Mitcham Belle
85 Beddington Lane (MC)
Mitcham Belle were awarded routes 200 and 201 from 17th June 2000, they operated from a new base at 85 Beddington Lane using 24 x 10.1m Dart SLF + Pointer 2, they had an existing site at 223 Streatham Road which had operated the 127 since April 1999.
M 1106 was acquired from London United to cover school journeys on the 200.
Unknown how 223 Streatham Road was used after Beddington Lane opened.
In 2001 from 23rd April the 613 and double deck journeys on the 127 were taken over by Mitcham Belle.
The K5 was taken over from 30th June initially with loaned DR until new Optare Solos arrived in September.
The 152 followed from 1st December, ten Dart SLF were hired from Sovereign along with a mix of others from dealers.
Was this when the MoT testing station in Redhouse Road started being used?
The buses for the 152 started to enter service in February 2002 and delivery was completed in April, they were sixteen 10.5m Dart SLF with Caetano Nimbus bodies, fleet numbers were now applied, the buses were returned to dealers but the Sovereign buses remained on loan.
The 613 was lost to London United from the start of the school year in September.
The 493 was taken over from 23rd November, a further fourteen Caetano bodied Darts arrived - 070-083.
In 2003 the Sovereign Darts were transferred to Thorpe’s during August as their DLF 111-120, they returned during 2004 having been used by First.
By March 2004 only the Beddington Lane depot was listed, no mention of Redhouse Road or Streatham Road.
Centra (Central Parking Systems) purchased Mitcham Belle (Wimco Coach Group) at midnight on 27/28th August 2004, the Sovereign buses weren’t included and returned to Blazefield Holdings.
Centra renumbered the remaining fleet and a start was made on repainting the fleet into a red livery with blue skirt, this was completed in December 2005.
To alleviate reliability issues, a number of buses were hired, most were returned by the end of the year.
Effective 3rd September 2005 the non-Centra operations were devolved to a new Operator’s Licence in the name of Flights Hallmark.
The impending loss of the 127 to Metrobus in 2006 prompted Centra to transfer the route early from 10th December.
In 2006 the K5 was transferred to London United early from 25th February instead of July.
This was followed by the 152 to Travel London from 22nd April instead of December.
The remaining routes were surrendered after operation on 19th May, from 20th May the 200 went to Go-Ahead and 493 to Armchair - both on temporary contracts, and the 201 to East Thames Buses.
Several DPs were acquired by Metroline in August to replace single doored DML 519-532, as the Centra livery was almost identical to Metroline’s, the DPs just needed new legal lettering and fleet names.
Source - various LOTS newsletters.
Elmers enD
Links: -
flickr
The Transport Network x 2
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John Delaney
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Planning application
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Google streetviews
Building with green stripe
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The yard October 2015
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16 окт 2024
