London Buses Route W7 - History

History

The W7 started as the former route 212, which had express variations from 1960 until 1968, and used single-deck buses for many years due to a weight restriction on the bridge by the former Muswell Hill railway station. The LNER, who owned the line, did not strengthen the bridge as the 212 competed with the railway.

The 212 became a double-deck operation in 1963 with RTs from Muswell Hill garage. Routemasters, spare from route 43, ran at weekends. In 1969 the 212 was renumbered W7 and converted to one-man operation. The letter prefix showed that it was a local flat fare route, the letter used indicated the area served, but not uniquely, e.g. H applied to both Harrow and Hounslow, R to Richmond and Romford.

The route initially ran with MBS-type single deckers, and these were replaced by Daimler Fleetline double-deck buses in 1975, which were in turn replaced by MCW Metrobuses in 1981. In 1988, the Metrobuses were replaced by Leyland Titans transferred in from Bow (BW) Garage, and these stayed with the route until the closure of Muswell Hill (MH) Garage on 21 July 1990. The route transferred to Finchley (FY) which operated a mixture of Titans received from MH and its own stock of Metrobuses. On 15 August 1992 the route was transferred to Holloway (HT) upon the start of a new tender contract, and was converted to full Metrobus operation. London Northern (the LBL subsidiary that ran Holloway Garage) was privatised in 1994, becoming MTL London Northern, then MTL London in 1996, and was eventually taken over by Metroline in 1998. The route used Metrobuses until 1997 when Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine II buses were introduced alongside the Metrobuses, and eventually replaced them entirely by the end of 1998 in connection with the PASSRIGHT experiment (whereby passholders could just walk on the bus without showing their pass to the driver), for which the Olympians had been specially adapted with stickers and the removal of the barrier directing all boarding the bus past the driver. The Olympians had originated with London Suburban Bus in September 1993, initially for route 271, and were the first Volvo-branded Olympians in London service.

Later still a mix of low-floor double-deckers from Holloway garage with Trident and Volvo with Plaxton President bodywork, with both long and short base, was used. The long buses are used more on the W7 especially the Volvo type. Dennis Trident/Plaxton President rarely feature on the route.

Route W7 was chosen to trial the cashless "Pay Before You Go" system whose aim was to speed up boarding. From 17 October 2001 each passenger, before boarding, needed a valid ticket or travel card bought from an agent or a road side ticket machine. The system worked and was extended on 23 August 2003 to all routes in the West End of London and to all bendy bus routes.

On 18 August 2012, route W7 was retained by Metroline and brand new Volvo B9TL 10.4m / Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 were introduced.