[LDN] Loans to Hounslow garage

Dear All, to

Transdev [former London United] placed an order for Scania double decks; 7 of them were really needed for the start of the school year, as the company won several contracts for school services [697,698 and a school bus on route 57] requiring 7 buses.

As usual, the buses were not delivered on time, so Transdev had to borrow some buses from other companies.

Last week, looking at London, there were the following loans from company to company:

Metroline:
2 plaxton bodied trident borrowed from First- TN32959/960- since the winter of 2006- at HT garage and route 4
7 darts from Blue Trinagle- the DN class made spare when Blue trinagle lost route 368 in March.

First: at X garage: 6 VPs from East Thames Buses [ those are plaxton bodied volvos B7 ]

East Thames buses: 10 PVLs from London Central/General [that's plaxton bodies volvos B7]

and Travel London: 6 plaxton bodied darts 10.1m long - for route 152.

This weekend, most of those loans ceased:

Metroline returned all of the loaned vehicles

First returned the 6 loaned VPs to East Thames buses, and East Thames buses returned 6 of their PVLs to London Central/General.

London Central/General loaned 4-6 of those buses again- this time to transdev - Hounslow garage.

The loans from Stagecoach continue.

The PVLs at Hounslow garage are almost identical to the plaxton bodies volvo B7 d/ds they already have, so the loaned buses are used on all routes.

Here is VP21 [that's the fleetname given to the bus by East Thames Buses- retained by Transdev] or PVL199 at Hounslow on route 111.

regards

Yoram

sorry, the photo was taken at Kingston!

regards

Yoram