 | Photo by John Gillespie. |
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After a number of years as London’s shortest shortest double deck route – with a running time of around a quarter of an hour to cover just three miles between Norwood Junction and central Croydon, just one stop as far as the LBSCR is concerned! – the 197 has now gained a some dignity once again with a lengthy extension to Peckham.
The route is now the only main daytime serivce at South Croydon garage scheduled for the DLA class double deckers DAF DB250LFs with Alexander bodywork, a combination which has only found favour with Arriva. DLA 260, with non-matching registration Y451 UGC, was seen at Norwood Junction on 29 March 2001 headed for Croydon. The bridge in the background has been the scene of a number of accidents involving over-height vehicles: double deck buses (now including the 197) need to divert down the side road to the right, although when this picture was taken this route terminated in another side road on the left!
| Photo by John Gillespie. |
Most of Croydon’s double deck allocation these days is composed of Wright Pulsar Geminis, which are also DB250LFs but with the more stylish bodywork, and they do appear quite frequently on the 197. This view shows DW 4 (LJ03 MWU), one of a number of buses around London carrying these promotional vinyls for TfL’s Oyster smartcard which offers a 33-47% saving on individual fares compared with paying cash on the bus.
 | Photo © Adam Murray. |
The 197 is an old route, and was rather pointlessly cut in two pieces back in 1987. The southern leg to Purley, Whyteleafe and Caterham became the 197A with a short extension from the Katharine Street split point to West Croydon, although the Sunday service continued to operate through from Norwood Junction to Caterham with the number 197B for five years. At that time (1992), the 197A was single decked, renumbered 407 and extended to Sutton to replace the 403, and both the 197 and 407 ran daily from then on.
The opening of Croydon Tramlink in 2000 saw much of the route’s patronage taken away, with nearby stops at Woodside, Blackhorse Road and Addiscombe. Patronage was also lost to an even greater extent on route 312 via Addiscombe, which previously provided the service from Croydon to Peckham via Penge and Forest Hill. An economy measure was therefore achieved upon contract renewal on 3 September 2005 by switching the Norwood Junction to Peckham section of the 312, which is far busier than the rest of the route, to the 197, allowing the rest of the 312 to be single decked and providing a quicker through journey into Croydon. The only downside is the loss of a direct northwards connection from the Addiscombe area.
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