 | Photo © John Bennett. |
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The E6 is one of the routes that does not go anywhere near Ealing, running as it does from Greenford to Hayes. The E-line network was launched in 1990 using RW class Wright Nimbus-bodied Renault S75 minibuses, and the new E6 was designed to serve the newish Willow Tree Lane estate and also Ferrymead Gardens, but had no evening or Sunday service. During Monday to Friday peak hours buses omitted the diversion via Ferrymead, running direct along Ruislip Road to Greenford (Red Lion) and thence to Greenford Station. At other times buses ran between Hayes & Harlington Station and Greenford (Red Lion).
In 1993, the section to Greenford Station was abandoned. Commuters will have been inconvenienced, while it left this part of Greenford really quite poorly served. However, nine years later, the E6 was to be restored to Greenford station (not, by any chance, after planners read my rant in the first version of this article?).
It was not until the Ealing network was re-tendered in 1997 that the E6 routeing was standardised, with all buses running via Ferrymead, and an evening and Sunday service was launched. Much of the Willow Tree Lane area is a considerable distance from the main roads and other bus services, and it is surprising how limited the service to this area has been. In addition to the increased service, the route was extended a short distance from Hayes to Bull’s Bridge Tesco, serving the Cranford Drive area on the way, again new territory.
New buses were also specified, and a batch of Marshall Minibuses was ordered by Centrewest for the E5, E6 and E10. They took a dreadfully long time to arrive, and when they did they kept breaking down. Despite modifications by Marshalls they were still pretty unpleasant buses to ride on — though, in fairness, not as bad as the Renaults they replaced. They did not last long, a deal being struck with Marshall to replace them with Marshall Capital bodied mini Dart SLFs.
The E-line network came up for tender again in May 2002, and as seems to be quite common with such large area networks, one route was lost by the major operator to in independent, in this case Wing’s Buses of Uxbridge. This pushed Wing’s firmly from the minor league, with a fleet of just 7 buses, into an operator to be reckoned with, the E6 more than doubling the fleet size. New mini Pointer Darts were introduced. As mentioned before, the E6 has been re-extended to Greenford Station, on a daily basis this time. It was also diverted away from the Ferrymead area, the shortened E10 taking on this role from the same date. Extending the E6 also made room at the Red Lion stand in Greenford for the new E11 route. Wing’s subsequently sold out to Tellings-Golden Miller, who in turn sold out to Travel London in 2005.
The E6 was one of the few routes from the 2002 tendering exercise not to be granted a 2 year extension for good performance, and upon re-tendering was lost to Metroline. It is now run from the former F.E.Thorpe base in Perivale – the official London Buses garage code of PA has now been adopted, replacing the old Thorpes code of FE. Perivale is a couple of miles down the A40 from the Greenford Station terminus of the E6, although not as close as the Travel London Hayes depot is to the other end! A substantial frequency increase also took place at the same time, from 4 to 6 buses per hour during the day on Mondays to Saturdays, and from 3 to 4 in the evenings and on Sundays. Given the size of the Willow Tree Lane area this seems easily justified. Unfortunately the route was awarded on the basis of a tighter schedule, and has been dogged by poor reliability so far with numerous unscheduled short workings noted on the day this photograph was taken.
Again new Darts of the shortest variety were specified, although they are to the now familiar Enviro200 design. They were about a month late entering service, but DES797 (LK07 BEJ) was seen in the bus-only road round the back of the now pedestrianised Hayes town centre – apparently this is called Little Road, although it is blank on my A-Z. The white roof, intended to deflect sunlight and reduce interior temperatures in the summer, can be seen in this view from the top deck of a passing 140.
| Photo © John Bennett. |
I had never noticed before but all TfL publicity, including the destination blind of this bus, refers to the Hayes terminus as Bulls Bridge – according to my A-Z it should have an apostrophe in the name, which seems more likely, although this website is not consistent!
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