East Thames Buses was the trading name of London Buses Limited, an arms length subsidiary of

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

. In 2009, it was sold to

Go-Ahead London Go-Ahead London is a major bus operator in Greater London. The name first appeared in August 2008, before which the company had traded under separate names and brands. It is currently (as of April 2025) the largest bus operator in Greater Londo ...

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

.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 Transport that operated bus services in London between April 1989 and November 1991. History London Forest was formed as one of the eleven operating units of London Transport in readiness for privatisa ...

and

Kentish Bus Kentish Bus was a bus operator in South East England and London. It was formed from the split of London Country Bus Services in 1986 as London Country South East (LCSE) and operated a fleet of around 170 buses from four garages, with its headqu ...

Ash Grove bus garage Ash Grove bus garage is a bus garage in Hackney, London, Hackney, East London owned by London Buses. It is located on Ash Grove, off A107 road, Mare Street, north of the Regent's Canal and is occupied by East London (bus company), Stagecoach Lo ...

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 - West 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 Mandela Way - West (MA) garage closed on 30 April 2010 it operated the following types of buses: *

Volvo B7TL The Volvo B7TL is a low-floor double-decker bus chassis which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of the Volvo Olympian (its 3-axle version was replaced by the Volvo Super Olympian). It was built as the British bus operator ...

10m/

Plaxton President The Plaxton President is a Low-floor bus, low floor double-decker bus coachwork, body built by Plaxton at the former Northern Counties Motor & Engineering Company, Northern Counties factory in Wigan, England. It was first unveiled in 1997 on t ...

(VP - Route 185, occasionally used on route 1) *

10.6m/

Wright Eclipse Gemini The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a Low-floor bus, low-floor double-decker bus body that was built by Wrightbus between 2001 and 2021, based on the single-decker Wright Eclipse design. The second-generation Eclipse Gemini 2 was launched in 2009, fo ...

(VWL - Normally route 1) * Scania N94UB 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 N94UB chassis. It was superseded by the East Lancs Esteem in 2006. Operato ...

(ELS - Route 42) *

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined single-decker bus, single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a ...

Plaxton Pointer The Plaxton Pointer (originally known as the Reeve Burgess Pointer, and later as the TransBus Pointer and Alexander Dennis Pointer) is a single-deck midibus body that was manufactured between 1991 and 2006, predominantly on the Dennis Dart chas ...

s (on loan from

London General London General Transport Services Limited, trading as Go-Ahead London, is a bus company operating in Greater London. The London General brand is a subsidiary of Go-Ahead London and operates services under contract to Transport for London. The ...

) Following on from Ash Grove's role, Mandela Way serviced the East Thames Buses fleet. In the last few months of East Thames Buses operation, route 1 moved next door to Mandela Way (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 The London Central Bus Company is a bus operator brand under London General Transport Services Limited, trading as Go-Ahead London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and primarily operates services in South London under contract to Tran ...

'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 Wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in South London, 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 countie ...

. 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 of the Julian calendar. The denomination 669 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe f ...

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: *

10.6m/

References

External links

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