Route:20 last week with Arriva By George

Today ( 17th March 2012) saw Arriva start their last stint with route 20 that runs between Debden and Walthamstow Central
The 20 is due to be taken over by blue triangle next week so Dave ( from alloverlondonbusblog) and Caleb ( From Planemadblog) met to have a sort of final ride on the 20 with Arriva.

The 20 was created on 7 September 1968 as a replacement for route 38A from Loughton to Leyton with an extension to Walthamstow Central station. 

In 1986, the route was tendered out to Eastern National and the contract with Eastern National lasted until 7th March 1992, when Grey-Green won the contract operating the route from Barking (DX). In the late 1990s, Cowie Group (which owned Grey-Green) renamed themselves Arriva. Between 1st June 1998 and 9th March 2002, Capital Citybus (later First London) operated the school journeys from Northumberland Park (NP) and later Hackney (H).

On 26th April 2003 ( Still with Arriva), the route was converted to low-floor bus operation, these were B7TL Wright Gemini Eclipses  When the contract was renewed on 24th March 2007, the route was moved to Edmonton (EC) depot. where Older W and Y Reg DAF DB250 ALX400s ( DLAs) were allocated to the route but 03 Reg examples can be found on the route. in my opinion the refurbished 03 reg DLAs actually look nice and I had the Pleasure of riding on them today along with a few Y reg buses.

Due to the constant traffic between Debden and Loughton stations the route 20's reliability has been cut quite significantly as it took almost 45 mins to get from Debden to Loughton ( which is one stop on the Central Line) and due to running late about 1/2 the buses towards Walthamstow Central being curtailed to Woodford Green and running light to Walthamstow to pick up waiting disgruntled passengers who probably did not look too pleased.

20 Arriva London North (EC) DLA307 Y507 UGC Loughton Station

20 Arriva London North (EC) DLA362 LJ03 MKG Loughton Station

20 Arriva London North (EC) DLA36 LJ03 MKG Buckhurst Hill 

20 Arriva London North (EC) DLA304 Y504 UGC Debden

20 Arriva London North (EC) DLA304 Y504 UGC Buckhurst Hill

20 Arriva London (EC) DLA348 LJ03 MKU Loughton

20 Arriva London North (EC) DLA307 Y507 UGC Buckhurst Hill

20 Arriva London North (EC) DLA362 LJ03 MKG Debden

20 Arriva London (EC) DLA362 LJ03 MKG Buckhurst Hill

20 Arriva London North (EC) DLA362 LJ03 MKG Debden

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