Routes Ahead: Route 199

19845 nears the end of a southbound journey in Bellingham.

Route 199 is a suburban route running from the Stagecoach garage in Bellingham straight to Greenwich via Catford and Lewisham, then turning left to Deptford, a short right through the Pepys Estate then going around the Surrey Quays one-way system and ending at Canada Water. The route's a decent ride and better than the parallel section of the 47 through Deptford Bridge which in my opinion seems more traffic prone.

The allocation... On paper it's 61-registered Alexander Dennis E40Ds from the batch 19836-19846, but in reality any double-decker in TL appears on the route. The E40Ds aren't the fastest buses, the 61-reg are decent but the 12-reg in theory for the 136 (10124-10138) sometimes feel slower than walking. Newest buses are the 14-registered Enviro400 hybrids which on paper are for the 54 and 75 (12261-12292), these are very different to the E40Ds. They're comfortable, quiet and fast and are some of my favourite buses at TL. Another bus that makes periodic appearances on the route is a sole 14 registered E40D, 10197 which was originally intended as a TB top up. This one is much like the other E40Ds.

Some Dennis Tridents also appear on the route, and were its allocation between 2000 and 2012. These ones were X-registered and the last of them left London in summer 2012 and the oldest are now Y and 51 registered. Seen on the right is one of the best buses at TL, 17441 finishing a northbound trip at Canada Water. 17427 and 17441 are the last Euro2 ZF Tridents left in London, from what was once a batch of 83. There are seven Euro2 Voiths which were cascaded from East London for the 136 extension and 22 Euro3 Voiths which are allocated to the 47. All of these are nice, comfortable and fast buses and it's worth getting on them.

The route's history hasn't been very eventful, starting in April 1991 running from Elephant & Castle to Lewisham, with some journeys continuing to Bellingham. At the time it had a PVR of 8 Leyland Titans. In October 1994 it was decided to extend the route daily to Bellingham, it got a PVR increase to 10 Titans and a slight rerouting at Pepys Estate. Nothing really happened after that until September 1999 when the route was cut at the northern end to Canada Water and the allocation pretty much got thrown out the window, pretty reminiscent of the current service in fact. A few months later in January 2000 it got converted to low-floor operation using brand new Dennis Tridents with Alexander ALX400 bodywork. These were Euro2 Voiths which aren't my favourite buses but they're better than some of the buses on the route now.

12 years passed during which the allocation got thrown out the window again, Stagecoach sold to Macquarie Bank then re-acquired it 4 years later and the older Tridents were partially replaced by ZFs from 2001, of which there are now two left. In December 2011, the route was meant to get new Alexander Dennis Enviro400s, and some were delivered at the start of the month. But for some reason they didn't enter service until January 2012, and even then it took until February for all to be in service. Barely a month passed until the 136 got similar (but worse) buses 2 months early in March and they immediately started mixing, rather unsurprisingly. So now it's really hard to get on an allocated, 61-registered bus on the route.

10125 from the 136 batch leaves its stop at Canada Water.

Despite all these dodgy allocations though the service itself is pretty good. The buses arrive on time and are usually driven well, though some do have rather hard seats. At peak times the route can get pretty crowded, but it seems to be the least miserable way of getting from Lewisham/Catford to Rotherhithe so I'm not complaining. Some people say the 47 is better but I think it's more crowded and the routing goes through some boring places, so if you find yourself in Lewisham or Greenwich, have a ride on the route. Just hope that you don't get an E40D.

All photos used in this post are © GloriousWater, all rights reserved.
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