Aviation Specials – June 2018

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

1994. 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route was withdrawn in August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