Stagecoach London

Stagecoach London is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group. It principally operates services in the English capital city of London, under contract to the London Buses arm of Transport for London.

Their main address is:

2-4 Clements Road

ILFORD

IG1 1BA

History

Stagecoach London was created from the East London Bus & Coach Company Ltd and the South East London & Kent Bus Company Ltd, both companies acquired by the Stagecoach Group. Legally these companies still exist, and Stagecoach London's buses carry legal lettering for one or other of these companies.

Both the buses involved in the 7 July 2005 London Bombings and 21 July 2005 London Bombings belonged to Stagecoach London.

Operation

Stagecoach London operates London contracted services under the brand Stagecoach in London, but this brand tends to be overwhelmed by the much stronger London Buses brand. For example, all buses are painted in London bus red, rather than Stagecoach's normal livery.

Stagecoach London also operates a coaching operation under the brand East London Coaches.

East London Bus & Coach Company Ltd

Garages

They have seven bus garages.

Barking

Their address is:

205 Longbridge Road

BARKING

IG11 8UE

This garage holds 122 buses, and runs London bus routes 5, 15, 62, 145, 169, 287, 300, 325, 366, 369, 387, 396, 24-hour route 369, and Night route N15.

History

Barking was opened in 1924 by the LGOC to cater for the increased demand from the new housing estates springing up in Becontree.

Barking will be remembered by many enthusiasts as being the last garage to operate RT's on 7 April 1979. The scheduled requirement gradually dropped in the post war years and in 1992 a closure notice was served on the garage, but it wasn't implemented and by 1994 Barking had a scheduled requirement for 109 buses including Titans and Delta's.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400
• Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200

Bow

Their address is:

Fairfield Road

LONDON

E3 2QP

This garage holds 100 buses, and runs London bus routes 5, 8, 15, 67, 277, 24-hour route 277, and Night routes N8 and N15.

History

Originally a tram depot, and later a trolleybus depot Bow was converted to motor bus operations in 1959 including the installation of large overground fuel tanks. Shortly after conversion the nearby Clay Hall garage closed with its allocation moving to BW. The garage received it's first RM's in the early 1960s, some of which remained there right up until August 2004 for route 8 until the final Stagecoach RM's ran in normal service.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400

Leyton

Their address is:

Leyton High Road

LONDON

E10 6AD

This garage holds 104 buses, and runs London bus routes 48, 55, 56, 97, 230, 24-hour route 69, and Night route N55.

History

Leyton garage was built in 1912 by London General to replace an existing garage acquired from London Metropolitan, and was in an ideal position to benefit from developing areas. During the Second World War the garage suffered bomb damage but was not rebuilt until a major renovation in 1955. The garage was the first to receive post war RT's and by 1947 78 were allocated. A further 30 were added for the trolleybus conversion program in 1959 and they lasted at the garage until 1972. Leyton was also the first garage to receive Stagecoach London's new low-floor Trident/ALX400 in 1999. The current operational allocation is entirely Low-Floor.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200

Romford

Their address is:

North Street

ROMFORD

RM1 1DS

This garage holds 90 buses, and runs London bus routes 5, 103, 174, 175, 247, 294, 296, 496, school routes 647 and 674 ,and Night route N86.

History

Romford bus garage was opened in 1953 to take the strain off of the nearby Hornchurch garage, and also to cope with the new Harold Hill Estate. Built in the post-war style of an underground station it was initially able to house 115 buses, although only 67 were allocated when opened. The allocation grew to 90 by 1958. In 1992 the garage was earmarked for closure due to the loss of routes under the new tendering procedure. The garage however remained open and by 1994 was allocated 84 buses, mainly Titans. In 2004 the allocation had dropped slightly to 76, although with a good year of tender wins in 2005 the garage is up to full capacity.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200
• Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2

Stratford

Their address is:

Unit 11

Stability Works

Waterden Road

Hackney Wick

LONDON

E15 2EE

This garage holds 169 buses, and runs London bus routes 26, 30, 86, 106, 158, 241, 257, 276, D3, and Night routes N26 and N106.

History

Stratford garage has had some identity crises in its time. Opened by Stagecoach in 1992 that garage is a large yard on an old industrial estate. It was originally called "Bow Midibus Base" and took over the midibuses from both Bow & West Ham garages. Stratford Garage is opposite First London's Hackney depot and is described as Hackney Wick on the blinds for the 106 which terminates there. SD also houses the dedicated livery and adapted buses with rooftop flashing beacon for the London City airport Contract. Unfortunately a vehicle from SD was involved in the terrorism in London on 7/7/2005 and was totally destroyed. Fortunately the driver of the bus, George Psaradakis, escpaed serious injury and was able to return to work a few weeks later. Stagecoach had a replacement bus handed over to them in October 2005 which was the first Enviro 400 off the production line and named "Spirit of London". Stagecoach in East London has recently won a large amount of new work which in turn has resulted in an increased allocation for Stratford and the nearby Waterden Road Garages as Stagecoach's other garages at Romford and Bow are almost fully occupied. The long term future of the garages on thier current site seems uncertain, as they will be in the centre of the "Olympic Village" when the Olympics comes to London in 2012.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200
• Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2
• Alexander Dennis Enviro 400

Upton Park

Their address is:

Redclyffe Road

LONDON

E6 1DS

This garage holds 108 buses, and runs London bus routes 101, 104, 115, 147, 238, 262, 330, 376, 473, and Night route N50.

History

The largest garage in the east end of London, Upton Park was opened by the LRCC in 1907 but was requisitioned for the war effort in 1915 and was not returned to use until 1919. In 1931 it was totally revamped and enlarged to create a capacity of just over 200 buses. In 1988 the garage operated the X15 "Becton Express" using ex-Green Line RMC's. The service was a trial, and even sold newspapers to commuters on board.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2
• DAF SB220LC550/Optare Delta (Trainer)
• Scania N113CRL/Wright Pathfinder
• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400

Waterden Road

Their address is:

Unit 11

Stability Works

Waterden Road

Hackney Wick

LONDON

E15 2EE

This garage holds 47 buses, and runs London bus routes 15 and 24-hour route 25.

History

Opened in 2004 to accomodate "Bendies" on route 25. The garage has also been used to house some of the private hire fleet ousted from Romford due to space constrainst following recent tender wins. WA also gives Stagecoach a handy stabling and re-fuelling base for it's Megabus services into and out of London. In November 2005 Stagecoach were awarded the contract to operate one of the 2 "heritage" routes in Central London with RM's.

Bus types in use

• Mercedes-Benz Citaro (Articulated)
• AEC Routemaster
• DAF SB220LC550/Optare Delta (trainer)
• Scania N113CRL/Wright Pathfinder (Trainer)

South East London & Kent Bus Company Ltd

Garages

They have three bus garages.

Bromley

Their address is:

111 Hastings Road

BROMLEY

BR2 8NH

This garage holds 75 buses, and runs London bus routes 162, 208, 227, 269, 314, and school routes 630 and 638.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400
• DAF SB220LC550/Optare Delta (Trainer)
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200
• Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2

Catford

Their address is:

180 Bromley Road

LONDON

SE6 2XA

This garage holds 137 buses, and runs London bus routes 47, 54, 124, 136, 160, 199, 202, P4, 24-hour route 75, school routes 624 and 660, and Night route N47.

History

Catford Garage was opened in 1914 by the LGOC, but was requisitioned a year later and did not re-open until 1920 when Thomas Tilling's Lewisham operation moved there due to space constraints at his other garage. Originally coded L, it was changed in 1924 to avoid confusion with Loughton. Thomas Tilling got an agreement in 1923 to double the size of Catford and to open a new garage in Bromley to cope with the new housing estates that were springing up around the area. The roof has had to be raised twice, first in 1930 to enable double deck buses to use the garage and again in 1948 to accommodate RT's. By 1954 TL was operating some 194 RT's the last disappearing in 1978. TL has done considerably better than most garages in numbers over the years, especially since de-regulation, having an allocation of 122 buses in 1994 rising to around 160 in the early 2000's. The current allocation is around 140, predominantly low floor vehicles.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400
• DAF SB220LC550/Optare Delta (Trainer)
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200
• Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander Dennis Pointer 2

Plumstead

Their address is:

Pettman Crescent

LONDON

SE28 0BJ

This garage holds 162 buses, and runs London bus routes 96, 99, 122, 177, 178, 291, 380, 386, 472, 24-hour routes 53 and 453, and school routes 653 and 672.

History

Plumstead is well sited to serve the growing area of Thamesmead, and was built in 1981 to replace the existing Plumstead and Abbeywood garages and was intended to be called Thamesmead. Built to hold 185 buses at a cost of £6M, when opened in 1981 it had an allocation entirely made up of MCW Metropolitans, and by 1983 had changed entirely to Titans. PD has never quite reached it's capacity, although in 2001 it had grown to 159 and todays allocation is creeping up towards the 180 with the introduction of Mercedes Artics for route 453.

Bus types in use

• Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400
• Mercedes-Benz Citaro (Articulated)
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander ALX200
• Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2
• Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander Dennis Pointer

External links

• Stagecoach London web page
• Stagecoach PLC
• Official London Buses website