Aviation Specials – June 2018

Celebrating a British icon 69

original building.

Work on a new garage finally

started in 1979 in connection

with the redevelopment of

a site adjacent to Uxbridge

Underground station and it came

into use in December 1983. It is

next to the bus station and sits

under a multi-storey office block,

so there is little of it to see from

the outside. The administration

facilities are on the first floor.

Following tendered service

gains in 2017, an outstation

— little more than an open

yard with a couple of portable

buildings — was opened in

Wallingford Road on the

Uxbridge Industrial Estate,

although the main site still

undertakes all maintenance

work.

In September 1977, London

Transport introduced two

routes operated on behalf of the

London Borough of Hillingdon.

Numbered 128 and 128a, they

were designed primarily to

provide links between parts of

the borough not well served by

public transport and the Mount

Vernon and Harefield hospitals.

The initial fleet of three

ECW-bodied Bristol LH single-

deckers, painted red and

yellow, was replaced by Leyland

Nationals in 1988. These

services were incorporated into

the mainstream London Buses

network in 1992.

When London Buses introduced

localised bus operators, Uxbridge

was included within CentreWest

operation, which was sold to its

management team in September

1994 and acquired by FirstGroup

in March 1997. CentreWest used

local identities and these were

identified as Uxbridge Buses.

During 2013 FirstGroup sold

all of its London businesses. In

April that year, the operations

at Uxbridge were among five

garages acquired by Singapore-

based ComfortDelGro’s Metroline

subsidiary, which created a

new company Metroline West

company for the purpose.

Uxbridge garage operates 11

daytime routes under contract

to Transport for London, two of

them 24hr services.

Routes 114 and 222

Metroline West took over

operation of route 114 (Ruislip-

Mill Hill Broadway) from London

Sovereign on 3 September 2016.

Five weeks later a night service

was introduced on Fridays and

Saturdays following the rollout of

the night tube on the Jubilee Line.

London Bus Garages

LEFT: This is

the open yard

that serves as

the Uxbridge

garage outstation.

Two Wright

Gemini 3-bodied

Volvo B5LHs are

standing alongside

a Volvo B7TL

with TransBus

President body.

Route Vehicle type Peak vehicle

requirement

Contract

start date

114 (Ruislip-Mill Hill

Broadway) 24hr

Volvo B5LH/Wright Gemini 3 18 3 Sept 2016

222 (Uxbridge-Hounslow)

24hr

Volvo B5LH/Wright Gemini 3 17 16 Sept 2017

331 (Ruislip-Uxbridge) Alexander Dennis Enviro200

and Enviro200 MMC

8 4 July 2015

607 (Uxbridge-White City) Alexander Dennis Enviro400

and Volvo B9TL/Wright

Eclipse Gemini 2

20 7 Apr 2012

A10 (Heathrow Airport-

Uxbridge)

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 5 29 Aug 2015

U1 (West Drayton-Ruislip) Alexander Dennis Enviro200 8 29 Apr 2017

U2 (Brunel

University-Uxbridge)

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 9 29 Apr 2017

U3 (Heathrow

Airport-Uxbridge)

Alexander Dennis Enviro200

Alexander Dennis Enviro400

11 29 Apr 2017

U4 (Hayes-Uxbridge) Alexander Dennis Enviro400 12 29 Apr 2017

U10 (Heathfield

Rise-Uxbridge)

Alexander Dennis Enviro200 2 2 May 2015

Routes operated by Metroline, Uxbridge garage