History
The T33 has its roots in Tillingbourne's 'shopper route', numbered 354. Introduced in May 1982, it connected Sanderstead to Bromley via Forestdale. Soon after Tillingbourne's London operations were bought by the local management and became known as Metrobus, the 354 was altered to run from West Croydon to Bromley.
In 1986, the service was upgraded to a regular Monday-Friday service, but was withdrawn between Selsdon and Croydon town centre. One year later, after considerable opposition from local residents, the 354 was routed via Selsdon Vale, providing the estate with its first bus service. To coincide with this, it was also re-extended to East Croydon, terminating at the Fairfield Halls.
When Metrobus' main route in South Croydon, the 357, was withdrawn, both the 354 and 353 underwent major timetable overhauls. In the case of the 354, the Forestdale-Croydon frequency was increased to every 20 minutes, while the Bromley section was cut back to operate only from 8:30 until 18:30
The route became the T33 in May 2000 as part of a scheme of bus route changes introduced by TfL to coincide with the opening of Tramlink. The Bromley section of the route was withdrawn, and the new T33 terminated at the Addington Village Interchange. The route moved from commercial operation to a TfL tender, which as of 2009, is still retained by Metrobus. Through-tickets valid for both a bus and tram journey became available on the route as part of its integration with Tramlink.
On 19 May 2012, Abellio London have won the contract for route T33, and are now operating it from their Beddington (BC) and new Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts were introduced.
Read more about this topic: London Buses Route T33
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