London Buses route 122

Infobox London Bus
number=122


operator=Selkent
garage=Plumstead
vehicle=Dennis Trident 2/Alexander ALX400
pvr=16
start=Crystal Palace
via=Sydenham
Forest Hill
Ladywell
Lewisham
Woolwich
end=Plumstead
level=Daily
length=12 miles (19 km)
frequency=About every 12 minutes
time=48-75 minutes
day=5:00am until 1:00am
night=No night service

London Buses route 122 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Selkent.

History

The 122 has undergone an unusually protracted conversion to low floor operation, and only now are all buses are the correct Dennis Trident (TA class) type. In the beginning four routes at Plumstead are contracted for TAs, first being the 96 and 472 from January 1999, followed by the 53 in January 2000 and the 122 in February. The first Tridents arrived at the end of 1999, with a batch of 36 soon converting the 96 (needing 16) with the balance used on the 122, 177 and 472. These were joined by 13 that were originally intended for the 194, so there should have been plenty for the 96, 122 and 472, but as a result of occasional appearances of the 177 and, increasingly, the 53, the previous Volvo Olympians continued to be quite commonplace.

Transfers characterised the early lives of these 49 Tridents, TA 99-147, with a considerable amount of shuffling taking place. TA 139 went to TL (Catford) in exchange for TA 149 and TA 161-6 were drafted in from Bow. Finally, TA 214-221 from NS (Romford) and TA 222 from U (Upton Park), of which more below, were obtained in exchange for TA 106/14/24/32/35/36/37/40/44 and TA 129/147 respectively, and there were numerous other short-term loans. Two further batches arrived at the turn of 2000/01, and the Plumstead allocation currently stands at around 85, which still doesn't quite cover the combined requirement for the 53, 96, 122 and 472 of 91 buses. And that’s before you subtract about 15 to allow for frequent visitations on the 54, 99, 177 and 178!

As mentioned, amongst the inward transfers were the last 9 out of Stagecoach London's second order for Tridents, TA 214-222. It was noticed that these, together with a couple of VNs also sourced from Romford, were used almost exclusively on the 122. It has now been officially (and publicly) announced that the 122 was the basis for trials of a new type of pin-hole camera, in a joint initiative between London Buses, Stagecoach and the Police. Successful prosecutions for vandalism have ensued, and they are now to be rolled out across London. Video cameras on buses are not new, but usually restricted to one at the front (and sometimes a fake at that). But these can be placed in unexpected positions and are therefore far more effective. The 122 has the misfortune of running through Sydenham, so miscreants are not thin on the ground! However, following completion of the trials, the buses have been dispersed across all of Plumstead's routes.

The 122 is a long-established, if not always too busy, corridor, but the route number itself originated rather further west. For many years it ran from Bexleyheath to Woolwich via Pickford Lane and Bostall Hill, a pleasant 37 minute run and operating every 10 minutes. Then, the current 122 route was a mixture of bus 94 (Crystal Palace – Southborough, near Petts Wood, via Lewisham) and tram 72 (Victoria Embankment – Woolwich). The 122 was altered to run via Okehampton Crescent and past the old Plumstead bus garage on Wickham Lane rather than Bostall Hill. When the tram replacement programme for south London finally got underway after the war, the section of 72 tram between Lewisham and Woolwich was amalgamated with the Crystal Palace leg of the 94 to form new route 186. Curiously, this was later extended via present day route 2 to Victoria, making the route into a giant W!

Meanwhile, the 122 sprouted an A-suffixed variant, delving deeper into East Wickham to terminate in Erith. The 122 was the extended at both ends on 1st July 1964, to the east to reach Slade Green via Colyers Lane and to the west to reach Crystal Palace replacing the 186. But this was not the sort of route you would be likely to ride end to end and its length must have made service control a nightmare, so the 122 was abandoned east of Woolwich in January 1988. The new Bexleybus unit formed at that time covered the withdrawn sections variously by a new route 422, taking a different alignment in East Wickham, the 89 to Slade Green and the new Bexleyheath local minibus routes. Route 122A was replaced by a pieces of several other routes.

Thus the 122 now covers just about 1 mile of its original route, between Woolwich town centre and (the new) Plumstead Garage, from where it is operated and sensibly runs to terminate. It is therefore almost identical to the original form of the 186, except that the 186 terminated in the town centre at Woolwich. Terminating in the garage means there is no problem finding stand space, so the operator can provide plenty of recovery time at this end. Indeed, the 122 is lushly provisioned with it, with 32 minutes scheduled during the day on Mondays to Fridays and up to 40 minutes in the AM peak. At other times there is less, but usually at least 20 minutes, except in the early mornings and late evenings and on Sundays. The result is a generally extremely reliable service, which can even cope with train strikes and the like, unlike other routes which often have as little as 5 or 10 minutes on the stand.

Current route

Route departing Crystal Palace

* Crystal Palace "Parade"
* Westwood Hill
* Sydenham "Cobb’s Corner"
* Kirkdale
* Dartmouth Road
* Forest Hill Station
* Devonshire Road
* Waldram Crescent
* Waldram Park Road
* Sunderland Road
* Stanstead Road
* Brockley Rise
* Stondon Park
* Crofton Park
* Crofton Park Station
* Brockley Road
* Adelaide Avenue
* Ladywell Station
* Ladywell Road
* Lewisham High Street
* Lee High Road
* Lee Green
* Eltham Road
* Westhorne Avenue
* Well Hall Road
* Academy Road
* Shooter's Hill
* Woolwich Common
* Grand Depot Road
* Woolwich New Road
* Thomas Street
* Green’s End
* Woolwich
* General Gordon Place
* Vincent Road
* Burrage Road
* Plumstead Road
* Plumstead Station

Route departing Plumstead

* Plumstead Station
* Plumstead Road
* Woolwich
* Woolwich New Road
* Woolwich Common
* Shooter's Hill
* Academy Road
* Well Hall Road
* Westhorne Avenue
* Eltham Road
* Lee Green
* Lee High Road
* Lewisham High Street
* Ladywell Road
* Ladywell Station
* Adelaide Avenue
* Crofton Park Station
* Crofton Park
* Stondon Park
* Brockley Rise
* Stanstead Road
* Sunderland Road
* Waldram Park Road
* Waldram Crescent
* Devonshire Road
* Forest Hill Station
* Dartmouth Road
* Kirkdale
* Sydenham "Cobb’s Corner"
* Westwood Hill
* Crystal Palace "Parade"

ee also

* List of bus routes in London
* Selkent
* London Buses route 422

External links

* [http://www.tfl.gov.uk Transport For London]
* [http://www.busesatwork.co.uk London Bus Routes]
* [http://www.londonbusroutes.net/times/122.pdf Full Timetable]