 | Photo © Brian Creasey. |
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Although the vehicle type has not changed since this page was last updated, the buses on route 183 have all been repainted into standard Transdev London livery of red with a grey skirt, so an update is in order. The official vehicle type is long wheelbase Volvo B7TLs with Plaxton President bodywork, dating from 2001, before Blazefield sold Sovereign's London operations to Transdev. They have now lost their Blazefield 4-digit numerical numbers in favour of standard alphanumeric codes, and VLP2 (LN51 AZB) waits departure time at Golders Green on 11 March 2008.
| Photo © Brian Creasey. |
Edgware garage, which now operates the 183, also has a number of other vehicle types, and these appear on the 183 quite regularly. Our photographer also managed to capture VLE33 (PO54 ACF), also a Volvo but with East Lancs bodywork, and intended for route 114.
 | Photo © Brian Creasey. |
The 183, which crosses north-west London from Pinner to Golders Green via Harrow and Kenton, was one of several disastrous attempts at single deck operation on a busy trunk route that occurred in the late 1990s. In this case the conversion started with a new contract in September 1999; the Monday to Saturday daytime frequency was enhanced slightly, to the tune an extra bus per hour, and brand new dual door Dart SLFs replaced the elderly Metrobus double deckers of Metroline.
However, this represented a substantial drop in overall capacity, and overcrowding ensued, not helped by persistently poor reliability on the route. The seemingly more enlightened regime under the new Mayor for London has seen the problems and allowed a reversion to double deck, and a batch of new Volvo B7TL double deckers has been phased onto the 183. These buses in any case provide a much more refined ride than the cheap and nasty Darts.
The double decking was just as well, as in September 2002 the Jewish Free School in Kingsbury opened, with hundreds of pupils arriving there by bus on a daily basis, mostly from Golders Green, Hendon, Finchley and other areas of the borough of Barnet. Further extra capacity had to be added in the shape on an additional AM trip towards Pinner and a PM trip starting from the school grounds to Golders Green, and a second morning journey towards Pinner was added in January 2008.
Despite being the only route to pass Sovereign’s Harrow depot, the 183 is actually operated from Edgware garage. Drivers change over by catching the Northern Line between Golders Green and Edgware – not an ideal arrangement and one which can hamper reliability, although the schedule was sorted out when a new contract began in 2004. However, Harrow garage cannot accommodate double deckers. Even before reverting to double deck, however, part of the 183 had been based at Edgware.
To a large degree, the 183 has itself to itself, despite being, to all intents and purposes, a trunk route. The route parallels the 83 between Golders Green and Kingsbury Green, except that the 183 operates via Hendon town centre, whereas the 83 runs via Hendon Central station (an anomalous name if there ever was one!). However, until relatively recently, it was the other way around, with the 183 running via Hendon Central and the 83 via The Burroughs. Incidentally, in 1936 the 183 ran every 6 minutes for most of its length, with double deckers of course!
From Kingsbury Green the 183 is alone as far as Kenton, where it is joined by the 114, 223, H10 and H18 for the last mile into Harrow. Then the 183 is on its own again for the final stretch to Pinner, if one overlooks the occasional H18/H19 as far as North Harrow. From Pinner, most buses used to continue to the logical terminus at Northwood, but this section was transferred to the H11 with the introduction of Harrow Buses in November 1987, forcing through passengers from Northwood to Harrow to take a detour via some back streets in the West Harrow area – or, of course, to take the Metropolitan Line.
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