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After eight years of
single-deckers the busy 230 is finally converting
back to double-deck operation, with three
Tridents in use today. One of them was Leyton's
swirl-less repaint 17061 (T661 KPU), which I
managed to snap today at Walthamstow Central, a
location redeveloped recently but, for the
photographer, not really improved. It very nearly didn't
happen - the brake on TfL's budget has stopped a
lot of new routes and conversions like this, but
the decision was reversed so that the Tridents
needed for the 230 would be staying at Leyton
rather than heading off to the provinces.
Probably the
only reason the 230 took single-deckers in the
first place in 1996 was because they were
low-floor - at that time, the latest fad. Being
the only direct link from Wood Green to central
Walthamstow proper (as opposed to the 123, which
skirts the town centre), the 230 can get
extremely busy. Often the old Darts would be full
to bursting by the second stop, and if you were
waiting anywhere after that, you were sunk. The
displacement of the 1996 batch of Darts by a new
batch delivered in 2001 was even less helpful for
the passenger, as the insistence on dual doors
meant fewer seats.
The 230 is a
local route of mine, so I couldn't be happier
that it's got its upper deck back!
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