A day in Ladbroke Grove (08/08/24)

It had almost been exactly a week since my trip to Earlsfield in South West London, and once again a trip was undertaken on Thursday 8th of August 2024, this time to Ladbroke Grove in North West London. 

My journey started off as usual by taking an Elizabeth Line to London Paddington, taking 30 minutes from Goodmayes. Exiting Paddington Station, I walked to the bus stop for bus route 23. The London Bus Route 23 is a route that has been altered quite a bit over the past few years, the Westbourne Park bit always stayed the same with the Central London destination always being changed around. It originally terminated at Liverpool Street, going via Marble Arch, Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Aldwych, Fleet Street, City Thameslink, St Pauls, Mansion House and Bank. In 2017, the route was cut to Aldwych no longer going to Liverpool Street. A year later, in 2018 the route was rerouted to Hammersmith, so it did not go towards Aldwych instead via the old London Bus Route 10 routing - the latter route was withdrawn. From Marble Arch, it completely misses Oxford Street, going via Hyde Park Corner, High Street Kensington and Kensington Olympia. This was a very indirect routing from Westbourne Park to Hammersmith, the train is quicker which takes no more than 10 minutes to reach.  In April 2023, the route was reverted back to Aldwych having previously terminated at Hammersmith but it goes via Hyde Park Corner instead of Oxford Circus, clearly it means that the routing was not a total success. 

The Optare Metrodecker Interior (upstairs) onboard route 23, for the previous operator Tower Transit.

London Transit RATP Group OME46013 (YJ70EVT) seen at Ladbroke Grove Station on route 23 towards Westbourne Park. I had just alighted from this bus. 
Previously OE34013 under Tower Transit.
Bus type seen in this photo: Optare Metrodecker EV (Electric bus)

My vehicle for the journey from Paddington Station to Ladbroke Grove Station, was the Optare Metrodecker EV. Now, these electric buses have been involved in some incidents; one being the Potters Bar Garage (PB) fire at Metroline, that destroyed six buses at the garage (two being Optare Metrodeckers) with the culprit vehicle being the Metrodecker EV. This occurred in May 2022. The other incident involved a Go Ahead London Metrodecker EV catching fire while operating in service on allocated route 200 (Raynes Park to Mitcham, Fair Green). This happened in January 2024, so much more recent than the previous one. So despite those happening, personally I think the Metrodecker EVs has a decent interior although, I am not sure what's with the lower decker rear window - looks like a kidney! Their acceleration is not too bad for an electric, but then again 20mph roads and the vehicles themselves are speed limited so, don't expect anything amazing! Their reputation may have been tainted, however my ride was not too bad. The Metrodecker EVs were purchased by Tower Transit during late 2020, RATP Group took over their West London operations (London Sovereign and London United) in December 2021 merging with Tower Transit, and name was called RATP Dev Transit London. Westbourne Park (X) garage is under London Transit, but the others would still retain their London Sovereign/London United operations. This batch appear to be fine though. 

Metroline London OME2677 (YJ69DFX) is seen in Muswell Hill on route 134 towards North Finchley.
Bus type seen in the photo: Optare Metrodecker EV (Electric bus)
Photo taken during: November 2021
Photo taken by: Fabio Tanniguchi

The Metroline Metrodecker EVs entered service in 2019 (the first ones for London) for route 134 (Warren Street to North Finchley), 31 were originally ordered for the route, but 3 were written off in the Potters Bar fire, so that leaves 28. They have been quite unreliable in terms of reliability and range meaning they are out of passenger service for many months. As a result, hybrid buses such as Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 3s and MCV Evosetis (both of these with the Volvo B5LH chassis) tend to work the route on a daily basis. The Metroline Metrodeckers as seen in an article (see here) are currently at the moment off the road, being repowered (as of typing) so that they can last longer while in passenger service in terms of range. This is being done by Wrightbus (bus manufacturer) calling the project NewPower, so batteries, air conditioning and other electrical stuff with electric vehicles is being replaced from what I understand. Anyway, we will wait and see what happens with that. 

London Transit RATP Group WH45406 (SK19FCL) is seen at Ladbroke Grove, Sainsburys on route 452 heading towards the bus stand. The downstairs interior for this vehicle is seen above, I took this bus for a short journey. 
Previously WH31127 under Tower Transit.
Bus type seen in the photo: Wrightbus Streetdeck HEV96 Microhybrid (Hybrid bus)

At Ladbroke Grove, I got something to eat and then took route 452 towards Ladbroke Grove Sainsburys, onboard a Wright Streetdeck. This route used to be operated by Abellio London, but passed over to Tower Transit in December 2018, later RATP Group (or known now as RATP Dev Transit) London in December 2021, although the 23 and 452 bus routes operate under the same garage (Westbourne Park). It also explains why alot of the former Tower Transit vehicles still retain the interiors, maybe they will refurbish the vehicles for their current operators - maybe not, I don't know. As it happened, I managed to ride on a Streetdeck and well, they are not the fastest vehicles around, but then again these buses are quite underpowered. Eventhough I only rode a couple stops, it explains why bus operators were not so keen on ordering the Streetdeck. The engine on this version of the Streetdeck, sounded like a washing machine on it's last spin cycle, weirdly. No idea why but it's funny to me. The 452 bus route is also allocated Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 2s, (with the Volvo B9TL chassis) which was the previous allocation when Tower Transit originally won the route. MCV Evosetis on the Volvo B5LH hybrid chassis also makes up the numbers, but I did not see one when I was out. 

London Transit RATP Group VDW41002 (BJ11DTO) is seen at Ladbroke Grove station on route 452 towards Vauxhall. 
Previously VN36108 under Tower Transit.
Bus type seen in the photo: Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 2 Volvo B9TL (Diesel bus)

View of the Grand Union Canal near Ladbroke Grove Sainsburys.

After spending a bit of time in Ladbroke Grove, I walked over to Queens Park and boarded London Bus Route 36, which starts here and ends at New Cross Gate. I would go as far as Paddington. Needless to say on the way there, we weaved in and out a bit of the roads, eventually we took a left turn staying on Harrow Road for a little while, reaching Royal Oak and another trip through the houses lead us to Paddington where I alighted. It took around 20 minutes but I can imagine it takes longer during rush hour. 

Onboard route 36 in Maida Vale.

Another Go Ahead London Bus Route 36, seen in the Paddington area on a journey towards Queens Park.

Go Ahead London EH209 (YY67UTJ) seen at Paddington Station on route 36 towards New Cross Gate, I had just alighted from this bus.
Bus type seen in this photo: Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMC Hybrid (Hybrid bus)

I got the Elizabeth Line home after that. Overall, it was a nice little outing around North West London and I am glad I got to explore different areas of London during the month of August.

Update:

Since I last wrote this post over a year ago, Route 452 has had some changes. On the 28th of February 2025, First Bus London made their return (yes First London previously operated from 1997 to 2013.) to London, taking over RATP London's West and South West London garages. Meaning that this route (as well as Route 23) is under First Bus now. Additionally the route no longer goes from Ladbroke Grove Sainsburys to Vauxhall, this was cut back to Notting Hill Gate on the 29th of November 2025, owing to lack of bus stand space at Kensal Rise. Which is where the route previously went to but, the Ladbroke Grove Sainsburys curtailment was made permanent a couple of years ago. Amazing how much can change within a short space of time!

Thank you for reading and happy riding!

South West London outing to Earlsfield (03/08/24)

Well it's very rare for me to go south of the river, but on Saturday 3rd of August 2024, that's exactly what I did. I went to Earlsfield in South West London, and this is a new area that I have not visited before so... no pressure if I get lost I guess. 

Two Class 345 Elizabeth Line services departing and arriving at Goodmayes station.
Left train: Departing on Shenfield service.
Right train: Arriving on a London Paddington service.
Taken during: August 2024

My journey began by taking the Elizabeth Line (a London Paddington train) from Goodmayes to Stratford which took 15 minutes to reach. At Stratford, I then interchanged for a Jubilee line heading towards Stanmore. The walk was a bit longer than necessary as I sat in a different carriage but no worries, I still made it. It was 20 minutes of a suffering, crowded and sweaty ride up to London Waterloo where I alighted. The weather is hot enough already being 24C, but it was the heatwave season - it certainly hasn't felt like so during the past few months. Interchanged once again onto the National Rail platforms which took 6 minutes to walk through.  

I took the Hampton Court service as you can see on the departure boards at London Waterloo.

Welcome to London Waterloo. One of many London terminals. I had to tap out to access the platforms here and as the station was in Zone 1 it added more cost. Now you may wonder why traveling around Zone 1 is expensive. Well, if you look at the tube map, all of the stations there (unless stated) operates in Zones from 1 to 6 and Zone 1 in Central London is tourist heaven; shops, theatres, landmarks etc. The further out you go from Zone 1, the cheaper it is and the times of day vary as well. So if you travel during rush hour the fares are higher compared to off-peak. It does not apply on weekends thankfully. 

Arriving at the station concourse, I paused and looked up at the departure screen and went for the Hampton Court service. Unlike main London terminals which have a few of National Rail operators, London Waterloo has only one - South Western Railway (SWR). SWR offer a range of services across; South West London, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire. It is insane to think (in my mind at least, I don't know about you) that 24 platforms at Waterloo are all served by SWR and not by other rail operators, considering how large the station is and the areas mentioned above. 

A Class 455 South Western Railway train is seen at London Waterloo on the 14:36 service to Hampton Court.
Taken during: August 2024

My train for the journey to Earlsfield was a Class 455 unit. Entering service in 1983, these trains have been the face of the suburban services across South West London for over 40 years and are starting to reach the end of their time in service. Earlier this year, SWR finally introduced the Class 701 Arterios into service on Tuesday 9th of January 2024, originally they were supposed to enter service in 2019 but a whole host of issues and delays have caused this to happen. At the moment, two are currently in service and operate on Windsor and Eton Riverside services, but will eventually expand to their suburban services and Reading lines. During the 12 minute ride, there were so many SWR services passing by in such a short time - the frequency of trains here are insane. The Class 455 offered a decent ride considering I was only going a couple of stops. As you can see above these (the Class 455s) and the Class 458s retain the South West Trains livery, which was the previous train operator until SWR took over in 2017. It wouldn't make real sense to repaint the 455s into the current SWR livery as they are leaving the fleet, however, the 458s are set to be staying which is something that I will get to later. After an hour of travelling, I finally reached Earlsfield station. 

South Western Railway Class 455 Interior

Interior map showing the train services in London and the South East. The lines highlighted in blue on the map is operated by South Western Railway, while the other lines represent other train operators.

Route map showing the suburban lines for South Western Railway.

Arrived at Earlsfield station which is in Zone 3 of the Tube Map.

Earlsfield seemed like a posh suburban area that contained your shops, restaurants and housing. Basically, typical stuff that you see when you go around suburbs in London. Some are obviously not as posh as other areas in London, but every suburb and town have their own thing going I guess. 

Earlsfield Station entrance.

Earlsfield (High Street), basically.

Go Ahead London WSD19 (SN19XZO) is seen in Earlsfield on route 44 towards Tooting Station.
Bus type seen: Wrightbus Streetdeck
Taken during: August 2024

An airplane seen in Earlsfield heading to Heathrow Airport.

Once I was done in Earlsfield, I made my way back to the station. I boarded route 77 to take me there which didn't take too long. Returning to London Waterloo, I managed to ride a Class 458. Now as I have mentioned, these trains do indeed have a future and are to be redeployed on the long distance services. Currently they are being refurbished and are being reduced from 5 to 4 car, so that they can fit more carriages and accommodate more capacity. The plan originally was for them to be used on the long-distance services from London Waterloo and Portsmouth Harbour, but due to the way people travel nowadays thanks to the pandemic, travelling has changed so SWR have taken the decision to deploy them on their suburban network, while they introduce their full fleet of Class 701 Arterios into service. 

Go Ahead London EH297 (YX18KXK) is seen in Earlsfield on route 77 towards Tooting Station.
Bus type seen: Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 Hybrid MMC
Taken during: August 2024

South Western Railway Class 458 Interior. 

A Class 458 Juniper is seen at London Waterloo having dropped me off from Earlsfield. It then went to do a London Waterloo circular service via Strawberry Hill.
Taken during: August 2024 

  

My outing came to an end and I got a Jubilee and Elizabeth Lines back home, being unsurprisingly busy for a Saturday evening. I am not entirely sure why it has taken me this long to travel on South Western Railway, then again I did not have any purpose for using them as I do not go South of the River Thames that much nowadays. It was nice to experience it though. 

January 2026 update

I wrote this post around September 2024, a month after this trip and since then things have changed. A farewell tour took place for the Class 455 trains on Sunday 21st of December 2025. As it stands, six of them have been retained until March, as the Class 701s continue to enter service. The rest have gone to be scrapped. It's an end of era for the Class 455s for the suburban network around London (and onwards to Woking and Reading at times.) Still, I am glad I managed to get a ride (even if it was just once) before they retired.  

Thank you for reading and happy riding!

A Class 455 is seen at Guildford station on the farewell tour organised by the Branch Line Society. 
The replacement, Class 701 can be seen opposite. Old vs New. 
Photo taken during: December 2025
Photo taken by: Thomas Robinson

Class 455 1983 - 2025.

London Bus Route 86 - the conversion to electric buses

During the Summer of 2024, London Bus Route 86 made the full conversion to electric buses. They were about a year late entering service, today we are going to review them on the route. This is the second change I covered after route 396.

Stagecoach London 19822 (LX11BKV) is seen near Goodmayes Retail Park on route 86 heading towards Stratford.
Bus type seen: Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 (diesel bus)
Photo taken during: July 2022

The London Bus Route 86 runs from Romford Station to Stratford. It goes via Chadwell Heath, Goodmayes, Seven Kings, Ilford, Manor Park and Forest Gate. The route was first introduced on the 19th of August 1956, but I won't go too into depth about the history as I have covered that in a previous blog. You can view it here. The allocation for the last 7 years since it was last retained in 2016, were Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s from 2011 (11-reg) - originally new and allocated to the London Bus Route 53. These were worked by (2015/16) Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMCs from routes 294 and 498. The route operates out of Romford (NS) bus garage and run by Stagecoach London.

Stagecoach London 10301 (WLT 526) is seen in Chadwell Heath on route 86 heading towards Romford Station.
Bus type seen: Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMC (diesel bus)
Photo taken during: October 2021 

At the time during Autumn 2022, routes 199 (Canada Water to Bellingham, Catford Bus Garage) and 86 were both being announced for their tender award. Those two routes of course Stagecoach retained. The award did specify new electric buses, but at the time it was unconfirmed - later found out to be Wrightbus Streetdeck Electroliners. This would be at the time their first batch of Electroliners, usually Stagecoach go for Alexander Dennis, so it does bring a change of bus model. However, they have ordered from Wrightbus before in 2014, with this being the Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 3 for route 53. The Electroliners for routes 199 and 86 would be ordered as part of one big batch, these being fleet coded (82001-82048). Route 86 would take the later batch (82015-82048), the earlier batch (82001-82014) would be for route 199 meanwhile. 

The buses for route 86 were supposed to enter service during July 2023. Unsurprisingly, this batch for the route faced a massive delay due to Romford (NS) garage, doing electrification and infrastructure works, as it was the first time electric buses were being introduced to that garage, this being new technology after all. Many months passed by and two entered service during January 2024. By June 2024, the route converted fully to electrics, it was a very, very, slow process as the buses arrived in Summer 2023 and were stored at Lea Interchange (LI) garage. Having said that, the route has since received a partial allocation at Lea Interchange (LI) to accommodate them all (as of 2024).

Stagecoach London 82022 (LV73FFJ) is seen in Goodmayes on route 86 towards Stratford.
Bus type seen: Wrightbus Streetdeck Electroliner (electric bus)
Photo taken during: July 2024

These Electroliners are part of TFL's new specification, that they have been running on new buses that have entered service since late 2021. The spec includes high backed seats, wood effect flooring (that is laminated), a new iBus display and USB chargers. The blinds also are also supposed to be LED displays however, the 86 and 199s batch did not come with those for some reason. Just normal blinds. I am not complaining though, those are easier to photograph. The mirrors have been mirrorless as standard on new buses since 2019 so not part of this spec. Nothing new. Basically you see the cameras of the view outside of both sides inside the drivers cab without having to adjust them. 

During the month of October, I took a ride on one. It had been quite a few months since they had entered service so I thought; "Might as well go on it". I happened to be at Stratford coming from the station (it was a Sunday afternoon if you were wondering) and rather frustratingly in my case the Elizabeth Line wasn't working east of Stratford up to Shenfield. What else could I do? After waiting patiently, one of the Wrightbus Electroliners appeared and I went upstairs to take my seat. Leaving Stratford Bus Station, it did not take long for the bus to be completely full, passengers were standing on the upper and lower decks. Let me tell you something, okay. Whenever there is engineering works on the Great Eastern Main Line and it involves the Elizabeth Line, travelling becomes a headache. You have to leave an extra hour or two, because there are rail replacement bus services and their frequency is not that good. Frustration. Ahhh. 

As for the ride, well, most of the time we spent ourselves being stuck in traffic on Romford Road, so between Stratford and Ilford the journey felt at times like a standstill, but not completely - if you know what I mean. After Ilford, the bus eventually quieted down between Seven Kings and Goodmayes. Also on this ride, we had to regulate twice (it's been a while since that's happened to me, usually it's only once...) at bus stops due to us catching up to another 86 bus. Because of that the journey took 50 minutes, well, almost an hour, as I alighted in Goodmayes. The ride certainly wasn't anything interesting for sure. At least there was a high backed seat! 

Upstairs iBus display.

Downstairs iBus display.

Upstairs and downstairs there is an updated iBus display. Notably on the lower deck the iBus display has been placed on the left, as opposed to it being on the right side behind the staircase. It is small like a square shape, so if there are long bus stop names it will certainly be a tight fit. The time of day is displayed underneath.

The interior from upstairs, notice there are grab handles instead of the poles which can be seen near the front of the bus.

Upstairs facing back, only four rear seats at the back compared to previously being five.

Downstairs interior facing forward.

Downstairs facing back, with the removal of the rear seat.

Notably the interior has changed with these buses, Stagecoach moving away from it's blue interior (it's called Beachball, but I have always thought they looked like Pac-Man!) This is an example. It's been around before on Arriva's and CT Plus ADL (Alexander Dennis) Enviro 400 City Hybrids, so the moquette is nothing new. Something that has pretty much been the norm for the last couple years now, is the removal of the middle rear seat. I assume it's to discourage people from sleeping across all five seats, which can happen if you have travelled on a night bus or later in the day. Downstairs there is no rear window, presumably due to the electric stuff that is making the bus operate. The staircases also light up too. 

USB charging ports and stop bells behind each seat.

Downstairs at the back. If you sit at on the left or right hand side, you get two charging ports.

Even at the front!

The seats are comfortable actually. Did I mention these were high backed seats? I feel like the seat being high backed, gives you more privacy compared to the other ones, not that I am bothered about that. Stop bells are at EVERY seat. Yes. EVERY seat. Shaped like a little circle too, a simple push of the button forward, great that it has been implemented. This is only upstairs though. Downstairs get the normal stop buttons on the poles like before. Hey, look at least you have USB charging ports. Speaking of them, they are everywhere! We live in a digital era where access to information and entertainment is important, but also charging our devices too! They can save us when we are in a pickle - that said will they be faster than the chargers we use today? Probably not. Still better than nothing, you have the option and at the front on the upper deck!

Rear iBus display seen here, I could actually see myself in the mirror and through the iBus so I had to blur them!

Finally, there's the rear iBus display for wheelchair users to view as they face the opposite way of travel. These are of lower quality and are not correctly centred together. Probably might bug you and if there are longer bus stops/destinations then they get cut off. Maybe this will get addressed in a future software update or something - at the moment nothing has been said when I published this blog.

All of the buses have been delivered, like I said at the beginning of the post and they have since been straying onto route 247 (Romford Station to Barkingside), which is destined to get their own batch of Wright Electroliners soon. (Update: As of publish on the 30th of August 2025, this batch has since made their entry into passenger service fleet coded 82099-117.)

Stagecoach London 82044 (LV73FGK) is seen on stand at Romford awaiting a journey towards Barkingside. This is one of the batch ordered for route 86.
Taken during: October 2024
Bus type seen: Wrightbus Streetdeck Electroliner (electric bus)
Photo taken by: Fabio Tanniguchi.

Current allocation:

82015 - LV73FFA 82033 - LV73FFW
82016 - LV73FFB 82034 - LV73FFX
82017 - LV73FFC 82035 - LV73FFY
82018 - LV73FFD 82036 - LV73FFX
82019 - LV73FFE 82037 - LV73FGA
82020 - LV73FFG 82038 - LV73FGC
82021 - LV73FFH 82039 - LV73FGD
82022 - LV73FFJ 82040 - LV73FGE
82023 - LV73FFK 82041 - LV73FGF
82024 - LV73FFL 82042 - LV73FGG
82025 - LV73FFM 82043 - LV73FGJ
82026 - LV73FFN 82044 - LV73FGK
82027 - LV73FFO 82045 - LV73FGM
82028 - LV73FFP 82046 - LV73FGN
82029 - LV73FFR 82047 - LV73FGO
82030 - LV73FFS 82048 - LV73FGP
82031 - LV73FFT
82032 - LV73FFU

Stagecoach London 82051 (LV24EUY) is seen at Goodmayes Tesco on route 86 towards Stratford. Note the updated front and LED blind.
Taken during: August 2024
Bus type seen: Wrightbus Streetdeck Electroliner (electric bus)

Stagecoach London 82051 (LV24EUY) is seen on a different day at Goodmayes Tesco on route 86 towards Stratford. Rear destinations at the back as you can see!
Taken during: September 2024
Bus type seen: Wrightbus Streetdeck Electroliner (electric bus)

As you can see above, a newer batch of Electroliners entered service at North Street (NS) garage, mainly for route 86 and 247 at times too. Fleet coded (82049-82064) they were actually ordered for route 242 (Homerton Hospital to Aldgate) which was won in February 2024 from Arriva London. The charging infrastructure has not been set up at Ash Grove (HK) garage yet, meaning they have had to use other temporary buses existing in their fleet. These "temporary buses" being Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMC "smart hybrids" (Nothing too different about them just normal diesel Enviro 400 MMCs basically, but uses a small hybrid motor). They entered service during the summer and some operate on route 199 over in South London too. The updated front is part of the newer facelift (like how cars get updates to their models for example) for the model going forward, but this is part of the TFL Bus Safety Standard. These have LED blinds, that show the destination at the rear and a see through sky light on the roof. Of course, it is only temporary and not for the long term!

The previous Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s that were allocated to route 86, have transferred south of the river over to Plumstead (PD) garage and work routes 96, 422 and also 472. These replaced the last of Scania Omnicity Double Deckers that were in operation for London. Some have made their way to Rainham (RM) garage for route 165, which is temporarily using double deckers - it's usually a single decker route! I wish Stagecoach all the best for the next 7 years. 

Update: This post was written around April 2025, but I can confirm that as of typing on the 30th of August 2025, Route 242 has started to receive their intended Electroliners, while Route 247 has converted fully with them. 

Thank you for reading for this post, take care and happy riding!