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Post by capitalomnibus on Nov 22, 2021 17:09:53 GMT
Today 22 November marks 30 years (seems like yesterday ) since the last day of Walthamstow garage [WW], as it run its last services in 1991. This also ended the London Forest subsidiary which was Walthamstow, Leyton, Clapton and Ash Grove garages. The last week was a strange one, as it produced odd workings on the W11 and W12 with MRL Metroriders being the long wheelbase version as they were always strictly MR. I also remember the Routemaster running on the 97 for the last day into the evening. So routes 97, 158, 212, W11, W12, W15 stayed until this last day. The sad thing about this, that it took years in some areas to see red buses operating again. Places like Woodford, Chingford got eradicated of red buses and traditional LT garages operating in the area. It was also Ash Grove's [AG] last day operating. With the 6, 30, 35, 106, 253 surviving until the end of the evening there with the next day closure.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2021 14:21:29 GMT
Today 22 November marks 30 years (seems like yesterday ) since the last day of Walthamstow garage [WW], as it run its last services in 1991. This also ended the London Forest subsidiary which was Walthamstow, Leyton, Clapton and Ash Grove garages. The last week was a strange one, as it produced odd workings on the W11 and W12 with MRL Metroriders being the long wheelbase version as they were always strictly MR. I also remember the Routemaster running on the 97 for the last day into the evening. So routes 97, 158, 212, W11, W12, W15 stayed until this last day. The sad thing about this, that it took years in some areas to see red buses operating again. Places like Woodford, Chingford got eradicated of red buses and traditional LT garages operating in the area. It was also Ash Grove's [AG] last day operating. With the 6, 30, 35, 106, 253 surviving until the end of the evening there with the next day closure.It was an interesting time. I never really travelled over that way at the time. But seeing how Kingston , Sutton & Bexleyheath all got placed in the ‘low cost’ arena was a eye opener and was a great shock to see the red buses disappear.
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Post by capitalomnibus on Nov 24, 2021 22:46:51 GMT
Today 22 November marks 30 years (seems like yesterday ) since the last day of Walthamstow garage [WW], as it run its last services in 1991. This also ended the London Forest subsidiary which was Walthamstow, Leyton, Clapton and Ash Grove garages. The last week was a strange one, as it produced odd workings on the W11 and W12 with MRL Metroriders being the long wheelbase version as they were always strictly MR. I also remember the Routemaster running on the 97 for the last day into the evening. So routes 97, 158, 212, W11, W12, W15 stayed until this last day. The sad thing about this, that it took years in some areas to see red buses operating again. Places like Woodford, Chingford got eradicated of red buses and traditional LT garages operating in the area. It was also Ash Grove's [AG] last day operating. With the 6, 30, 35, 106, 253 surviving until the end of the evening there with the next day closure.It was an interesting time. I never really travelled over that way at the time. But seeing how Kingston , Sutton & Bexleyheath all got placed in the ‘low cost’ arena was a eye opener and was a great shock to see the red buses disappear. It was a shame, I remember the strike and trying to get to school on the skeleton services and walking around 1 mile for the rest of it. The drivers were at the garages and also at Walthamstow Central picketing. LT were also part to blame by then putting so many routes out to tender at once, after this they did not offer en mass literally a garage loads of work. [T] was the garage earmarked initially for closure and a wage cut or extended working week for the same money. It was a very brutal proposal. It seemed as though they were trying to scale [T] down before by moving the 38 out to [CT] the changing of Lea Bridge Rd routes and when the 236 was split, none of it or the W15 went to [T] same goes for the 235 split to W13 & W16.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Nov 27, 2021 17:07:14 GMT
There have been 3 occasions with big shocks in the Walthamstow area.
The first was losses to routes 20, 167 & 275 among others in 1986 leading to the closure of Loughton garage.
The second was mass losses in 1991 leading to the closures of London Forest including AG & WW as per this thread.
The third was large-scale losses by Arriva in 2012.
An unintended coincidence is that on the 30th Anniversary of the 1991 changes I had my booster jab, thus riding buses locally by the same national provider as the largest current operator in Walthamstow: Stagecoach.
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