Long-term Dart routes

[MetrolineGA1511]

I'd be interested to reflect on some long-term Dart routes.  Some with London United have been long-term, I suspect since 1991.  One of the longest I can think of is route 214.  It gained Darts upon takeover by Eastern National in August 1992, but even through MTL London and now Metroline seems destined to remain Dart operated until August 2019.  I think route W4 similarly had Darts for around 27 years, from February 1991 until the turn of 2018/19.

I do not include Enviro 200s here or even Go-Ahead SOEs, as I consider them to have Enviro 200 chassis (and Optare bodies).

It is interesting to reflect that mass production of Darts for London spanned the era 1990-2006, which was longer than Routemaster production lasted!

[redexpress]

Mar 17, 2018 21:50:19 GMT MetrolineGA1511 said:

I'd be interested to reflect on some long-term Dart routes.  Some with London United have been long-term, I suspect since 1991.  One of the longest I can think of is route 214.  It gained Darts upon takeover by Eastern National in August 1992, but even through MTL London and now Metroline seems destined to remain Dart operated until August 2019.  I think route W4 similarly had Darts for around 27 years, from February 1991 until the turn of 2018/19.

I do not include Enviro 200s here or even Go-Ahead SOEs, as I consider them to have Enviro 200 chassis (and Optare bodies).

It is interesting to reflect that mass production of Darts for London spanned the era 1990-2006, which was longer than Routemaster production lasted!

Certainly not the W4.  It was introduced with MetroRiders, which were later replaced with Merc 811Ds.  It was only converted to Dart in 1999 after highway modifications somewhere.  Prior to that you couldn't even get an 8.5m Dart round the route!  It was then converted to E200 when First took over in early 2011, so was a Dart route for less than 12 years.

The 214 is a good shout but the H22 will probably take the crown for the longest period of Dart operation.  It has been allocated Darts - including some of the very first batch delivered to London - continuously since introduction in April 1990.

[vjaska]

Other than the first year of it's existence where it used SR's, the 322 was a Dart route from 1993 until 2015 which spans 22 years and was allocated during that time DRL's under South London, Cowie & Arriva, DA's & DP's under Connex & Travel London, LDP's under London General & 80* class Darts under Abellio. Even today, it still sees LDP's practically daily under Go-Ahead London.

The P4 was a Dart route from 1991 until 2017 which spans 24 years and was allocated during that time DW's under Selkent & Stagecoach Selkent, SLD's under Stagecoach Selkent & DM's under Stagecoach London & East London Bus Group. Even today, the last three Darts left at TL still run on the P4 almost daily.

[MetrolineGA1511]

Mar 18, 2018 0:57:54 GMT redexpress said:

Mar 17, 2018 21:50:19 GMT MetrolineGA1511 said:

I'd be interested to reflect on some long-term Dart routes.  Some with London United have been long-term, I suspect since 1991.  One of the longest I can think of is route 214.  It gained Darts upon takeover by Eastern National in August 1992, but even through MTL London and now Metroline seems destined to remain Dart operated until August 2019.  I think route W4 similarly had Darts for around 27 years, from February 1991 until the turn of 2018/19.

I do not include Enviro 200s here or even Go-Ahead SOEs, as I consider them to have Enviro 200 chassis (and Optare bodies).

It is interesting to reflect that mass production of Darts for London spanned the era 1990-2006, which was longer than Routemaster production lasted!

Certainly not the W4.  It was introduced with MetroRiders, which were later replaced with Merc 811Ds.  It was only converted to Dart in 1999 after highway modifications somewhere.  Prior to that you couldn't even get an 8.5m Dart round the route!  It was then converted to E200 when First took over in early 2011, so was a Dart route for less than 12 years.

The 214 is a good shout but the H22 will probably take the crown for the longest period of Dart operation.  It has been allocated Darts - including some of the very first batch delivered to London - continuously since introduction in April 1990.

I agree that route H22 looks set to be the winner, narrowly beating route 214.  (I think route P4 has been mixed Dart / E200 for a while).  I admit that I got my history of route W4 garbled.  My reference to February 1991 was more accurate for route 184, and to route W6 losing Darts at the turn of the year.  I even rode a mini-E200 on route W4 in 2016 so had a very short memory on here.