Celebrating a British icon 119
January 2009 and in November
that year it was reallocated
to Bexleyheath garage. In
connection with the introduction
of night tube services on the
Jubilee Line, a 24hr weekend
service began in August 2015.Extended to a prison
Route 244 was introduced in
1987 to link Woolwich with the
newly developed Broadwaters
estate at Thamesmead. It was
put out to tender soon after
becoming part of the Bexleybus
operation and passed to London
Central in November 1990.
It was extended to Belmarsh
Prison the next year, with
peak hour journeys running to
Thamesmead. In January 1999 it
was extended from Belmarsh to
Abbey Wood, then in 2004 from
Woolwich to the Queen ElizabethHospital. It was reallocated to
Belvedere garage, but returned
to Bexleyheath from 2 December
2017 when Belvedere closed.
Contracts for London bus
routes are awarded for five years
and can be extended for a further
two years if the operation meets
quality performance standards
and in exceptional circumstances
for longer still. The opening
of the Elizabeth Line in stages
from December 2018 is likely
to change the demand for bus
services in the Abbey Wood area,
prompting one such exception.
To allow time to consult on the
proposed changes, which are
likely to include double-deckers
for route 244, its contract has
been extended by a further 12
months.
Today’s route 486 has its
origins in two services — the M1and M2 Millennium Transit —
introduced to link Millennium
Dome at North Greenwich (the
O2 arena today) with mainline
railway stations at Greenwich
and Carlton. The contract to
operate them was awarded
to London Central, which
acquired 17 new DAF SB220
single-deckers with stylish East
Lancs Myllennium bodywork,
which were allocated to New
Cross garage.
The M1 was meant to use
a section of guided busway,
although this never worked
as planned, while three of the
buses were fuelled by liquefied
petroleum gas rather than diesel.
The plan was to withdraw both
routes when the dome closed at
the end of 2000.
Although the M1 ceased
operation on 23 February
2001, North Greenwich station
had become a significant
interchange point between
buses and tubes, so the M2 was
instead incorporated into new
route 486, which continued
beyond Charlton to Welling. In
February 2002 it was extended
to Bexleyheath along with the 17
DAFs. Double-deckers replaced
them when the contract was
renewed in 2007.
Route B11 began in January
1988 as part of the Bexleybus
scheme. Initially operated by
minibuses and branded as
the Bexley Hoppa, it linkedLondon Bus Garages
ABOVE: MD15,
one of the East
Lancs Myllennium-
bodied DAF
SB220s built for
routes M1 and
M2, operating
route 486 at North
Greenwich.LEFT: An
Alexander Dennis
Enviro200 and a
Wright Eclipse
Gemini 2-bodied
Volvo B9TL over
the inspection pits
inside the garage.