Blue Triangle

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Blue Triangle

Service area	Greater London
Service type	Bus
Routes	6 (London Buses)5 (non-London Buses)
Fleet	Dennis Dart SLF Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart Dennis Trident 2 Northern Counties Palatine Scania OmniDekka Alexander Dennis Dart Transbus Dart Plaxton President
Operator	Go-Ahead Group
Web site	[1]

Blue Triangle is one of many operators of London Buses, it is based in Rainham, Essex and is now part of the Go-Ahead Group^[1].

History

Blue Triangle have existed since at least the late 80s/early 90s operating Essex route 500 on evenings on Sundays in the early days of deregulation.

Blue Triangle have long been known for their rail replacement services and also assisting London Buses when other companies gave up routes early, or in the case of London Easylink in 2002, folded completely. The yard is at Albright industrial estate, Ferry Lane, Rainham.

On June 29, 2007, the company was acquired by the Go-Ahead Group, for a total sum of £12 million. Go-Ahead has not bought the special vehicles, all heritage vehicles have remained the property of the former managing director, Roger Wright.

In August 2008 a new trading name for Go-Ahead's London operations was created: Go-Ahead London.

Garages

They have 1 garage in Rainham which holds approximately 77 buses.

It has depot code BE.

Fleet information

Service vehicles

• Dennis Dart SLF/MCV Evolution 10.8m (ED) for route 368.
• Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2 10.2m/10.8m (DP) for routes 66, 368 (accasionally) & Essex routes
• Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart 10.8m (SE) for routes 347, 362 and 364.
• Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine (NV) for routes 575 and 804.
• Volvo B9TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 for route EL1 / EL2 to be introduced in February 2010.

Special vehicles

The company also owned a number of special vehicles including an ex-Green Line RMC, RMs and RT's for use on Private Hire duties. One of the these RTs ran a special marking the end of Blue Triangle's assistance on route 185. All these vehicles remain in the hands of the former owner Roger Wright's London Bus Company along with the private hire operation.

Routes

Previous routes operated

• Blue Triangle operated Essex route 500 (Romford to Harlow via Epping) in the late 80s/early 90s in the early days of deregulation. They operated the route on evenings and Sundays under contract to Essex County Council.

• Route 565 (Brentwood to Bulphan) was once operated by Blue Triangle. They also operated the route when it went from Brentwood on to Romford.

• Route 11 (Purfleet to Basildon) was lost to Clintona in January 2009

• Blue Triangle was the last operator to operate route 502 (Loughton to Romford) a few years ago. It was a Saturday service with only 1 return journey.

• Route 372 (Lakeside - Hornchurch) was won on a temporary contract as part replacement for route 324 which ran between Romford market & Bluewater Shopping Complex, Blue Triangle was awarded the temporary contract using four Dennis Darts with Plaxton Pointer bodywork with single door, these were obtained from dealer stock. In March 2004, Blue triangle retained the contract for another five years but the buses had to be converted to dual doors like most TfL bus routes, but this never happen. Blue Triangle lost this route to East London Bus Group new company 'Thameside' which are based next door at Rainham.

• Route 248 (Cranham - Romford Market) route was won in 2001 from First Capital and had to start using Titans & Metrobuses due to late delivery of new buses for the route. in September 2008, the route was lost on tendering to East London Bus Group company 'Thameside'.

• Route 375 (Passingford Bridge - Romford Station) was won on a temporary contract as a part replacement to Essex County Council route 500, which was withdrawn between Ongar & Romford, TfL stepped in with this replacement service using just one bus. The route was put out for tender and was lost to Arriva Southern Countries at there Grays base from Saturday 4 July 2009.

See also

• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Go-Ahead Group buses in the United Kingdom

• Blue Triangle official website

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v • d • e Companies operating buses under contract to London Buses Abellio · Arriva: (Arriva London, Arriva Shires & Essex, Arriva Southern Counties) · CT Plus · East London Bus Group: (East London, Selkent, Thameside) · First London · Go-Ahead Group: (Blue Triangle, Docklands Buses, London Central, London General, Metrobus)  · Metroline · Quality Line · Sullivan Buses · Transdev London London Transport Portal

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