First London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
First London is one of many operators of London Buses and owned by First Group.
Their main address is:
- Macmillan House
- Paddington Station
- LONDON
- W2 1TY
Contents |
[edit] Company history
First entered bus operations in London in 1997 after acquiring First CentreWest and First Capital in 1998. More recently, the two divisions have been re-organised into one brand, "First London", split into two areas: First London West (the former CentreWest) and First London East (the former Capital area). Local identities, such as the old "First Gold Arrow" and "First Challenger" CentreWest brands have also been discarded in favour of the simpler "First" identity. First Berkshire's (the former First Beeline) operations have also been transferred to First London management.
Legally, operations are split between three registered companies. They all share the same main address.
[edit] First Capital East Ltd.
[edit] Garages
They have 2 bus garages.
[edit] Dagenham
Their address is:
- First
- Dagenham Depot
- 73 Chequers Lane
- DAGENHAM
- RM9 6QJ
This garage holds 101 buses, and runs London bus routes 150, 165, 179, 193, 252, 362, 364, 365, 462, 499, W19, and school routes 370D, 646, 649, 650, 652, 656, 679, and 686.
[edit] History
[edit] Bus types in use
- Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini (VNW)
- Dennis Dart SLF/Caetano Nimbus (DMC)
- Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital (DMS/DML)
- Dennis Trident/Plaxton President (TN/TNL)
[edit] Romford
Their address is:
- Bryant Avenue
- Harold Wood
- ROMFORD
- RM3 0HQ
[edit] History
This garage is now closed.
[edit] Bus types in use
[edit] First Capital North Ltd
[edit] Garages
They have 2 bus garages.
[edit] Hackney
Their address is:
- First Capital East Ltd
- 53 Waterden Road
- LONDON
- E15 2EE
This garage holds 129 buses, and runs London bus routes 58, 212, 308, 309, 323, 339, D6, D7, D8, RV1, S2, W11, W12, and 24-hour route 236.
[edit] History
Opened in 1996 to cope with the recent tender wins in the Stratford area on a former industrial site. In 2004 the garage received Hydrogen 'Fuel Cell' buses for evaluation on route 25. Some of the buses are parked at the rear of the staff car park on the opposite side of Waterden Road opposite Stagecoach Waterden Road garage.
[edit] Bus types in use
- Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital (DMS/DML/DM)
- Mercedes-Benz O530/Citaro (ES)
- Dennis Trident/Plaxton President (TNL)
- Optare Solo (OOS)
[edit] Northumberland Park
Their address is:
- First Capital
- Marsh Lane
- LONDON
- N17 0XB
This garage holds 125 buses, and runs London bus routes 91, 191, 215, 259, 299, 318, 357, 379, 389, 399, 476, W6, W10, school routes 616 and 699, 24-hour route 341, and Night route N91.
[edit] History
Opened in 1991 to house the Walthamstow Citybus operation, an offshoot of Capital Citybus, the operation steadily grew especially after the collapse of the London Forest company. Capital Citybus was bought out by the management team in late 1995, and subsequently by First Group in 1998 becoming First Capital.
[edit] Bus types in use
- Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital (DM)
- Dennis Trident/Plaxton President (TN/TNL)
- Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President (VNL)
[edit] First Centrewest London Buses Ltd
[edit] Garages
They have 8 bus garages.
[edit] Acton
Their address is:
- Tram Depot
- Uxbridge Road
- LONDON
- W3
This garage holds 27 buses, and runs London bus routes 427, school routes 697 and 698, and Night route N207.
[edit] History
Acton garage is still known today as Acton Tram Depot. Originally opened in 1896 as a horse tram depot, and later saw electric trams and trolleybuses before being used as a storage facility for LT's Cables division storing underground electricity cables. It was opened as a bus garage in 1990 with buses for route 207, and in 1993 together with a new site at Greenford it replaced the large Hanwell garage. In 1996 to celebrate the centenary of the garage all the allocated buses were adorned with commemorative badges. Today the garage houses 30 TNL's for route 207. The garage also handled maintenance fot the ECA (Mercedes Bendies) on route 18 whilst the garage at Willesden Junction was completed.
[edit] Bus types in use
[edit] Alperton
Their address is:
- Alperton Bus Depot
- Ealing Road
- WEMBLEY
- HA0 4LL
This garage holds 78 buses, and runs London bus routes 79, 92, 95, 223, 224, 487, 24-hour route 83, and Night routes N7 and N10.
[edit] History
One of three garages built by the LPTB, and the only one to survive, Alperton Garage opened in June 1939. When it opened it had an allocation entirely of STL's which were reshuffled from Cricklewood, Hanwell, Harrow Weald, and Willesden garages. As Alperton was a new garage and had plenty of headroom it was one of the few garages able to take utility Guy Arabs, and at one stage these made up it's complete allocation and lasted until 1954 when they were replaced by STL's! By 1972 the local area had grown faster than expected and even though Alperton was a new garage it still needed to park a dozen or so buses on nearby Glacier Metals car park overnight. The garage was enlarged in 1978, and encompassed the adjacent LT Lifts and escalators department which had to move out to new premises. During the reconstruction works 18 vehicles were outstationed at Stonebridge. in 1982 the garage allocation was entirely Metrobuses both crewed and OPO. One Metrobus still remains although this is used exclusively on the 'Neasden Tesco' contract. By 1995 Alperton was doing most of the maintenance for the Centrewest operation and had also become the home of the training fleet.
[edit] Bus types in use
- Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital (DM/DML)
- Volvo B7TL (VNE,VNL,VNW,VNZ)
[edit] Greenford
Their address is:
- Council Depot
- Greenford Road
- GREENFORD
- UB6 OEJ
This garage holds 107 buses, and runs London bus routes 282, 435, E1, E3, E5, E7, E9, E10, E11, and 24-hour route 105.
[edit] History
Greenford bus depot is part of a local council depot and was first used in 1993 as a midibus base. The opening of Greenford garage led to the closure of Hanwell, and in 1995 the garage was operating 110 midibuses. The standard fare of vehicles in the late 1990s were Renualt/Wright midibus', and Marshall minibuses but unfortunately both types had a bad reputation and did not last long. In recent years the allocation has been much diverse, ranging from Marshall bodied darts to Dennis Trident 2/Plaxton vehicles.
In late 2003 Ealing Community Transport moved into the depot with their first London route - 195 using garage code EY.
[edit] Bus types in use
- Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital (DMS/DML)
- Dennis Trident/Plaxton President (TN)
[edit] Hayes
Their address is:
- Swallowfield Way
- HAYES
- UB3 1DQ
This garage holds 25 buses, and runs London bus route 207.
[edit] History
[edit] Bus types in use
[edit] Orpington
Their address is:
- First Centre West Buses Ltd
- Faraday Way
- ORPINGTON
- BR5 3QR
This garage holds 62 buses, and runs London bus routes 273, R1, R3, R4, R6, R9 and R11. Also operated are Tramlink feeder routes T31, and T32, although their contract will be lost to Arriva London South in May 2007. Also in 2007, the contract for route 273 will be lost.
[edit] History
[edit] Bus types in use
- Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital (DMS/DML)
- Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President (VN)
[edit] Uxbridge
Their address is:
- First Group Centrewest Buses
- Uxbridge Bus Depot
- Bakers Road
- UXBRIDGE
- UB8 1RG
This garage holds 76 buses, and runs London bus routes 331, 607, A10, U1, U2, U3, U4, U5, U10, and Night route N207.
[edit] History
The Original Uxbridge Garage was over a mile out of town on the Oxford road and was built by the LGOC in 1921, but passed to Thames Valley a year later. The garage was taken back by the LGOC in 1929 to work it's new local routes which were operated mainly by single deckers. An extension was added in the late 1940s and a new garage was planned, although work didn't begin until the 1980s. The new garage came into commission in late 1983 and is situated next to the underground station occupying the lower ground floor of a multi use building. In 1989 the garage began operating the U-Line network of local routes in an initiative by London Transport. The garage also operated the busy 207 and express verion 607 from Uxbridge into Shepherds Bush. In 1995 the garage was allocated all 14 of London's first low-floor single decker, Dennis Lance SLF/Wright-bodied vehicles.
[edit] Bus types in use
- Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital (DML)
- Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer (DMP)
- Dennis Trident/Plaxton President (TN/TNL)
- Dennis Dart SLF/Caetano Nimbus (DMC)
[edit] Westbourne Park
Their address is:
- Westbourne Park Garage
- Great Western Road
- LONDON
- W9 3NW
This garage holds 192 buses, and runs London bus routes 7, 9, 10, 28, 31, 295, 328, 414, 24-hour route 23, and Night route N18, N28, and N31.
[edit] History
[edit] Bus types in use
- AEC Routemaster (RM)
- Dennis Trident/Plaxton President (TN/TNL)
- Volvo B7TL/Alexander ALX400 (VNL)
- Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400 (TNA)
[edit] Willesden Junction
Their address is:
- Station Road
- LONDON
- NW10 4UJ
This garage holds 60 buses, and runs London bus routes 18, 187, 226, PR1, and PR2.
[edit] History
[edit] Bus types in use
- Mercedes-Benz O530G Citaro Articulated (EA)
- Dennis Dart SLF/Marshall Capital (DM/DML)
[edit] See also
| Companies operating buses under contract to London Buses |
|---|
|
Armchair | Arriva London | Arriva Shires & Essex | Arriva Southern Counties | Blue Triangle CT Plus | Docklands Buses | Ealing Community Transport | East London | East Thames Buses First London | London Central | London General | Metrobus | Metroline | NCP-Challenger Quality Line | Selkent | Sullivan Buses | Thorpes | Transdev London | Travel London | Uno |
| Also, see London's Bus Garages for operating codes. |
