The Circle of London : 01/09/2012

It's been a while since the last update, with Jack and I both being busy in securing our entry into university which was successful, we had to put aside the less important things such as blogging and focus on the period which could shape the rest of our lives so things on the blog had to be put aside for a while, but thank you loyal viewers who according to the hit counter still tuned in during our long absence.

I visited Metroline's CELF Centre yesterday for the first time in over 4 months which is somewhat out of the norm for me, however the purpose of today's visit was to obtain pictures of the new Alexander Dennis E200s for routes 234 and W9 which commence later on in the year and also to obtain pictures of the many Olympic buses that have been released by LOGOC passing through the centre today. For those who are not familiar, Metroline had a contract for 91 buses to operate on the Olympics, these consisted of DEs, DLDs, TAs, TEs, VPLs and VWs. Before I go into further detail, I will explain the allocations of these buses and where they are headed to.

The former 266 TAs (TA638 - 659) will be heading back to Cricklewood to operate on the 32 and part 210 in order to allow the release more TE9xx to the 189. DLD693 - 711 amid rumours will be heading back to Kings Cross Garage to operate on the Route 214. VPL629 - 637 will be heading back to HT to operate as logistical spares on the routes there. TE1307 - 1317 will be heading to Cricklewood to operate on the 32 although they will probably appear more on the 189 and 332. The VWs as we know will be heading to Holloway to operate the W7.

Above we can see new and old together for what may be the first and last time. To the left we have DEM1340 LK62 DCE and DP1014 to the right, which looks looks like a victim of a bad crash, it will most likely be repaired and withdrawn before returning off lease. These brand new 9.6M ADL E200s are part of a 23 strong batch of vehicles that have been ordered for the routes 234 and W9 contracts which will see off the DP1001 - 1014 and DSD208 - 217 which were originally ordered for the Route 206 back in 2002. Just to make things easier for you, I have included a small fleet list of these DEMs.

DEM1337 - LK62DAA - body no. C208/1

DEM1338 - LK62DAO - body no. C208/2

DEM1339 - LK62DBZ - body no. C208/3

DEM1340 - LK62DCE - body no. C208/4

DEM1341 - LK62DCF - body no. C208/5

DEM1342 - LK62DCY - body no. C208/6

DEM1343 - LK62DDU - body no. C208/7

DEM1344 - LK62DDY - body no. C208/8

DEM1345 - LK62DDZ - body no. C208/9

DEM1346 - LK62DEU - body no. C208/10

DEM1347 - LK62DFF - body no. C208/11

DEM1348 - LK62DFJ - body no. C208/12

DEM1349 - LK62DFP - body no. C208/13

DEM1350 - LK62DFY - body no. C208/14

DEM1351 - LK62DGF - body no. C208/15

DEM1352 - LK62DGO - body no. C208/16

DEM1353 - LK62DHC - body no. C208/17

DEM1354 - LK62DHD - body no. C208/18

DEM1355 - LK62DHE - body no. C208/19

DEM1356 - LK62DHG - body no. C208/20

DEM1357 - LK62DHP - body no. C208/21

DEM1358 - LK62DHU - body no. C208/22

DEM1359 - LK62DHV - body no. C208/23

Notice anything different in comparison to other E200s? Have you noticed now? I'll tell you anyway. The brand of seats being used in this bus are a derivative of the Fainsa Metropolis seats deliberately ordered as they are tougher than the normal Civic Esteban seats and the routes theses buses are set operate on, go past many schools which if you put 2 and 2 together you will understand.

Above we can see TA654 which was formerly part of a batch of vehicles that formerly made up 88% of the route 266's allocation before it respectively passed to First on the 19th of May 2012. These buses will continue to operate out of Cricklewood Garage on the 32 and 210 once they pass their M.O.T tests and are commissioned into service.

Here we can see DLD702 LK55 KLV awaiting entry into service at Kings Cross garage, interestingly this batch of Darts have been upgraded to Euro4 for whatever reason and only feature one exhaust pipe as opposed to the two they used to have. I can promise more quality posts in the coming weeks, but you know as they say 'a picture paints a thousand words' so in a smart move that will see me save 1000 words, more photos from the day's visit are placed below.