East London (bus company)

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New Logo along with sister company Selkent

East London is a bus company that was once a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group under the names Stagecoach East London and Stagecoach London, but is now part of investment bank Macquarie Bank as part of the East London Bus Group. It principally operates services in the English capital city of London, under contract to the London Buses arm of Transport for London. Their legal name is East London Bus & Coach Company Ltd.

[edit] History

East London and Selkent were acquired by the Stagecoach Group from state-owned London Buses when its subsidiaries were privatised. Legally these companies still exist, and Stagecoach London's buses carry legal lettering for one or other of these companies.

Both the buses involved in the 7 July 2005 London Bombings and 21 July 2005 London Bombings belonged to East London.

[edit] Garages

They have seven bus garages.

[edit] Barking

Their address is:

205 Longbridge Road

BARKING

IG11 8UE

This garage holds 126 buses, and runs London bus routes 5, 15, 62, 145, 169, 287, 300, 325, 366, 387, 396, 24-hour route 369, and Night route N15.

[edit] History

Barking was opened in 1924 by the London General Omnibus Company to cater for the increased demand from the new housing estates springing up in Becontree.

Barking will be remembered by many enthusiasts as being the last garage to operate RTs on 7 April 1979. The scheduled requirement gradually dropped in the post war years and in 1992 a closure notice was served on the garage, but it wasn't implemented and by 1994 Barking had a scheduled requirement for 109 buses including Titans and Deltas.

[edit] Bus types in use

[edit] Bow

Their address is:

Fairfield Road

LONDON

E3 2QP

This garage holds 95 buses, and runs London bus routes 5, 8, 15, 158, 24-hour route 277, and Night routes N8 and N15.

[edit] History

Originally a tram depot, and later a trolleybus depot Bow was converted to motor bus operations in 1959 including the installation of large overground fuel tanks. Shortly after conversion the nearby Clay Hall garage closed with its allocation moving to BW. The garage received its first RM's in the early 1960s, some of which remained there right up until August 2004 for route 8 until the final Stagecoach RM's ran in normal service.

[edit] Bus types in use

Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400

[edit] Leyton

Their address is:

Leyton High Road

LONDON

E10 6AD

This garage holds 104 buses, and runs London bus routes 48, 55, 56, 97, 230, 24-hour route 69, and Night route N55.

[edit] History

Leyton garage was built in 1912 by London General to replace an existing garage acquired from London Metropolitan, and was in an ideal position to benefit from developing areas. During the Second World War the garage suffered bomb damage but was not rebuilt until a major renovation in 1955. The garage was the first to receive post war RT's and by 1947 78 were allocated. A further 30 were added for the trolleybus conversion program in 1959 and they lasted at the garage until 1972. Leyton was also the first garage to receive East London's new low-floor Trident/ALX400 in 1999. The current operational allocation is entirely low-floor.

[edit] Bus types in use

[edit] Romford

Their address is:

North Street

ROMFORD

RM1 1DS

This garage holds 91 buses, and runs London bus routes 5, 103, 174, 175, 247, 294, 296, 496, school routes 647 and 674, and Night route N86.

[edit] History

Romford bus garage was opened in 1953 to take the strain off of the nearby Hornchurch garage, and also to cope with the new Harold Hill Estate. Built in the post-war style of an underground station it was initially able to house 115 buses, although only 67 were allocated when opened. The allocation grew to 90 by 1958. In 1992 the garage was earmarked for closure due to the loss of routes under the new tendering procedure. The garage however remained open and by 1994 was allocated 84 buses, mainly Titans. In 2004 the allocation had dropped slightly to 76, although with a good year of tender wins in 2005 the garage is up to full capacity.

[edit] Bus types in use

[edit] Stratford

Their address is:

Unit 11

Stability Works

Waterden Road

LONDON

E15 2EE

This garage holds 147 buses, and runs London bus routes 26, 30, 86, 106, 241, 257, 276, D3, and Night routes N26 and N106.

[edit] History

Stratford garage has had some identity crises in its time. Opened by Stagecoach in 1992 that garage is a large yard on an old industrial estate. It was originally called "Bow Midibus Base" and took over the midibuses from both Bow & West Ham garages. Stratford Garage is opposite First London's Hackney depot and is described as Hackney Wick on the blinds for the 106 which terminates there. It also housed the dedicated livery and adapted buses with rooftop flashing beacon for the London City Airport Contract. One vehicle from SD was involved in the terrorism in London on 7/7/2005 and was totally destroyed, but the driver of the bus, George Psaradakis, escaped serious injury and was able to return to work a few weeks later. Stagecoach had a replacement bus handed over to them in October 2005 which was the first Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 off the production line and named "Spirit of London". East London has recently won a large amount of new work which in turn has resulted in an increased allocation for Stratford and the nearby Waterden Road Garages as their other garages at Romford and Bow are almost fully occupied. The long term future of the garages on their current site seems uncertain, as they will be in the centre of the "Olympic Village" when the Olympics comes to London in 2012.

[edit] Bus types in use

[edit] Upton Park

Their address is:

Redclyffe Road

LONDON

E6 1DS

This garage holds 109 buses, and runs London bus routes 101, 104, 115, 147, 238, 262, 330, 376, 473, and Night route N50.

[edit] History

The largest garage in the east end of London, Upton Park was opened by the LRCC in 1907 but was requisitioned for the war effort in 1915 and was not returned to use until 1919. In 1931 it was totally revamped and enlarged to create a capacity of just over 200 buses. In 1988 the garage operated the X15 "Beckton Express" using ex-Green Line RMC's. The service was a trial, and even sold newspapers to commuters on board.

[edit] Bus types in use

Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2
DAF SB220LC550/Optare Delta (Trainer)
Scania N113CRL/Wright Pathfinder (Trainer)
Dennis Trident/Alexander ALX400

[edit] Waterden Road

Their address is:

Unit 11

Stability Works

Waterden Road

LONDON

E15 2EE

This garage holds 47 buses, and runs London bus routes 15 (Heritage) and 24-hour route 25.

[edit] History

Opened in 2004 to accommodate "Bendies" on route 25. The garage has also been used to house some of the private hire fleet ousted from Romford due to space constrainst following recent tender wins. WA also gives Stagecoach a handy stabling and re-fuelling base for its Megabus services into and out of London. In November 2005 East London were awarded the contract to operate one of the 2 "heritage" routes in Central London with Routemasters.