itself opened for service in 1905, initially being referred to as Dollis Hill, a local suburb. At the time of opening, it was the first motorised depot used by the LGOC, with the former being trolleybus depots. In 2007, the garage operations were reallocated to a site across the road while the base was renovated, at the same time the 186 allocation was also moved to the base. The renovation was completed in January 2009 and was given the title of head office. At present the base houses up to 200 vehicles.