Aviation Specials – June 2018

(ff) #1
Celebrating a British icon 105

Barking garages and replace
them with a single site at
Chadwell Heath. This plan did
not come to fruition although
Seven Kings garage did close in
March 1993.
When London Buses established
smaller subsidiaries for its bus
operations, the garage came
under the East London Bus &
Coach Company, which was sold
to Stagecoach in September


  1. In 2006, Stagecoach sold
    its London bus operations to
    Australia’s Macquarie Bank for
    £263.6million, but reacquired
    the business in 2010 for
    £59.5million.
    Today Romford provides
    buses for seven daytime routes
    under contract to Transport
    for London, plus a single


vehicle for route 256 (Noak
Hill-Hornchurch) and the night
service on route 365 (South
Hornchurch-Havering Park).
Rainham garage operates the
main daytime service on both
routes.

Strange case of the 86A
Although no London bus route
carries a suffix to its route
number today, this was not
always the case. Romford and
Stratford have been linked by
buses carrying the number 86
since the early days of London
Transport but for many years
there was also an 86A.
The original 86 ran from
Stratford Broadway along the
old Roman’s Great Road to
Colchester as far as Brentwood.

It was extended west to Mile
End by December 1939 but was
soon curtailed to run between
Chadwell Heath and Brentwood,
with occasional journeys
reintroduced to Stratford shortly
afterwards. These did not,
however, last beyond 1941. The
route was withdrawn in August
1958, one of the changes in the
wake of the bus workers’ strike
earlier that year (see p14).
The 86A was another matter.
For many years this was the
main route linking Romford
and Stratford. At its greatest
extend it ran west to Mile End
and east to Upminster. North
Street, as then described, had
a share in it from 1954, along
with Upton Park, Seven Kings
and Hornchurch, which have all

London Bus Garages


ABOVE: Street
level view of the
garage in 1966.
GERALD MEAD

Romford

Routes operated by Stagecoach, Romford garage

Route Vehicle type Peak vehicle
requirement

Contract
start date
86 (Stratford-Romford)
N86 (Stratford-Harold Hill)

TransBus or Alexander
Dennis Trident/ALX400
Alexander Dennis Enviro400

31 plus two
from West
Ham

16 July 2016

247 (Barkingside-Romford) TransBus or Alexander
Dennis Trident/ALX400

11 24 March 2018

294 (Noak
Hill-Havering Park)

Alexander Dennis Enviro400
MMC

12 30 April 2016

296 (Ilford-Romford)
24hr Friday/Saturday

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 6 17 October
2015
496 (Harold Wood-Romford) Alexander Dennis Enviro400 8 17 October
2015
498 (Brentwood-Romford) Alexander Dennis Enviro400 6 27 June 2015
499 (Gallows
Corner-Heath Park)

Alexander Dennis Enviro200
MMC

7 27 June 2015
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