London General route 360: Elephant & Castle, Newington Causeway - Royal Albert Hall
Approaching London College of Communication (Z)

This bus was an absolute pain to get when at New Cross (NX) for route 108 with its tight M-F service and frequent curtailments during its short rounds of two on a weekday. The worst was having beat it to Stratford, waiting for the perfect catch on the brief elevation point of Stratford High Street for the bus to abruptly curtail at Bow Flyover a stop or two before me and hurriedly return to Lewisham.

The bus has since transferred to Camberwell (Q) so I never managed that photo. However, WS65 has been much more available to catch on route 360 and when there is enough road to bring the bus up to speed, especially at Vauxhall Cross, London Central's single prototype is actually a very good vehicle. It makes me wonder whether they should have invested in some electric products from The Wright Group to give us enthusiasts the variety of types we long for in our bus fleet.

©London Bus Breh 2017.

Tags:   Go-Ahead Go-Ahead Group Go-Ahead London London Central The Wright Group Wright Group WrightBus Wright Wright StreetLite Wright StreetLite DF StreetLite WS WS65 SL16 YPK 16-reg London Buses London Buses Bus London Buses route 360 Route 360 Elephant & Castle Elephant & Castle Station London College of Communication St. George's Road TfL Transport for London

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London Central route 286: Queen Elizabeth Hospital - Greenwich, Cutty Sark
Approaching Greenwich Town Centre / Cutty Sark (G)

Go-Ahead originally had WS104-117 introduced to route 170 a week ahead of its contract renewal to Stockwell (SW) on 9 December 2017. However, height restrictions along the route mean that the new buses, and WS65 pictured, are now housed at Morden Wharf (MG) for the 286 in exchange for its standard E200s, SE198-212.

I tend not to get much excitement from the drive of a StreetLite. These new WSs, though, are outstanding. You can feel the details of the road surface feeding through the tyres into the bodywork, yet the drive is still smooth to give a lighter feel about the chassis.

Drivers can push on a route like the 286 and they have been rewarded with buses that can unlock some serious pace and are additionally equipped with decent manoeuvrability. The chassis makes a brief knock as it adjusts through the gears, especially when downshifting then accelerating again, giving some extra adrenaline for you "kickdown" hunting enthusiasts!

However, some have a more efficiently operative stop-start engine system than others: I had to ride on a few different examples within the batch to confirm stop-start tech is included. All-in-all, the buses are comfortable to sit in and they are the best examples of the Wright StreetLite we have so far.

©London Bus Breh 2018.

Tags:   Go-Ahead Go-Ahead Group Go-Ahead London London Central The Wright Group Wright Group WrightBus Wright Wright StreetLite Wright StreetLite DF StreetLite StreetLite DF WS WS65 SL16 YPK 16-reg London Buses London Buses Bus London Buses route 286 Route 286 Greenwich Greenwich Town Centre TfL Transport for London

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London Central route 225: Canada Water, Bus Station - Hither Green Station
Departed Exeter Way (U), towards New Cross Station (V)

By no means am I happy with the results of today's opportunity. Towards Canada Water, I lost confidence in my initial positioning to picture this rare-working StreetLite due to the silhouette of a heavy vehicle that parked itself in a way that distracted my preparations.

Then, WS114 leaving Canada Water late made for more inconvenience, for the clouds had covered the welcome sunshine we had this morning by the time the bus finally arrived here. So I'm making do with this photo. Disappointed, but a fun working.

©London Bus Breh 2018.

Tags:   Go-Ahead Go-Ahead Group Go-Ahead London London Central The Wright Group Wright Group WrightBus Wright Wright StreetLite DF Wright StreetLite StreetLite DF StreetLite DF WS WS114 SK67 FMU 67-reg London Buses London Buses Bus London Buses route 225 Route 225 New Cross Exeter Way Pagnell Street TfL Transport for London

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London Central route 386: Woolwich, High Street - Blackheath Village
Departing The Clarendon Hotel (J), towards Royal Parade.

Go-Ahead London started a new contract to route 386 from Morden Wharf (MG) on 2 June 2018. Existing SEN-class Enviro200s meet a PVR of 11, brought in from Northumberland Park (NP) after made surplus by the loss of route 299 to Sullivan Buses in February.

Since 5 December, the solitary WS65 has become a mainstay on route 386. It is seen in Blackheath, where I feel everything just came together to accomplish what has proven over the years not to be the easiest of tasks of adding to the many pictures on Flickr that have captured a bus along its beautiful, wide-open green spaces.

©London Bus Breh 2018.

Tags:   Go-Ahead Go-Ahead Group Go-Ahead London London Central The Wright Group Wright Group Wright StreetLite Wright StreetLite DF StreetLite StreetLite DF WS WS65 SL16 YPK 16-reg London Buses London Buses Bus London Buses route 386 Route 386 Blackheath Prince Charles Road The Clarendon Hotel TfL Transport for London

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