by Matthew Wharmby
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Two More Routes For Travel London's Walworth
Saturday 9th October 2004

Travel London are making greater use of their recently acquired garage at Walworth as of today. Two contracts that were won by Connex were taken up by its successor, in the form of one double-deck and one minibus service.

The 381 descends directly from tram route 70, which was replaced in 1951 by a bus route of the same number (it was a unique coincidence that the matching number was spare at the time!). Over time the route shifted subtly to the east; in town, the planners gradually cut back the service beyond Waterloo to Victoria, while east of Surrey Docks (or Quays, these days) the route has served all sorts of termini from Eltham, Greenwich and Lewisham to Peckham. In 1988 the route was unceremoniously demoted to 28-seat StarRider minibuses under the number P11. DRL-class Darts took over in 1991 but still couldn't cope, so the P11 was double-decked in 1995, receiving the first new buses to enter service following the sale of London Central to the Go-Ahead group. Those AV-class Volvo Olympians saw the route through a further renumbering to today's familiar 381 identity and were then rotated out of the fleet. The NVs that replaced them became the last officially rostered step-entrance double-deckers in the Go-Ahead fleet (although plenty remain in use as spares). Twenty new Wright Eclipse Gemini-bodied 10.6-metre Volvo B7TLs, identical to those used by the parent Travel West Midlands fleet but for the London-spec blinds, dual doors, plain red livery and local numbering system, are now in charge. V 3 (BX54 DHL) is seen at the end of its run, swinging into Peckham bus station (the site of the former Peckham bus garage). We were introduced to the Travel London-specification Alexander Pointer-bodied Dennis Dart SLF three weeks ago when the 100 was taken over, but the batch for the P13 are single-doored Mini Pointers, lowering the capacity a little. They are numbered to follow on from the earlier MPDs inherited from Connex and still in use on the 322, as DP 18 (BX54 DMV) demonstrates at Peckham. The P13 has been split across Peckham, passing the section to Surrey Quays to an extended P12, which remains with London Central's LDP-class Darts. The western terminus of the P13 is described as 'Streatham Bus Garage' on the extra-wide blinds, but that site has not been used by service buses since its acrimonious closure twelve years ago!