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As had happened 5 years earlier, in the Bexleyheath re-tendering exercise of January 2004 quite a number of routes changed operator, although broadly speaking each company retained a similar level of work. One of the routes which changed hands was the B11, which had been operated by Kentish Bus, and later Arriva, since 1991. Before then it had been operated by Bexleybus from Bexleyheath garage, which at that time was part of Selkent; the new operator is London Central, which took over Bexleyheath garage after Bexleybus was closed down.

Kentish Bus’s standard floor Darts (which had replaced Metroriders in 1999) gave way to larger low floor machines drafted in from Merton garage where they had originally been bought for route 155, which was being converted back to double deck. Typical is LDP 108 (S108 EGK), seen in Brampton Road, crossing Bostall Heath, on 5 January 2005.

Photo © John Gillespie.

The B11 now runs to Thamesmead Bolier House, having been extended there from Abbey Wood Station in the January 1999 scheme. This section replaced the Alsike Road section of route 177, though as the B11 has no other points in common with the 177 it is hard to see how much use this could be as a replacement! Previously, the B11 main raison d’etre was to serve the Lodge Hill area, which it did (and still does) by means of a one-way loop mid-route, as the loop cannot be traversed in the opposite direction due to the road layout.

The 2004 new contract meanwhile saw a couple of other changes: the frequency during the day on Mondays to Saturdays was improved from every 20 to every 15 minutes. Also, buses were diverted away from Knee Hill (just north of where the picture was taken) to use the parallel New Road, although as both roads cut through Lesnes Abbey Woods with minimal population to serve, quite what the objective of this was is not clear.

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See also routes 192, 177

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