London General

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London General is both a modern bus operating company and, as the London General Omnibus Company or LGOC, a very significant name in the history of transport of London, England. It is now owned by the Go-Ahead Group and operates buses under contract to London Buses.

Their main address is:

No 18 High Street
Merton
London
SW19 1DN

The company has recently moved to this address which is next door to Merton Bus Garage. It has recently been converted from a public house.

Contents

[edit] Company history

The London General Omnibus Company was founded in 1855 to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn omnibus services then operating in London. The company began producing motor omnibuses for its own use in 1910 at works in Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, London.

In 1912 the Underground Group, which at that time owned most of the London Underground, bought the LGOC. The bus manufacturing elements went on to become the Associated Equipment Company, more commonly known by its initials AEC, whilst the bus operating elements continued to use the name London General.

In 1933 the LGOC, along with the rest of the Underground Group, became part of the new London Passenger Transport Board. The name London General fell into disuse, and London Transport instead became synonymous with the red London bus.

In the run up to the privatisation of the UK bus industry in the 1980s, London Transport created a series of shadow bus operating companies with names of geographic or historic significance, and one of these was christened London General. The new London General was initially privatised by management buy-out, and acquired by the Go-Ahead Group in 1996.

[edit] Garages

They have five bus garages.

[edit] Merton

Their address is:

High Street
Merton
London
SW19 1DN

This garage holds 133 buses, and runs London bus routes 22, 44, 77, 118, 155, 163, 164, 200, 219, 270, 280, 355, 655, and LSP route 668.

[edit] History

Merton was for many years the largest of the LGOC's garages, and in 1935 had an allocation of 222 STLs. By 1950, it had an allocation of all of the first 181 Utility Daimlers (classed as D's), putting out 50 each day on route 88 (as well as the allocation from Hammersmith) with the last Daimler leaving in 1953. Merton Garage was modernised in 1960, but the parking area was still long and narrow, and the garage was further modernised in 1991 when a new roof was fitted and various stores and welfare areas moved to provide a large, unobstructed, parking area. Some buses were parked at a yard in Colliers Wood during the rebuilding project. Over recent years, the allocation total has fluctuated between 83 and 134, never really coming close to its capacity. Merton was also responsible for the maintenance of vehicles for route 200 after the withdrawal of Cityrama, whilst Sutton operated the route. Buses were based in a yard in nearby Colliers Wood. The garage in still used by London General and has recently become the Go Ahead London company's head office, following the sale of Raleigh House (Mitcham) and the acquisition of the former pub next door.

[edit] Bus types in use

[edit] Putney

Their address is:

Chelverton Road
Putney
London
SW15 1RN

This garage holds 108 buses, and runs London bus routes 22, 39, 74, 424, 430, 24-hour routes 14 and 85, and Night routes N22 and N74.

[edit] History

With its ancestry going back to the horse bus days of the 1880s, Chelverton Road Garage was converted to a motor-bus garage in 1912. The garage is well hidden in a side road with a modest frontage, yet it has an allocation of 112. It has been modernised twice, firstly in 1935 and then again in 1985. The garage was well known for being allocated the pre-war RTs in 1940 which displaced the STLs. During the war the garage was underutilised and was used to store de-licensed buses. Re-named to Putney in 1963 after the closure of Putney Bridge garage(FB) it started to receive RMs and later RMLs for its central London routes. The RMLs remained at the garages until July 2005 when both the 14 and 22 were converted to Low Floor OPO buses.

[edit] Bus types in use

[edit] Stockwell

Their address is:

Binfield Road
Stockwell
London
SW4 6ST

This garage holds 161 buses, and runs London bus routes 11, 87, 133, 170, 196, 239, 315, 322, 333, 670, 24-hour routes 88 and 345, and Night route N11, N44, N87, and N133.

[edit] History

Opened in 1952 after nearly 4 years of planning and building with many materials short of supply and problems re-housing residents of the houses that stood on the site. Stockwell garage is a listed building, and when built was a masterpiece of architecural design incorporating a new roof structure that did not need supports which enabled for a 73,350 square foot unobstructed parking space. The offices and workshops are on the edges of the garage but do not take up any of the parking space. In the first few days of operation the garage ran just 11 buses on route 178 which had moved from Rye Lane (Peckham), but then gained more work from the next stage of the tram replacement program for which it had been designed for, but it was still well short of capacity. More work arrived in late 1953 and early 1954 when routes 77 and 77A moved from Victoria garage due to recruitment problems, and the closure of Nunhead which increased the PVR to 110 buses. In the early 1970s the Round London Sightseeing Tours moved to Stockwell. In 1984 Stockwell was chosen to conduct comparative testing on route 170, consisting of MCW Metrobuses, Leyland Titans, Leyland Olympians, Dennis Dominators, and Volvo Ailsas. The allocation steadied at around 120 for many years, but has increased in the last few years, parcially due to taking back full control of route 11 from RA.

[edit] Bus types in use

[edit] Sutton

Their address is:

Bushey Road
Sutton
SM1 1QJ

This garage holds 79 buses, and runs London bus routes 80, 151, 154, 163, 164, 213, and 413, 24-hour route 93, and Night routes N155 and N213. They also run LSP routes 820 and 866.

[edit] History

Opened by the LGOC in January 1924 at cost of £30,000, Sutton bus garage had a capacity for 100 buses. During its early years, less that half of the garage was put to use, holding only 40 buses by 1926. This would change somewhat by the extension of the Underground to Morden and major house-building projects in the area. Between 1945 and 1953, it had an allocation of exactly 100 Utility Daimlers (classed as D's). By 1952, the garage had a PVR of 128, achieved mainly by parking buses in surrounding streets. However this would soon fall again, to 100 in 1966, 82 in 1976 and 62 in 1987. The garage was passed over to the re-born ‘London General’ bus company in the run-up to privatization in 1985. Sutton Garage also partly took control of route 200 at a yard in Colliers Wood (AA) in 1989, after Cityrama withdrew from their contract. Sutton was responsible for providing drivers for the service, whilst Merton Garage were contracted to do the maintenance. By 1994, the garage PVR had grown to 85 and again to 92 in 2001, including 10 buses subcontracted to Surrey County Council.

Sutton also helped when Carshalton closed in 1964.

[edit] Bus types in use

[edit] Waterloo

Their address is:

Cornwall Road
Waterloo
London
SE1 8TE

This garage holds 36 Mercedes-Benz Citaro articulated buses for use on Red Arrow buses 507 and 521.

[edit] History

It opened as a bus garage in the early 1980s.

It was a Red Arrow garage and had the 11's as RML in 1990s.

[edit] Bus types in use

[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.

[edit] External links

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