Two for the price of one in this picture of First London’s DM 690 and DM 688 (X501 JLO and X688 HLF respectively) residing in Walthamstow Central Bus Station on 19 December 2000. The route had only just been converted from Mercedes minibuses a few months earlier, to comply with a new contract for the route which began in the February of that year. Before their introduction to the W11 some of these DMs were used briefly on the 236.

Photo by John Gillespie.

The batch of Marshall Capital bodied 9.4m Dennis Dart SLFs for the W11 has been numbered into a composite scheme, with the DM class prefix letters in Centrewest Style, but with a unique numeric part in the First Capital system. However, the size of First Capital has made the numbering system somewhat congested, and the batch was thus numbered DM 688-690 and DM 697-700, bisected by a batch of standard Darts! Furthermore, DM 698-700 were removed from the W11 and placed on new route 339, their place being taken about a month later by DM 746-748, originally ordered for the 339.

The W11 itself is a product of the 1980s minibus revolution, initially providing a useful local link from the Billet Road area of North Walthamstow into Walthamstow town centre, also providing a bus through the Priory Court Estate for the first time. Initially London Forest ran the route with MCW MetroRiders, but its demise at the end of 1991 saw operation transferred to Thamesway, which drafted in some Mercedes minibuses to cover.

In 1994, the route received a northwards extension from Billet Road to Chingford Hall Estate, off Chingford Mount Road. Despite this, the route remains quite short, with an end-to-end running time of around 20 minutes! Buses also deviated to serve the ground of the new Sainsbury’s store beside the Crooked Billet Roundabout.

The W11 was one of a decreasing number of routes operated by Thamesway in Greater London, and by 1998 the company was in common ownership with Capital Citybus within FirstGroup. It was therefore decided, logically, to move the remaining routes (apart from the isolated 193), together with their Ponders End operating base, into the hands of First Capital. The Thamesway minibuses moved across to begin with, but all have now been replaced by more modern buses. It is now clear that First intends to close the Ponders End garage, and the W11 has just been moved into the slightly closer base in Waterden Road, Hackney, leaving just routes 362 and 462 at Ponders End at present.

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See also routes 236, 193, W12, 362, 462