Today hosted a visit to Abellio's Hayes Garage which is arguably the smallest garage in London, with a total vehicle capacity of only 25 - 30 service vehicles! The base is the remains of the former Tellings Golden Miller base and one of a few that Abellio now operate from.
The base located on the same road as Volvo's Hayes dealership was formerly home to an array of vehicle types including East Lancs bodied Darts for the U7 altough these periodically popped up on the 112, 350 and H28.
In April 2012, Abellio decided to take the opportunity to convert the route 350 to Double Deck operation using Dennis Tridents with Alexander ALX400 bodywork which had just been relieved of their duties on the Route 3 following the introduction of Hybrids on that route.Upon this decision 10 Tridents from BC numbered between
9763 - 9772 transferred over from Beddington Cross Garage (BC) to release the existing E200s to Fulwell Garage (TF) in what I think was a very smart move economically as it allowed them to utilize older vehicles that were still in good nick!
Abellio have taken the chance to lease one half of the garage to coach operator, City Circle who have a very nice fleet of Mercedes Benz Tourismo coaches. No doubt they would give them the boot if they needed to house newly won routes!
Today the Garage runs the following routes, 112, 350, H28, U7 and U9 and is home to a fleet of following buses;
- Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart 10.2m for route H28.
- Dennis Dart SLF 10.2m / Caetano Nimbus for routes 112 and U7.
- Dennis Dart SLF 8.8m / Plaxton Pointer 2 for route U9.
- Dennis Dart SLF 10.2m / Plaxton Pointer 2 as logical spares.
- Dennis Trident 2 9.9m / Alexander ALX400 for route 350.
Upon this visit, we can now proudly say that we have now completed the whole set of Abellio London Garages in London! The first for any operator on this Blog, to now have the second company garage completion, we need to visit Metroline's Willesden Pound Lane Garage (AC).
Below are pictures from the visit, we hope you enjoyed this post.
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| 8466 GM03 TGM, 8589 YX62 DVA & 8051 X311 KRX |
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| 8589 YX62 DVA |
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| Trident 9722 YN51 KWG having some work done to it |
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| WeBuyAnyCar.com! |
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| Trident 9722 YN51 KWG having some work done to it |
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| Abellio 8114 KX06 LYT going through the washer |
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| Abellio 9765 YN51 KVZ parked near the fueling facility |
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| The fueling facility |
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| The City Circle Coaches |
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| No getting away! |
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| 8589 YX62 DVA |
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| Abellio's new interior |
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| Another Fiesta |
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| Abellio 9765 YN51 KVZ arriving at the garage |
Interesting Fact!
Did you know that the garage is home to Ceatano Bodied Dennis Dart 8466 GM03 TGM, which is the only post 2001 Euro2 Dart. The reason for this, is due to the fact, the chassis was made in 1998, however the body of the bus was only mounted in 2003 and registered the same year!
I really wanna thank the COL team for visiting this garage as I have always wanted to see what the depot looks like.
ReplyDeleteAlso the "smallest bus garage" fact is true as Abellio Hayes and Arriva Grays are the smallest bus garages operating london bus routes.
Before, I used to think that Abellio Hayes don't have a bus wash or maintainance shed.
ReplyDeleteBut can an Alexander Dennis fit into the bus wash?
Fab Post at COL! Just one correction - you accidentally wrote 9722/ YN51 KWG instead of 9772. Other than that - well done for running such a great blog! :)
ReplyDeleteThe route 350 buses are horrible to ride in,they are very noisy,and shakes badly on rough road.
ReplyDeleteThere is no heating most times and the buses does not smell pleasant on the inside.
The drivers are always very helpful and polite,hats off to them for doing their job with these outdated buses.