please empty your brain below
I grew up in Goodmayes and the Hawbush was my local. I was sorry to see it go, especially as there were relatively few other pubs as the area was developed when the temperance movement was in vogue. Used to play football in Barley Lane Park with Paul Ince. He could kick a ball.

AndyV | 18.02.17 - 7:29 a.m. | #

The pub that lies as rubble with the withered buddleia was actually demolished due to being torched as part of the London riots - http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news

Rob Healy | 18.02.17 - 9:29 a.m. | #

I remember maps around the millennium showing East London Transit as a potential tram and the guided busways of Greenwich for the Dome. Both ended up as conventional bus networks...

| 18.02.17 - 9:33 a.m. | #

The B1 number - predecessor to the 387 - has had a varied past: first as a Bromley to Kidbrooke minibus route, then its Barking incarnation, and lastly as a short lived Sundays only route in Shoreditch

timbo | 18.02.17 - 9:40 a.m. | #

Incidentally, the EL1 & EL2 are also due to have Borismasters phased in from today. The buses are supposed to have East London Transit branding (similar to that on existing buses) but that has yet to happen.

Lastly, it seems there is an anomaly with the vehicle registration numbers. All 'LT' class vehicles have Northern Irish registrations which match the fleet number (apart from on Stagecoach operated buses as they have different fleet numbers) so LT150 would be LTZ1150 for example.
It's worked like that until now. Now, for some strange reason, LT905 is registered as LTZ2105. This appears to be the same for all later vehicles. I'm not sure why.

Rob Healy | 18.02.17 - 9:50 a.m. | #

So much for the mayor's' promise of no more Boris buses (although he did not say it quite like that). Other promises: fares frozen & etc already broken as well.
Got the job on fake soundbite promises.

dg writes: the vehicles were ordered last February by the previous Mayor

scrumpy | 18.02.17 - 10:18 a.m. | #

For me the number 387 conjures up memories of a short route in Tring operated by the only XMB-type Merlin in the LT Country Area: http://ccmv.aecsouthall.co.uk/p666859863/h60acc204#h60acc204

DavidB | 18.02.17 - 10:29 a.m. | #

More Borismasters. I love 'em.

Boxer | 18.02.17 - 10:35 a.m. | #

What a lot of technical bus observations in the comments!

I would just like to mention that "queueing to cross the busy A13" is not quite what it sounds like. The A13 is crossed by a bridge, which of itself causes no queues whatever. But the associated junction bits, crossing traffic some of which is entering or leaving the A13, and doing other tangled things, do indeed cause plenty of queues.

Malcolm | 18.02.17 - 10:38 a.m. | #

As I stood at a bus stop yesterday, balefully eyeing the bus I had just missed a few feet away, which I could easily have still hopped on had it been a routemaster, it made me think of how I can't remember when I last saw a Borismaster with its rear doors left open.
Blooming things, full of false hope and expectations!

Cornish Cockney | 18.02.17 - 11:17 a.m. | #

Interesting that the buses that were once seen as the future for central London are now being forced on the sticks where they can probably do less harm.

ap | 18.02.17 - 11:27 a.m. | #

The previous Mayor ordered a further 195 Boris buses shortly before leaving office (even though there was no economic case) to make the numbers up to 1000, this gave TfL rights to design - although what exactly that's worth is debatable.

The EL1/2/3 make an ideal dumping ground for some of the unwanted buses, the existing buses from the EL1/2 don't go far - being earmarked for the 101 which Go-Ahead takeover from Stagecoach in March.

As to doors being open on Boris buses, this stopped in September when the 'customer assistants' were withdrawn, they were only on a handful of routes in the first place, I think the 24 was the only route to have them all day, the 9, 10, 11, 38 and 390 only had them part of the week or for part of the route only - and this could be a bit and miss depending on staff availability, especially as vacancies weren't filled as staff left, because the position was being scrapped.

Still anon | 18.02.17 - 11:50 a.m. | #

@Rob Healy
That is strange. It appears from lists on line that the registration numbers jump straight from LTZ 1900 to LTZ 2101. Perhaps the missing numbers have particular value in the vanity plate market?

At one time the short NBFL prototype was to have had fleet number ST2001 (registration LTZ 2001), but it entered service on route 91 as ST812 (LTZ 1812)

@scrumpy
Mr Khan was reported in some circles as saying he was actually going to scrap the Borisbuses, as his predecessor had done to the bendybuses. However, BoJo had thought of that, and made TfL actually owns them, (rather than the operators owning them, as is usual), so scrapping would be prohibitively expensive.
No Mr Khan is simply not going to place any new orders, and seems to be keen to hide the newest ones away from central London, so that his electric buses can be introduced more quickly.

timbo | 18.02.17 - 6:04 p.m. | #

A couple of years the BBC Two documentary on Transport for London showed Boris visiting the factory in Northern Ireland. As he walked in he was caught on camera praising the health and safety. A couple of minutes later he was filmed addressing the workers talking about how he'd got rid of the health and safety brigade by restoring the open platform. (Of course he didn't go on to mention that the open platform would only apply to some routes and would necessitate a crew member standing there but not checking tickets or taking fares in those pre-cashless days.)

| 18.02.17 - 6:42 p.m. | #

Timbo

It's more likely to have been the other way round, having been dumped with loads of bendybuses with limited alternative customers after Boris replaced them, the leasing and bus companies wouldn't touch the London specific Boris buses with a barge pole (or quoting sky high prices to finance them), forcing TfL to own them.

Still anon | 18.02.17 - 7:25 p.m. | #

I have no interest in ever taking the EL3, but your descriptive writing almost makes it an imperative.

Almost.....

Thank you for more marvellous stuff.

Chris | 18.02.17 - 11:09 p.m. | #

Yay - you were in my area of Goodmayes! Thanks for this article. I have not had the time to check the TfL website for the bus service changes and I haven't commuted by bus for a few years, so I would have been shocked to find it missing for a casual journey.

| 19.02.17 - 12:11 a.m. | #

Please,DG,can you explain why eight of the above comments are written in red? Is there some signifigance,that I have missed? Or is it specially used for Red Bus nerds?
These comments are a little tricky to read against a grey background,even with my brand new bins.🤓

Jo W | 19.02.17 - 9:47 a.m. | #

@Jo W

Interesting. I can read the red ones. I was struggling with the yellow ones for the Circle Line (17/2). I could tell from the context and the colour of the word, but if it had been more than one word I'd have struggled. I can do most of the Ishihara tests, but not all.

Lorenzo | 19.02.17 - 10:45 a.m. | #

Hi Jo and Lorenzo

The red comments are all those about New Routemasters, a throwaway line in the last sentence of the post (and much more relevant to Sunday's post, as it turned out).

I've used colour here, like I sometimes do, because there are two intermingled threads in the comments, one more relevant to the original post, and one more off at a tangent. This hopefully makes each easier to follow.

But I have just changed the colour from 'red' to 'London Buses red', which should make them easier to read!

diamond geezer | Homepage | 19.02.17 - 11:00 a.m. | #

Thank you DG,for changing the shade of bus red from vermilion to crimson. Much gentler on this old gal's eyes. 😉

Jo W | 19.02.17 - 11:29 a.m. | #

Ah, the good old 238, as was. From 1970 - 1974 I taught at Redbridge Technical College which is to the south (right) of the green shown in the second photograph. A very useful bus route for as I worked at one end of the route and lived in E15 at the other end.
Hawbush was popular too.

GB

GB | 20.02.17 - 10:36 p.m. | #











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