In August 2013, it was announced that routes 262 and 473 would be put on a retained 5 year Contract starting in March 2014 with Stagecoach London, this would consist of existing Scanias from route 96 being transferred over to West Ham Garage (WH) with a nice refurbishment to be used on the routes.

Route 262 was named the worst performing London bus route in 2010, it was thought by many that Stagecoach London would not retain the route. But then we were all surprised on that August day when the results came out. 

Route 473 is one of only two routes to serve London City Airport (along with 474). It runs to the free ferry crossing which links to Woolwich in South East London. Both the 262 and 473 were previously allocated Tridents as we can see in both of the pictures so far. 

West Ham Garage (WH) previously had a few Scanias in store for route 106 when it was under Stagecoach operation. But in April 2013 the route was lost to Arriva London and the Scanias went for the newly gained routes 365 and 252. It was surprising when it was announced that West Ham (WH) would again see Scanias because Stagecoach don't usually like introducing types to garages that don't usually maintain them. But nonetheless many enthusiasts were happy to see the return of Scanias to the garage.

But the movement of Scanias to WH was delayed as PDs newer buses which were meant to be replacing the Scanias were delayed. The Scanias started getting refurbished whilst at Plumstead Garage although these retained Yellow on Black blinds as there was no point fitting new WOB PD sets just for them to be replaced in a few weeks. To the right you can see a picture of one hard at work on the 177.

This week I ventured out to Beckton to get a glimpse of one of these Scanias on the 262, the 262 being a Local route and as I like Scania Omnicity buses. But I wasn't very succesful in photographing them, WH don't have enough Scanias to cover the PVR of either the 262 nor 473 so both routes still have Tridents as the norm.

This is what will be the face of the 262 for the next 5 or 7 years. These Buses have already ventured out onto other West Ham routes such as the 104, 158, 241 and 238. So we will probably continue to see Tridents on the 262 for the forseeable future. What do you think of these buses? Would you have preferred id routes 262 and 473 to have got new buses or are you happy with this decision? Please let us know in the comments section.

I would like to Thank LondonBuses72 and The LondonBusBreh for allowing their wonderful photos to be used in this post. 

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Stagecoach London have 14 Optare Versa buses, people that know me well know how much I dislike these buses. They were ordered back in 2008 for routes 396 and 469 for their new contracts. When Stagecoach brought back the ELBG business in 2010, these vehicles went to them.

Stagecoach saw no point in keeping two small batches of Versas in separate garages across the river, so in 2011 when route 62, another route from BK was awarded a new contract with brand new E200s, the opportunity was taken to transfer the Versas from PD to BK in exchange for the brand new Enviros. Although route 62 has a higher PVR than the 469, so it retained a partial allocation of Enviro200s.

© EastLondoner 2014

25312 is seen on Route 62

As these buses were brought by the ELBG, they contained ELBG interiors

This continued for a year or so, the Versas occasionally went on route 366. A twist in the tale came when in 2013, it was announced that route 396 was retained with existing buses. 

This meant that the Versas would get refurbished. But Stagecoach being a bit stingy only refurbished 5 of them These were the ones allocated to Route 396 on paper. But BK never manage to keep batches separate so there will always be intermixing. Here is a Fleetlist of the Buses getting a Refurbishment...

25310 - LX09AAE

25311 - LX09AAK

25312 - LX09AAJ

25313 - LX09AAF

25314 - LX09AAN

© EastLondoner 2014

25310 was the first of the batch to be refurbished, and here it is seen standing at Gascoigne Estate. You can see that it hasn't been given white on black blinds.....yet. 

Inside, the buses have had a complete makeover, they gained Stagecoach flooring and moquette, as well as a repainting of the handlebars. They've also cleaned out the engines so the buses sound much more healthier than they previously were. 

© EastLondoner 2014

© EastLondoner 2014

© EastLondoner 2014

As you can see from the two pics of the exterior above, The buses have retained YOB blinds. It came as a big surprise to everyone when all of a sudden...

Maybe more Versas will get WOB in the future. But overall what do you think of the refurbishment program? Did the buses look better before or after? Please let us know in the comments Section.

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