 | Photo © Brian Creasey. |
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The 210 is a very well established and quite well known route. The only changes that have been made to it since introduction between Finsbury Park and Golders Green is the extension to Brent Cross and a very minor change in Hornsey Rise. A substantial chunk of the route is its service across the north side of Hampstead Heath, which it has to itself; indeed, until the introduction of route 268 relatively recently, it was the only service to the North End of Hampstead. Famous names such as Jack Straw’s Castle, the Vale of Health, Ken Wood and Rotten Row are all in this area and served by the 210.
The route has recently been converted to double deck. It has traditionally been single deck, although double deckers have worked occasionally. A number of reasons for this have been bandied about: most problematic are trees hanging over the road in North End Road. There are also overhanging trees and buildings (!) on the Heath, some of the buildings being so close to the road that passengers upstairs on a double deck bus would be able to see more than the (rather upper class) residents would like, in itself another reason for single deck operation. Finally, the route terminates at Finsbury Park where is a notorious low bridge; although the route does not go under the bridge, and indeed double deck routes W3 and W7 also approach it from the north, there have been several accidents here involving buses running out of service.
Notwithstanding, heavy loadings together with the availability of spare double deckers following Metroline's loss of the 24, have prompted its conversion using short wheelbase Tridents cascaded from Harrow Weald. These are Alexander bodied and TA98 (T198 CLD) nears the end of its circuit of Golders Green Bus Station on a westbound journey on 26 February 2008, in the second week of double deck operation, and distinctly lacking in passengers on this mid-day journey!
| Photo © Brian Creasey. |
The former Thorpes operation is now firmly part of the Metroline group, the separate legal identity having been surrendered last year. Although the route is still operated from the former Thorpes base in Perivale, much swapping of vehicles has made the fleet indistinguishable from the rest of the Metroline fleet. Whilst Thorpes had been running various LT routes since 1992 – viz. the C4, Stationlink, and various mobility routes – the 210 was the company’s first major route, and presaged a considerable expansion prior to the sell-out to Metroline. Operations commenced in September 1998 using 12 new Dart SLFs painted in a striking red/yellow livery; a large variety of livery variations followed on those and subsequent batches, with the proportion of red ever increasing, eventually succumbing to Metroline red and blue.
The last operator before Thorpes was Grey Green, which won the route from September 1990 and used some unusual bus bodied Volvo B10M coach chassis until losing the route to Thorpes. They operated the 210 from their base in Stamford Hill, and the most direct route between there and the terminus at Finsbury Park is under the low bridge! Grey Green did use the odd double decker before someone noticed that their contract banned this, and this is thought to be how one of the company’s Volvo Citybus double deckers (136, F136 PHM) lost its original roof.
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