First London’s TN 1000 (Y934 NLP) is the first London bus to break into four digit fleetnumbers for nearly 20 years. Traditionally, in London, each type, or ‘class,’ of bus is given a code of up to three letters. On individual vehicles this is followed by a unique numerical part, usually starting at 1 and then ascending through the digits as far as necessary. Easily the largest class in history was the RT type of the 1940s and 1950s, AEC Regent buses with a variety of bodywork, of which there were almost 7000 in all, in the process achieving the nearest thing to standardisation ever seen or likely to be seen.

The last very large classes were the Metrobuses and Titans of the 1980s, totalling 1485 and 1131 respectively. The Transport Act of 1985 was about to change the face of bus services, even in London, and relatively few buses were built from this time until the mid-1990s. A variety of minibus types was purchased, followed by large numbers of Dennis Darts from 1990 onwards. A total of 718 were delivered before privatisation in 1994, with 9 further delivered to Metroline just after, but two factors mitigated against the 200 mark, let alone 1000, being reached.

Firstly, every slight variation — length or bodywork — was given a new class code and re-started at 1. Secondly, in the run-up to privatisation towards the end of 1994, twelve geographical operating units were formed (excluding London Forest, which collapsed). After they were sold from the public domain, each proceeded in its own independent manner, so gone were the days of large fleets of similar buses in a common numbering sequence.

Most of the privatised companies continued numbering in the traditional style, but there were some unorthodoxies. Selkent abandoned class letters altogether, but has since returned to them. Even before privatisation London Northern took a batch of Darts as DNL 101-110/112-120 instead of starting from 1, and similarly Centrewest decided to start numbering its new low floor Darts at 117. Several other operators have left gaps in the numerical sequence, born of an excessive desire to match the digits of the registration to the fleetnumber and the fact that some numbers were reserved by the DVLA for the select marks scheme.

Centrewest, originally a management buyout, was later purchased by FirstGroup, one of the big British bus groups with operations across the country. Not long after, First also purchased Capital Citybus. To begin with, the companies remained largely separate, but the two companies have gradually come closer together operationally.

One issue to reconcile was that of fleet numbering. Centrewest continued to use the traditional class code system, while Capital had a purely numerical system that is more usual outside London. Capital’s fleetnumbering system was somewhat chaotic, but it was basically 100-205 for single door double deckers, 206-300 for dual door double deckers, 301-400 for Metrobuses, 401-500 for Arrows, and 601-800 for single deckers. First Capital took over responsibility for First Thamesway’s Ponders End-based operations, and the acquired Mercedes minibuses were numbered into the 501-600 block.

Then came the first examples of a completely new, and potentially large, class, low floor double deckers. The only sensible option was to start these from 801. But to aid compatibility between the fleets the buses also gained class codes for the first time. These were TNs, Dennis Tridents with Plaxton President bodywork. The N stands for Northern Counties, which was bought out by Plaxton, but the President is built at the former NC factory. Capital MD Leon Daniels stresses that class code letters are just that — codes, not necessarily abbreviations or acronyms! Moreover the N makes them distinctive from other operators’ similar buses, most of which are canonically coded TP.

Photo by John Gillespie.

Centrewest’s low floor double deckers have also been numbered into this sequence, so it didn’t take long to realise that the First companies in London would soon be running out of three-digit numbers. Indeed, the combined fleet size is very close to 1000, so giving every vehicle a unique number below 1000 while maintaining a degree of order would not have been practical, so the low floor double deck sequence is set to continue to 1000 and beyond. And indeed, 1000 has just been reached, with a batch of 17 TNs (984-1000) for route 105.

But not only is TN 1000, pictured right on route 105 on 6 July 2001, not the 1000th TN, it is not even the 200th, as other low floor double deck types have been numbered into this series as well. There were 43 long wheelbase TNLs (888-930) for Centrewest, 32 Alexander bodied TALs (931-952) for Capital and a one-off Volvo/East Lancs demonstrator for Centrewest, VE 953.

Although at present the system is a bit of a mess, with several numbers duplicated between the two companies, this should gradually iron itself out as the company numbers all its new Darts below 800 and double deckers in the 801+ sequence and other non-standard types are eliminated. Unfortunately the Dart numbering has been rather messy, with Centrewest continuing the 117+ sequence but Capital, after using this sequence for a bit, now squeezing buses into any available gap between other buses in the 601-800 slot — and indeed having almost reached 800 already.

Returning to the 105, the Tridents made a most welcome return to double deck operation on this busy route serving Heathrow Airport when the contract was renewed from 30 June 2001. But the previous contract has a bit of a story to it too! Before being tendered, the route was operated by Centrewest, and had been converted to minibus operation from March 1995. London & Country won the route from April 1996 and was due to introduce some of the first low floor Darts for London. The route took the first of a large batch for L&C, DSL 25-36 (N225-236 TPK) — amongst the first low floor Darts anywhere. A frequency increase a few months later resulted in some shorter East Lancs bodied Darts being used on a temporary basis.

The route was based at an outstation in Greenford (code GE), and was the sole operation of that base. Perhaps partly because of this, the vehicles soon became very tatty and word on the road was that the whole operation was a bit of a disgrace. It was not long before L&C surrendered the route, and it was taken back by Centrewest at Alperton from that November. London Transport Buses was ‘quite happy because the quality of service will be maintained and guaranteed’ — and indeed one wonders if LTB actually encouraged the transfer. Apparently L&C also had difficulty finding staff — not an uncommon problem — and paid a lower-than-average wage. Looking back, the loss of the 105 was just the first step in a rapid process of decline of an operator that has gone from over 300 buses in the mid-90s to around 100 today.

Initially the 105 was run from Centrewest’s Alperton garage with the original 12 DSLs which were loaned from L&C, renumbered L 225-236 to match their registrations. Some of the East Lancs versions were also noted on hire, but by the end of the year they had been replaced by three new Plaxton Pointer bodied Darts, L 237-9 (P237-9 NLW), to match the L&C ones.

In March 1996 Centrewest had bought the bus operating interests of the now-defunct Q-Drive group, and included in the deal was the London Buslines operation based at Southall. Soon a re-shuffle of routes took place to make better use of resources and to convert London Buslines into a 100% single deck operation. As part of this process the 105 went into Southall garage, and it has remained there. However, Centrewest, now part of FirstGroup, has recently undertaken a process to wind down Southall, and although it retained the route from June 2001, the 105 was moved to its own Greenford garage with the new contract.

Meanwhile, as 1997 turned into 1998, the original 12 Darts were returned to L&C, being replaced by standard Centrewest-issue Marshall Capital bodied Dart SLFs. Now that the 105 has gone over to Trident double deckers, the Darts have been re-allocated to other routes (Ealing E7 and Uxbridge U3).

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See also routes 95, E7, U3