Celebrating a British icon 25
South. In April 2010 Arriva was
acquired by German state railway
Deutsche Bahn.
In 1990, London & Country
— one of the privatised parts
of what until 1969 was London
Transport’s Country Area —
opened a garage at Beddington
Farm, Croydon, operation of
which transferred to Arriva
London South in 1999. Following
the loss of tendered service
contracts, that garage closed at
the end of March 2012.
Today Croydon garage has
a peak vehicle requirement of
just over 110 and operates nine
daytime routes, one of whichruns 24hr a day. It should be
noted that the allocation of
double-deckers can be a bit fluid.Schoolday services
Besides those nine routes,
Croydon provides a single
morning and two afternoon
schoolday journeys on route 405
between Croydon and Purley. Go-
Ahead London’s Metrobus fleet
provides the main service on this
route. It also operates schoolday
services 612 (Selsdon-Wallington
County Grammar School), 627
(Worcester Park-Wallington
High School for Girls) and 685
(Selsdon-Warlingham School).The present day route 60,
initially linking Brixton and
South Croydon, was introduced
as part of sweeping changes
to the London bus network
in September 1982. These
changes came after the Law
Lords ruled that the Greater
London Council’s fare reductions
implemented the previous year
were unlawful. Fares had then
been doubled in March 1982,
leading to a dramatic fall in
passenger numbers.
The new route 60 replaced
the 130 between Croydon and
Streatham Common and route
118 linking Streatham ValeLondon Bus Garages
ABOVE: The part
of the garage most
likely to be seen
by the public is the
vehicle entrance
fronting Brighton
Road. The double-
decker here is
DW102, a VDL
DB250 with Wright
Pulsar Gemini
body, a type that
Arriva bought for
its south London
garages.Route Vehicle type Peak vehicle
requirementContract
start date
60 (Old Coulsdon-Streatham
Common)Wright Gemini 2DL 15 31 Aug 2013166 (Croydon-Epsom) Alexander Dennis Enviro200 8 31 Aug 2013
194 (Croydon-Lower
Sydenham)Wright Gemini 2DL 14 26 Aug 2017197 (Croydon-Peckham) Wright Gemini 2DL
Alexander Dennis Enviro40012 1 Sept 2012264 (Croydon-Tooting)
24hrWright Gemini 2DL 15 29 Aug 2015312 (Norwood
Junction-South Croydon)Optare MetroCity EV 7 5 Sept 2015403 (West
Croydon-Warlingham)Wright Gemini 2DL
Alexander Dennis Enviro4007 29 Oct 2011412 (Croydon-Purley) Wright Gemini 2DL 8 31 Aug 2013466 (Caterham on the Hill-
Addington)Wright Gemini 2DL
Alexander Dennis Enviro40017 31 Aug 2013Routes operated by Arriva, Croydon garage