Route 345 is going through something of a transitional period in vehicle terms at the moment. A new contract has just begun, stipulating new low floor double deckers in place of the previous (and highly unsuitable) Dennis Dart SLFs. London Central and London General, the route’s operators (both in Go-Ahead ownership), have bought large numbers of Volvo B7TLs over the last two years, and have tried every bodywork style made available thereon. The first order for 46 was specified with the popular Alexander ALX400 bodywork, but most subsequent buses have had Plaxton President bodies. Sutton garage has received East Lancs Myllennium Vykings, but for the 345 a different type again was ordered, Wright Eclipse Geminis. One of the first into service was WVL 8 (LG02 KHE), caught on 30 April at Stockwell changing driver on a short working to Battersea Bridge Road.

Photo by John Delaney.

Wright does not appear to be anticipating large orders, and delivery of Geminis to the operators has consequently been quite slow, running at about 2 per week. London General being keen to get the Darts off the 345 in time for the new contract (and indeed slightly before), some of an earlier order of President bodied B7TLs intended for Bexleyheath was diverted to Stockwell instead. These are still in evidence, though will no doubt return to their intended route 51 as the WVLs come on stream over the next few months. Demonstrating this temporary arrangement is PVL 262, showing its bodybuilder-allocated Preston registration PN02 XBK. Note the London Central logos on this presently-London General-operated bus. Also in the picture is LDP 182 (Y982 TGH), a short wheelbase Dart from Camberwell’s allocation to the P5 and 484, and which will not be appearing any more since Camberwell lost its allocation to the route.

Photo by Matthew Wharmby.

From its inception in the mid-1990s as a direct replacement for route 45A, itself the western wing of the long U-shaped 45 service, the route was operated by London Central's Camberwell (Q) garage. However, a small New Cross (NX) allocation was soon added, and this was the precursor to a whole sequence of very frequent allocation changes. The route passes near three of London Central’s garages, and the purchase in May 1996 by owner Go-Ahead of neighbour London General brought a fourth at Stockwell (SW). Subsequent tender losses at London General resulted in a small allocation being introduced at Stockwell from May 1999, in place of Camberwell. Peckham (PM) garage also was brought into the fray during a difficult period, contributing just one bus for about five months.

Indeed, all four garages were involved simultaneously for part of that period, which is a very rare feat these days. Routes with so many garages operating used to be a lot more common when there were very long and big routes, a notable example being the 12 which at one time was split between four garages: Shepherds Bush (S), Walworth (WL), Peckham (PM), and Elmers End (ED).

A new operating contract began in September 1997 and was specified on the basis of single deckers running at a higher frequency, which was quite a popular arrangement at the time (popular with the planners that is, the passengers were not so happy). Titans were replaced by 10.2 metre long Dennis Dart SLFs with single door Plaxton Pointer bodywork, which quickly proved to be highly unsuitable for the job both in operational and mechanical terms.

That September 1997 timetable may hold a record for the number of different duty schedules fitted to it. 16 different schedules have applied to my knowledge (and there may have been more), with almost monthly changes through 2000 and early 2001! In some cases, however, only one or two of the garages were involved in the change.

Monday to Friday allocations have been as follows:
 #  Date      NX PM  Q SW  Reason for change
 1  24/09/97  13 --  9 --  --
 2  08/11/97  11 -- 11 --  Changes to 21 at NX and introduction of 321 at NX/BX (Bexleyheath).
 3  14/11/98  17 --  5 --  Loss of route 1 at NX.
 4  29/05/99  17 -- --  5  Loss of routes 49 and 337 at SW.
 5  05/02/00   9 -- 13 --  Loss of routes 3 and N3 at Q.
 6  29/04/00   9 --  9  4  Driver shortages at Q (certain Q duties were covered by SW in the
                             preceding weeks).
 7  17/06/00   9 -- -- 13  Loss of routes 200/201 at AL and transfer of route 155 from SW to AL.
 8  01/07/00   9 -- -- 13  Re-scheduling of NX duties, eliminating most daytime dead runs to and
                             from the garage for driver changes.
 9  02/09/00   9 --  5  8  Extension of route 88 at SW.
10  30/09/00   8  1  5  8  Driver shortage at New Cross.
11  28/10/00  --  1  5 16  Loss of route 295 at SW.
12  02/12/00   8  1  8  5  Gain of route 188 at SW; reductions on M1/M2 at NX.
13  24/02/01   7 -- 10  5  New route 486 at NX (replacing M1).
14  17/03/01  -- -- 13  9  Gain of route 225 at NX.
15  16/06/01  -- -- 10 12  ?
16  29/09/01  -- --  3 19  Gain of route C10 at Q.
    02/02/02  -- --  5 19  New timetable to improve reliability.
    27/04/02  -- -- -- 24  New operating contract with increased evening service.

Although there were spare Darts allocated for the 345, their very poor reliability resulted in a large number of substitutions by other types. Again because of the number of garages involved, including two different companies with rather different tastes in vehicles, the 345 has seen quite a variety of different vehicles. Even some of the general types have variations! This variety is now being reduced as the WVLs come on stream, but no doubt there will continue to be some odd workings. To summarise:

• LDP class 10.2m Dart SLF/Pointer single door originally purchased for the 345 and 321 in 1997. A programme was instituted to convert them for wheelchair access, but was not quite completed, with the result that they have a mixture of three interior layouts! Originally B36F, most have now been converted to B35F.
• LDP class 10.7m Dart SLF/Pointer dual door, 8 of which were placed on the 345 to replace the single door versions on this busy route, which in turn were moved to the 225 for a new contract commencing on 17 March 2001.
• LDP class 10.2m Dart SLF/Pointer dual door intended for the 155 at SW; indeed LDP90 was kept at SW between transfer of the 155 back to Merton and the subsequent transfer of part back to SW, and was normally to be found on the route until recently.
• LDP class 9.4m Dart SLF/Pointer single door intended for the 484 and P5 at Q from mid-2001 onwards.
• DRL class 9m Dart/Pointer from NX; these were a mixture of K-LGN batch B34F buses and K-MGT batch B32F buses with modular plastic seats, which started life on routes 295 and 211 respectively. A number were transferred to New Cross for route 278, but with 6 for a PVR of 3 they tended to be used to cover for LDPs on the 321 and 345. Additionally DPL10 from the batch otherwise stationed at Merton for routes 200 and 201 was based at New Cross for a while; this has a B35F layout!
• M class MCW Metrobuses: in the last weeks of the first round of SW operation, M837 was transferred to SW from Merton, and pending proper blinds was used on the 345 with a mock-up. For the last few days this was replaced by "native" SW M845, presumably after a defect on M837. The Metrobuses replaced LDP45, which was returned to Q ahead of the rest of the batch, and used on the 484. More recently SW’s remaining Ms have gained new blindsets, allowing them to work the 345.
• T class Leyland Titans from NX, PM and Q: these were the standard 1980s buses in East London, and indeed the normal type on the 345 prior to 1997. A handful linger on, providing spare cover for other types. Of interest were four with dot matrix destination displays in place of normal blinds; these were officially allocated for the night bus standby duties provided by Camberwell garage, where the need to be able to jet off to anywhere in London would make ordinary blinds far too lengthy. T172, painted into a special pre-war style livery, also put in a few turns during 2001! This is the oldest Titan remaining with London Cetral (now painted in Queen’s Jubilee gold), but has tended to be kept to special duties such as the Bluewater Express 710. Peckham’s T1018 became its regular bus on the 345, using a special destination board fitted in the blind aperture.
• L class Leyland Olympians from NX: London Central retained a batch of 15 of these buses at privatisation, although all have now been sold. Most went to Rossendale Transport but 3 went to Ipswich Buses via London Traveller, 1 to Aintree Coachlines of Bootle and one coach-seated example to Holmeswood Coaches of Rufford.
• NV class Volvo Olympian/Palatine I from Q, NX and (recently) SW. Those at NX were in two batches purchased for routes 171 and 21; the older buses on 171 differ by having forward staircases (the rest have centre stairs) and red seat moquette (the rest have blue/grey). In addition examples of a batch of single door NVs in a special livery for the (now deceased) Docklands Express route D1, with white between the decks, appeared while they were at Q. Finally two of the dual door NVs (58/60) are fitted with individual seats; initially these worked from Q, but were later transferred to the private hire department at NX. SW now operate NVs for route 133.
• SP class DAF DB250/Optare Spectras: 24 of these impressive buses were used by London Central on route 3 at Camberwell, and made occasional forays onto the 345. When the 3 was lost to Connex Bus in February 2000, these buses were sent to Go North East for service in the Newcastle area, where their single door layout will be more usual.
• VC class Volvo Citybus/Northern Counties: These were allocated to SW for routes 133 and 196, and were the available for the 345 when needed owing to their three-track number blinds (which can show any number). Some of these had coach seats, and three with coach seats upstairs only (VC4-6) made appearances as well as standard bus-seated examples. The entire batch got re-upholstered from dingy red to blue seat moquette, but they were sold recently and replaced by NVs from Sutton garage.
• AVL class Volvo B7TL/Alexander ALX400 from Q: These buses arrived for route 45 early in 2000 and promptly started to stray to the 345. In fact certain late evening journeys were scheduled for AVL operation as they worked onto night bus route N12.
• PVL class Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President from SW: A large batch of these was delivered in spring 2000 for routes 37 and 77A, followed by a smaller batch to cover the 88 extension and the 188. The first batch had centre stairs, but the second forward stairs! Again there were some journeys actually scheduled for PVL operation as they worked onto a night route, the N44 this time. More recently some London Central PVLs were allocated on a temporary basis, being borrowed from Bexleyheath garage and route 51.
• PDL class Dennis Trident/Plaxton President: 13 of these were delivered to SW, nominally for route 88, although they have been mixed with the PVLs to a certain extent.

The only vehicles that could conceivably have worked that have not are Routemasters from New Cross or Camberwell; Millennium MD class DAF/East Lancs buses from New Cross; standard floor DW/DEL Darts (that were) based at Camberwell; and 8.8m mini-Darts at Camberwell for the C10. It is likely that these did not have suitable blinds.

So, all in all, a route with quite a bit of variety! Nowadays only Ms, PVLs and LDPs are likely to be seen alongside WVLs, and the whole allocation has been concentrated at Stockwell garage — which will hopefully reduce the inter-garage feuds that became all too common with the joint allocation.

Navigation

	Previous	Next
Chronologically	113	71
Numerically	344	350

See also routes 45, 12, 21, 321, 1, 49, 337, 3, N3, 200, 201, 155, 484, P5, 88, 295, 188, 486, 278, 171, 133, N12, 37, 87, N44, 225, C10