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Today there was a bit of a
switch-around between three routes in south
London. The 322 began a new contract with London
General after five years with the Beddington
Cross garage of what was then Connex but is now
Travel London. Under the ill-fated Connex it had
gained an unfortunate reputation as the most
unreliable bus route in London, principally
because of having to negotiate the tortuously
narrow and parked car-bedevilled Railton Road in
Brixton. The 322 started in 1992 as a
minibussing of the 2, which had dwindled from a
major trunk route to a weekdays-only service that
suffered cut after cut. As a minibus service,
first with SRs and then with DRLs prior to its
loss to Connex, it expanded again at either end
with projections over unserved roads to Crystal
Palace and then beyond Vauxhall via Kennington
Lane to the Elephant. With these extra roles to
fulfil it had been suffering enough to attract
abuse from the papers; thus from today it was
diverted away from Brixton to take on the 355's
Landor Road stretch as far as Clapham Common,
allowing the 355 to be re-routed between Clapham
South and Brixton via Kings Avenue in Clapham.
The Elephant section was adopted by an extension
of the 196 north of Brixton, allowing this much
cut-down route a bigger role than of late (but
unfortunately forcing a cut in frequency to the 3
to supply the buses needed).
On the 322 Mini
Pointer Darts replaced Mini Pointer Darts with
just the livery and name change, but
interestingly the wide format number blinds have
been adopted by this batch of London General
vehicles, of which Stockwell's LDP 270 (LX05 EYY) is seen at
Clapham Common, Old Town.
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