Route and Fleet History Monday 2nd April 2001 was the first weekday of town services in Crawley under the Metrobus flag. 767 M507 VJO, seen here loading in Crawley Bus Station, was hurriedly acquired from City of Oxford Motor Services and was one of several acquired for the new operation. This bus survives in preservation today. © John Chisholm Correct at 20 January 2018 Preface This book sets out to detail the history of the company’s vehicles and routes. By doing so, it is hoped to show how the company has grown and developed from its early days of a variety mix in the fleet to today’s standard batches of buses. The company has grown from one depot in Orpington to a total of eight different sites that have been used over the years. It is with no doubt that there will be gaps in the history of routes and vehicles within this booklet. If anyone who can help to fill these gaps, we would be pleased to hear from them. Please email your comments to us at [email protected]. The information has been collated from numerous sources namely London Omnibus Traction Society’s The London Bus magazine, Andrew Boag’s Metrobus – The Company’s first ten years book, Ian Armstrong’s Ian’s Bus Stop website, Gary Wood, Peter Larking and numerous staff at Metrobus whose memory of days gone by has played an important part. A number of codes and abbreviations are used throughout the book and some of these are shown below. Fleet numbers were not officially used until 1997 however, for clarity, the fleet is listed in numerical order and vehicles that were never allocated a fleet number have been marked with an asterisk. In these cases, the number in the registration plate has been used. Sites C 134 Beddington Lane, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 4TD. CY Wheatstone Close, Manor Royal, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9UA. GD Unit P Lambs Business Park, Tilburstow Hill, South Godstone, Surrey, RH9 8LJ. LR Unit 1a Lagoon Road, St. Mary Cray, Kent, BR5 3QX. MB Oak Farm, Farnborough Hill, Orpington, Kent, BR6 6DA. PH London Road, Polhill, Halstead, Kent, TN14 7AA. SC Unit 28 Cliffe Industrial Estate, South Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 6JL Y Faraday Way, St. Mary Cray, Kent, BR5 3QR. Tendering authorities B&HC Brighton & Hove Council LTB London Transport Buses ESCC East Sussex County Council LBSL London Bus Services Ltd. KCC Kent County Council SCC Surrey County Council LRT London Regional Transport WSCC West Sussex County Council Contract types LLSA London local service agreement, ie. commercial or county supported routes, with LT ticket validity within London only. LSP London service permit routes, ie. Commercial routes outside the LT System. QC 5 year Quality incentive contract, but can be extended to 7 years after good performance. TG Tendered gross cost contract. LBSL keeps the revenue and operator competes on costs. TN Tendered net cost contracts. LBSL and the operator agree a contract price, operator keeps the revenue. Bodywork layout notes B Single deck bus with bus seats. C Coach CH Double deck coach CO Converted to open top D Front entrance with a centre exit. DP Dual purpose single decker suitable for bus or coach use, but excluding buses fitted with high backed seating. F Front entrance/exit. H Highbridge double deck bus of 14’2” high or more. L Fitted with wheelchair lift LD Lowheight double deck bus of 13’10” or less. T Fitted with a toilet. Key dates in Metrobus history 24.09.83 Metrobus is born with the depot, buses and staff taken over from Tillingbourne (Metropolitan). 01.08.85 Metrobus buys its first brand new bus. A 77 seat Leyland Olympian was pressed into service on the first day of ‘C’ registrations being available. 16.08.86 Metrobus starts its first London Transport contract on Routes 61 and 361 between Bromley and Chislehurst or Green Street Green. 21.11.87 Route 261 is taken on and becomes the company’s longest running contract to date. 20.08.88 The company dips its toes into deregulated market outside London with the launch of the ‘miniMetro’ network in Gravesend. 15.05.89 Route 358 is introduced with two return journeys a day on weekdays only. It went on to be the most successful commercial route in the London area. 01.10.91 Following the retirement of the proprietor of Southlands Coaches in Bromley, the business was purchased. This included a yard in Edison Road, Bromley. 01.02.93 Jasons Coaches was purchased allowing Orpington depot to expand. 04.08.95 Company presented with ISO9001 accreditation. 02.12.95 Orpington difficulties at Kentish Bus’ Lewisham depot lead them to surrendering four routes. London Transport Buses awarded these all to Metrobus with Routes 138 and 161 passing on this date and Routes 181 and 284 on 27.01.96. ??.05.97 The company buys a 30% stake in the business of Abacus Carriage Services Ltd, trading as Leisurelink in Newhaven. 02.06.97 The company buys East Surrey Buses of South Godstone which included 23 buses, their routes, premises and staff. 13.07.97 Metrobus took over the operations of Leisurelink in their own right. Routes 12, 39 and 39B were abandoned and two days later, the depot was too with operations moving to depots of Eastbourne Buses and Stagecoach South Coast Buses depot in Eastbourne. From late July, buses were moved to the yard of Scan Truck, sharing the yard with Brighton & Hove before their moved out on 31st August. 22.08.98 The coaching operation was transferred to the former Swanley Bus Garage under the Southlands Travel name with 14 coaches. A separate operator’s licence was obtained with 20 discs. The operation worked as a franchise agreement to Metrobus. 03.09.99 Metrobus was sold to the Go-Ahead Group for over £14m, comprising of £3.7m in cash, shares of £600,000 and the assumption of £10.3m of outstanding liabilities. There was no plan to change any staff, fleet, bases or routes. 31.03.01 Arriva announced that it was to withdraw from the operations at Crawley depot, stating that the reason for the decision was a reduction of reimbursement from Crawley Borough Council for concessionary passes. Elderly people of Crawley held several sit down protests in Crawley Bus Station. Crawley Garage had a peak vehicle requirement of 40. They used 47 buses and 137 staff to maintain the services. In a meeting with councillors, a managing director from Arriva stated that the operation was not profitable enough and the company’s priority was to its shareholders, not passengers or staff. Councillors went on to allege “management incompetence” and hoped that Metrobus will be able to “get on with the job, operate high quality services and listen to what people in the town have to say, not the shareholders”. There had been no investment by Arriva from the start, with the last new buses being delivered there in 1997 by London & Country. Most vehicles had been cascaded from other fleets. Arriva had deregistered all the services that had run via Crawley and were replaced by a new network registered by Metrobus. None of the vehicles were bought by Metrobus, however the depot was. The staff being welcomed by Metrobus to join them. Arriva did register a Route 1 on Monday to Saturday between Ifield West and Maidenbower, but it never began. 21.04.01 Routes in the East Surrey area were put up for tender mainly by Surrey County Council and were mainly won by Metrobus. The exception was Route 405 that was tendered by London Buses and awarded to Connex. Arriva announced they were close Merstham Garage as a result. Routes 409, 410, 411, 420, 430, 435 and 460 (along with the evening and Sunday service on Route 100) were all awarded to Metrobus. The routes were operated from Godstone and newly acquired Crawley Garages. New buses were purchased for a proportion of the new work. 02.04.03 The first red liveried bus enters service on Route 64. 13.06.03 A planning application submitted for a new bus garage at Ullswater Crescent, Coulsdon with a capacity of around 80 buses. 26.07.03 Lewes Depot closes after end of service. Routes were passed to other operators or transferred to operate from Crawley. 19.08.03 From this date, vehicles starter receiving a revised version of red livery, with thin yellow band below front windscreen and extending around below lower deck windows. The yellow changes to blue part way along the side. 30.08.03 The company takes on its biggest intake of work to date. Metrobus was awarded Routes 130, 434, 466 with frequency increases on Routes 119 and 246. Crawley start operating Route 10 operated as Fastway. 19.04.04 A new maintenance facility opened at Lagoon Road in St. Mary Cray to service vehicles and the training school moved here with other departments. 05.03.05 Tellings-Golden Miller’s Dartford operation was acquired from this date. Their depot was not included in the deal. The routes, vehicles and staff moved to Orpington. From the same date, work started on rebuilding Orpington depot and a temporary outstation was used at Polhill whilst the work took place. Routes 64, 130, 161, 233, 353, 356, 464, 494, 620, 654, 917, 919, 931, 934, 938, 950, 962, R5 and R8 operated from there. 10.12.05 A new garage opens at 134 Beddington Lane, Croydon, initially to house the early takeover of Route 127 from Centra. It would eventually house most of the London work that ran from Godstone and the western operations of Orpington.