 | Photo by John Gillespie. |
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The 407 was formed in November 1991 to take over the southern leg of the 197, or 197A/B as it had by then become, between Croydon, Purley, Whyteleafe and Caterham (and in direct competition with South London Metro rail services!). The opportunity was also taken to withdraw the Wallington/Sutton branches of the 403, which became Warlingham and Croydon only — the 408 taking over the Sutton branch and the 407 the Wallington service. Despite the 4xx “Country” series number, initially operation was by South London using mainly Olympians from (South) Croydon depot.
Late in 1994 things were changed again: a new route 400 was introduced taking over the Wallington section on the 407, and the 407 took on the primary role between Croydon and Sutton. (The 400 has also already been withdrawn: see route 410.) At the same time the frequency was improved to 4 an hour, and it was at this time that London & Country gained the contract, furnishing it with a batch of Optare MetroRiders (M440-451 HPF, M452/3 HPG). However, these quickly proved inadequate to cope with loadings, and agreement was eventually reached with LT to replace these gradually with Dennis Darts, adding 6 seats to the specification!
The MetroRiders were cascaded out in batches. The first Darts to arrive, in 1995, were four 9m Pointer bodied examples (M160-163 SKR). At this time the Croydon/Beddington (CR) base was part of the LondonLinks unit controlled by Kentish Bus; hence the Maidstone registrations, Kentish Bus sharing office space with fellow British Bus company Maidstone & District. In 1996 these were joined by two similar ex-Kentish Bus examples (J220/1 HGY), displaced from the 286 (the rest of the batch went to Metrobus). Then in 1997 Kentish Bus lost route 42 to Limebourne, and the Northern Counties bodied Darts used thereon (L120-6/51 YVK) transferred to Croydon seeing off the last MetroRiders (though four were still based there for the 315).
But that is by no means the end of the story! The Croydon base has had quite a large variety of vehicle types over the years, and most of them found their way onto the 407 at some stage or other. These include:
However this chaotic muddle has now been swept away, as a dedicated batch of new low floor Darts was introduced late in 1999, coincident with transfer of this base from the former L&C section of the business to the main London companies on 30/10/99. These buses represent a further increase in vehicle size — at 10.8m being the longest standard (as opposed to Super) Dart available — but, being dual door, not in capacity (33 vs. 35 on the previous 9m Darts and 29 on MRs).
| Photo by John Gillespie. |
Alexander bodywork was chosen for these, and is shown off by ADL 14 passing through West Croydon on its way to Caterham on 23 August 2000. The 407 replaced then 197A, which ran just from here to Caterham, so in a way the 407 was an extension of it. By the time these buses were delivered, the former LondonLinks Croydon base had come under control of Arriva London South, and these buses introduced the red livery to the base.
Since then, the route has been transferred to South Croydon garage in a mutual swap of routes to improve inefficiency, route 410 going the other way to Beddington. South Croydon runs a number of other routes with similar sized vehicles and in practice the allocations tend to get mixed between routes. The most common variant on the 407 are the DAF SB120 / Wright Cadet intended for route 166, and in this view is DWL8 (LJ51 DDL) on 23 February 2007 at Sutton. Note the abbreviated form of fleet number displayed on the front of these vehicles.
 | Photo © James Fullick. |
Double deckers can also be seen on the route, and DLA217 (X417 FGP) is typical in central Croydon in April on TC13, which is a scheduled double deck working, primarily for schools traffic. Note the new style of blind display for older double deckers, with just two via points, and much larger text sizes.
 | Photo © Adam Murray. |
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