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Nearly seventeen years ago, the
last service bus ran out of Wandsworth and the
garage was closed. Not long later it was taken
over by London Coaches when the successful
Original London Sightseeing Tour outgrew its
Battersea base, and in the fullness of time the
lot passed to Arriva. But today 'WD' began
operating stage buses once again with the win by
the unit of route 337 (Richmond-Clapham
Junction). For the next few weeks new VDL
Bus (ex-DAF) DB250RS(LF)s are in charge, but only
until the 337's intended VLA-class Volvo B7TLs
are delivered. The DWs will then move to Brixton
for the OPO conversion of the 137. To that end,
the buses are carrying Arriva London South legal
lettering but also Original London Sightseeing
Tour operating discs. I'm sure there should be
some sort of 'On Hire To' device displayed here,
but the public didn't seem to mind, with some
positive comment made by a couple of regular
passengers.
A departure
from common practice is the use of running
letters rather than numbers, with A-K in evidence
for the runout of twelve buses. Brand new DW 63 (LJ04 LDD), seen having
arrived at Richmond, is working letter E.
However, some sort of duty numbers are also
displayed in the windscreen, similar to those
used on the OLST's large fleet of Metrobuses and
Metroliners.
Wandsworth
never actually had an operation on the old 37,
from which the current 337 derives, despite being
closer to the line of route than Stockwell.
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