A London United Scania N230UD 10.6m/East Lancs Olympus on route 148. |
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| Parent | RATP Group |
| Founded | Various |
| Service area | Greater London |
| Service type | Bus |
| Routes | 80 |
| Fleet | 768 buses |
| Operator | RATP Group |
| Web site | www.lonutd.co.uk |
London United is one of many operators of London Buses and is owned by the RATP Group, an international public transport operator owned by the government of France. The company's legal name is London United Busways Ltd.
London United operates 80 routes on contract to TfL and employs around 600 staff.
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London United Busways was set up as a subsidiary of London Buses in 1989. The company was a "reincarnation" of the former London United Tramways, an operator of trams and trolleybuses in west and south west London absorbed by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. The company adopted the former tram company's device, based on the coat of arms of the City of London, as its logo. Upon privatisation in 1994, it was purchased by a management buyout and renamed 'London United'.
In 1995, the company purchased Stanwell Buses Ltd (trading as 'Westlink') and took on its routes, vehicles and two garages - located in Hounslow Heath, Middlesex and Kingston upon Thames.
In 1997, the bus company was purchased by French transport group Transdev. In 2003, Transdev purchased struggling bus operator London Sovereign, part of the Blazefield Group, and adapted London Sovereign's livery and vehicles to a similar style to that of London United. The buyout came with around a dozen routes operated on contract to Transport for London (TfL) as well as two garages at Harrow and Edgware in Middlesex.
In April 2006, the company commenced a rebrand of all of its vehicles with the Transdev name and logo, effectively removing the London United and London Sovereign brands. This was completed in September the same year, although both companies continued to exist as legal entities.
In 2009, the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, the majority owner of the Transdev group, started negotiations with Veolia Environnement to merge Transdev with Veolia Transport. As part of the resulting agreement, made in May 2010, it was agreed that the RATP Group, which had a minority shareholding in Transdev, would take over ownership of some of Transdev's operations in lieu of cash payment. This had a considerable impact on Transdev's London bus operations, as it was agreed that London United would transfer to the RATP Group, whilst London Sovereign would remain with Transdev and become part of the merged Veolia Transdev group.[1][2][3]
This agreement took effect in March 2011, and the London United brand is now being reintroduced as the principal branding on the company's buses, along with a much less prominent RATP Group branding. By contrast, London Sovereign's buses retain Transdev London branding.[4]
The company has eight bus garages.
This garage holds 107 buses, and runs London bus routes 71, 110, 131, 216, 267, 371, 24-hour routes 65 and 281, and school routes, 671, 681, and 691.
Fulwell garage also operate shuttle buses to and from Twickenham Stadium on behalf of the RFU on event days.
When new, the 11-acre (45,000 m2) site was described as one of the finest plants in the country and was the main depot of London United Tramways with 20 covered tracks. The garage is nowadays divided into two sections, one used by London United, with the entrance in Wellington Road, and the other by Abellio London, who recently purchased Travel London (formerly Tellings Golden Miller), with the entrance in Stanley Road. The Abellio London side had been used by the Grundy company (manufacturers of metal school dinner trays), London Buses Sales Department (to sell off surplus London vehicles until privatisation in the late 1980s), and Kelly construction, before Tellings Golden Miller moved in. Fulwell was the first garage in London to receive trolleybuses, and together with Isleworth was the last to operate them some 31 years later. The last trams operated from the depot in 1935, although some of the tram tracks were, until recently, still visible in the cobbled surface of the Stanley Road entrance. The garage has never reached its capacity, even taking in much of the work from Twickenham (AB) when it closed in 1970, and in 2001 107 buses were allocated. In 1999 the garage housed 13 London Country buses after Arriva Croydon & N. Surrey shut its Leatherhead garage. The buses on route 85 were operated from the forecourt with Arriva drivers. The large forecourt is at present partly used as the bus stand for route 267.
On 5 September 2011, route 110 was transferred to this garage from Hounslow (AV).
On 1 October 2011, Abellio London successfully gained the contract for route 290, and are now operating it from their Fulwell (TF) garage.
This garage holds 120 buses, and runs London bus routes 9 (late and early journeys), 27 (night service only on this 24-hour route), 81, 111, 120, 203, 222, H32, H37, H98, school routes 696, 697 and Night bus N9.
Hounslow garage was opened by the London General Omnibus Company in 1913 on the former site of the District Railway's Hounslow Town station. The garage along with many others was requisitioned in the First World War. Hounslow was the subject of two firsts in 1925 and 1930 with the first pneumatic tyre buses and the original Dennis Dart allocated respectively. The garage had one problem though: the roof was too low and only open toppers and single deck vehicles could use the depot until the mid 1930s when the roof was raised. A London Transport survey in 1947 found that 92 vehicles were allocated to Hounslow, a garage with a capacity of 72. This was mainly achieved by parking buses on a plot of land behind the garage that was also used to stand vehicles terminating there on layover. The garage was rebuilt in the early 1950s and included a new bus station in front of the garage. The planned allocation was now up to 120 vehicles, although the allocation in 2002 was 127. Hounslow was one of the few garages in London not to operate DMS double deckers: its first one-person-operated double deckers did not arrive until 1982, in the shape of the M class Metrobus for routes 111 & 202. With the allocation still high, Hounslow runs a number of night services on behalf of other London United garages to enable it to fit the buses into the garage. It was also the first garage in London to operate a low-floor bus with the arrival of Dennis Lance SLF/Wright Pathfinder LLW1 direct from the Coach & Bus show.
There were plans to relocate the garage away from the town centre, and allow the expansion of the adjoining bus station. In 2005 there was an unsuccessful planning application for a site in Hanworth Road. This was largely due to a campaign by residents overlooking the site.
In late 2007 the bus station in front of the garage was closed for rebuilding. The overall roof was removed and the eight bus bays demolished. In their place have been built just two stands for routes 120 and 281. The other seven routes that previously served the bus station now stand on the garage forecourt (the old bus station) but pick up passengers in the road outside. One exception was route 81, where buses ran out of service to and from the bus stand at Isleworth Fire Station however this has since been discontinued and buses again turn around in the bus station.
This garage holds 57 buses, and runs London bus routes 116, 423, 482, H22, H91, 24-hour route 285, school routes 698.
Situated in Tamian Way, off Green Lane, Hounslow Heath was the original operating base of Stanwell Buses, a company set up by London Buses just prior to deregulation. They traded as Westlink, hence the garage code WK, and initially operated routes 116/117/203 which were all joint London/Surrey contracts. Stanwell Buses was taken over by London United in 1999 and recoded internally as HH. London Buses still use the code WK. The depot has also been extended over the former Travellers Coaches yard next door.
This garage holds 111 buses, and runs London bus routes 49, 24-hour routes 72, 94, 148, 220, and Night bus N97.
Shepherd's Bush (S) opened in 1906.
This garage holds 77 buses, and runs London bus routes 9, 27 (day time service only), 391 and 24-hour route 10.
Stamford Brook opened as a bus garage in 1980 after a 2-year project costing some £2 Million started in 1978. Originally built as Chiswick Tram depot, it had latterly been used to operate the British Airways bus service between Heathrow Airport and the West London Air Terminal in Kensington.
The original plan was to create a temporary home for the R (Riverside) buses and staff whilst that garage was re-built with a view to taking on the workload from Mortlake and Turnham Green which were to close. However this idea was changed and the garage took on the work from Turnham Green which closed and also inherited the garage code V. Following service reductions, Mortlake & Riverside closed in 1983, with some of their work moving to Stamford Brook.
Later that year Stamford Brook took on the A1 & A2 'Airbus' routes following the withdrawal of the existing British airways services from London - Heathrow Airport. These vehicles were transferred in 1994 to West Ramp (which became an outstation of V) leaving the garage with an allocation of MRL's, M's, L's and Darts.
The garage closed in 1996 and became a store for unlicensed vehicles for possible future use, and reopened in 1999 when it was reutilised to cater for increased demand in the area. In 2001 the allocation consisted entirely of Dennis Darts. When route 9 was converted from Routemaster to one person operation, it was moved from Shepherds Bush to Stamford Brook, and double deckers reappeared at the garage.
Stamford Brook ceased to operate route 283 on 28 February 2009 when it was transferred to NCP Challenger, later known as NSL Buses. The 283 is now run from sister company Transdev London Sovereign's ex-NSL Park Royal garage (see below) following the acquisition of NSL Buses by Transdev in November 2009.
Route 10 was transferred to this garage from First London on 30 January 2010.
This garage holds 100 buses, and runs London bus routes 265, K1, K2, K3, K4, 24 hour route 57 and school bus routes 613 and 665, mobility bus route 965 also the seasonal K50 - see below.
Tolworth is one of the newest London bus garages and is built on the site of a former coal yard behind Tolworth railway station.
Tolworth was originally planned in the late 1990s following the closure of Kingston Garage and the announcement that the site was to be part sold off and part converted into the new bus station. A recruitment centre was opened on Tolworth Broadway long before building work ever started.
The sale of the Kingston site was brought forward somewhat, and this appeared to catch out the operator as Tolworth Garage was not yet ready. Buses were temporarily parked in a car park in Kingston until the new 100 capacity bus garage finally opened in early 2002. In recent times the yard has been used to store Routemasters coming out of service.
Transdev held a 5-year contract (2004–2008 incl.) to operate route K50, the Kingston - Chessington World of Adventures, Christmas park & ride service. Different vehicles have been used each year, depending on what is available at the time. The service runs daily from early November to mid January each year. In 2004 this was operated by LLW-class Dennis Lances and in 2005 by single door Darts DP1 - 11. In 2006 it was mainly operated by Dennis Dart SLF/Caetano (DN) on hire from Blue Triangle. In 2007 DP's 2-11 returned to the route, with each one being named after one of Santa's Reindeer. In 2008 DPS's recently displaced from the 285 were used. Each year the buses have had vinyl adverts for the service applied to all lower panels. In 2004 they were green, turquoise in 2005 and blue in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2009 the service is once again being operated by surplus Transdev DPSs, the contract has been renewed for another 5 years. In 2010 (from 13/11/2010 to 14/01/2011), the service was operated by Dennis Dart SLF 10.8m (DP). Fleet number between DP80-DP98. In 2011 (from 12/11/2011 to 13/01/2012), the service is operated by Dennis Dart SLF 10.2m (DPS) from (AV), (TV) & (FW)garages, DPS537, DPS538, DPS542, DPS541, DPS551, DPS580, DPS583, DPS582, DPS588 & DPS654 were in use on the first day of service.
This garage can hold approximately 50 buses, and runs London bus routes 272, 283, 440, C1 and E11.
Park Royal (PK) garage was opened by NCP-Challenger on 26 May 2007, on the site of the former Metroline Garage in Atlas Road, Harlesden (HR), which had been closed in 2005.
The garage is actually located in a 3 places boundary, which are Park Royal, North Acton and Old Oak Common.
The garage was taken over by Transdev London in November 2009.
This garage is located on Twickenham Trading Estate, off Rugby Road. The garage holds approximately 45 buses, and runs London bus routes 33, 419 and 493.
Their Twickenham Garage (NC) was NCP's first garage, opened on 12 November 2005, to operate routes 33 and 419, and later the 493.
The garage was taken over by Transdev London in November 2009.
London General have successfully gained the contract for route 493 and from 31 March 2012, it will be operated from their Waterside Way (PL) garage.
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