Today saw route C2 pass from Metroline to Abellio London which are currently running the route from their Battersea Garage (QB) using 10.25m Alexander Dennis E40Ds on the Dennis Trident 2 chassis.
Overall impressions of the service today were mixed, for starters the route was curtailed to Berkley Square today due to a protest occurring on Park Lane and Hyde Park Corner. All buses in the surrounding area were either curtailed or diverted.
Abellio have not included the destination Berkley Square on the blind reel which is quite strange due to that it is a common curtailment for the route, so for now Abellio will be displaying "Oxford Circus" for when the route is curtailed to Berkley Square.
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| C2 - Abellio London (QB) 9526 - SN12 AAY at Parliament Hill Fields |
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| C2 - SN12 ADO - 9543 overtakes SN12 AAY - 9526 at Berkley Square |
Brief History of the Route:
The C2 was introduced as a "Camden Hoppa" bus route in March 1987. It was created to supplement the previous 53 routing from Parliament Hill Fields and Oxford Circus which was withdrawn in April 1987.
The route was operated by London Country North West
(LCNW
) using leased Optare Citypacer bodied Volkswagen LT55s from London Regional Transport's Muswell Hill garage.
In 1988, LNCW surrendered the route leaving London Buses to work the route from their Victoria Garage using the leased Citypacers. The route continued service with London Buses untill 1994, when the route was awarded to London Northern from their Holloway Garage using Opatre Starrider bodied Mercedes Bens 811Ds. However, this was not to last long as London Northern later purchased some Northern Counties Paladin bodied Darts (DNLs) with a special "Camden Link" livery applied to them.
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| C2 London Northern DNL102 L102 HHV Parliment Hill Fields (C) Peter Horrex |
In 1998 after Metroline had acquired MTL London Northern, they immediately swapped the Darts for some 9.9m Plaxton President bodied Dennis Trident 2s (TPs T&V Reg Batch).
In 1999, the route was a fully double deck operation. It was from this point that route C2, was run from Parliament Hill Fields to Oxford Circus via Camden Town.
On the 14th of April 2007, the C2 was converted to a 24 hour operation, in which the C2 became the first prefixed route to have a night service. Furthermore in June 2009, the C2 was extended to Victoria via Green Park and Hyde Park Corner resulting in the withdrawing a section of the route 8.
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| C2 Metroline (HT) - T105 CLO - TP5 at Parliament Hill Fields |
More shots from the day:
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| C2 Abellio London (QB) 9526 SN12 AAY |
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| C2 Abellio London (QB) 9541 SN12 ACY |
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| C2 Abellio London (QB) 9526 SN12 AAY Parliament Hill Fields |
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C2 Abellio London (QB) 9541 SN12 ACY Parliament Hill Fields
Note: Today, one of three hybrids could be found on the route, incluing 2429.
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| Abellio London: Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 Hybrid - SN61 CYL - 2429 makes apperance on C2 |
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