East Thames Buses was the trading name of London Buses Limited, an arms length subsidiary of Transport for London. In 2009, it was sold to the

Go-Ahead Group The Go-Ahead Group plc is a passenger transport company based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore, Norway and Germany. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange, in 2022 it was purchased ...

History

East Thames Buses was formed in 1999 to take over the services operated by the failed

Harris Bus Harris Bus was an English bus operator that operated services under contract to Transport for London. History Harris Bus was established in October 1986 as bus and coach operator in Grays. In 1997 it diversified, operating routes under contra ...

. It was then retained as an accredited operator to operate services in the event of their contracted operator being unable to do so. In August 2002 it was called in to operate routes 42 and 185 following the collapse of London Easylink. On 3 October 2009 Transport for London sold East Thames Buses to the

who incorporated it into its

London General London General is a bus company operating in Greater London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and operates services under contract to Transport for London. The company is named after the London General Omnibus Company, the principal ...

.Go-Ahead half year Report 2 January 2010
Go-Ahead Group

Garages

When it was formed, East Thames Buses operated from the former

London Forest London Forest was a subsidiary of London Buses that operated services between April 1989 and November 1991. History London Forest was formed as one of the eleven operating units of London Buses in readiness for privatisation. It commenced op ...

and Kentish Bus

Ash Grove bus garage Ash Grove bus garage is a bus garage in Hackney, East London. It is located on the Mare Street, where it crosses the Regent's Canal. The depot is occupied by two companies, Arriva London and Stagecoach London, and holds around thirty buses. Op ...

and Harris's

Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...

Garage. On 13 October 2005 Ash Grove was vacated and operations transferred to Mandela Way,

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

Mandela Way - West (MA)

London Bus route 185 Plaxton President at Goose Green

Mandela Way opened in late 2005 following the relocation from the existing base at Ash Grove. It had a Peak Vehicle Requirement of 53 buses and operated London bus routes 1, 42 and 185. When MA (Mandela Way - West) closed on 30 April 2010 it operated the following types of buses: * Volvo B7TL 10m/

Plaxton President The Plaxton President was a low floor double-decker bus body built at Northern Counties plant in Wigan, England and branded as a Plaxton product for its main production run. It was first unveiled in 1997 on the longitudinal Volvo B7L chassi ...

(VP - Route 185, occasionally used on route 1) * Volvo B7TL 10.6m/

Wright Eclipse Gemini The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a low-floor double-decker bus body that was built by Wrightbus since 2001, based on the single-deck Wright Eclipse design. The second-generation Eclipse Gemini 2 was launched in 2009, followed by the third-generat ...

(VWL - Normally route 1) *

Scania N94UB The Scania 4-series low floor city bus and coach range was introduced by Scania in 1997 as a successor to the 3-series bus range. The 4-series bus range was first presented in September 1996, when the integral low-floor city bus OmniCity w ...

10.7m/

East Lancs Myllennium The East Lancs Myllennium was a type of single-decker bus body manufactured by East Lancashire Coachbuilders on DAF SB220, Dennis Dart SLF, MAN 14.220 and Scania OmniTown chassis. It was designed in 1999 as a bus for Millennium Dome routes M1 ...

(ELS - Route 42) *

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a rear-engined single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles of Guildford, England in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a high-floor design, In 1996 the low-floor second ...

Plaxton Pointer The Plaxton Pointer (originally known as the Reeve Burgess Pointer, and later as the TransBus Pointer and Alexander Dennis Pointer) was a single-decker bus body manufactured during the 1990s by Reeve Burgess, Plaxton and latterly built by Alexa ...

s (on loan from

) Following on from Ash Grove's role, Mandela Way serviced the East Thames Buses fleet. In the last few months of East Thames Operation, route 1 moved next door to Mandela Way - East (MW) (the original London General depot) but were still maintained by the East Thames engineers. Most of the routes once operated by Mandela Way - West were reallocated to

London Central London Central is a bus company operating in South London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and operates services under contract to Transport for London. History London Central commenced operating on 1 April 1989 when London Buse ...

's &

's other garages. The only exception was route 393 which has put back out to tender shortly after East Thames Buses took over the running of route 201 and moved to Mandela Way.

Belvedere (BV)

garage was leased by Harris Bus in 1998 to house its operations that moved from

Crayford Crayford is a town and electoral ward in South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bexley. It lies east of Bexleyheath and north west of Dartford. Crayford was in the historic county of Kent until 1965. The settlement deve ...

. Harris Bus went into receivership in December 1999, and its routes and garage were taken over by East Thames Buses. This garage has a peak vehicle requirement of 15 buses and operates routes 180 and part of

669 __NOTOC__ Year 669 ( DCLXIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 669 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

and N1. On 22 January 2011 route 244 transferred from London Central's Bexleyheath garage. Belvedere has always been classed as a satellite garage from an engineering point of view with very little routine maintenance ever taking place there, however limited engineering facilities existed at up until its parent garage changing to Bexleyheath. Belvedere is now closed. Belvedere garage ran the following models: * Volvo B7TL 10.6m/

References

External links

TfL busesLondon Bus Routes Zenfolio
{{Defunct British Bus Companies Go-Ahead Group London bus operators Former London bus operators