Prepared on Notepad by Ian Smith, This page created 3rd September 2010. Best on 800*600.
Wings Buses Dart SLFsWB1-3: 10.3m Sprytes for U7
Wings' was a luxury coach travel company,
which dipped a toe into London bus operation in November 1999,
when it took over the 207A from Centrewest. The route, diverted and renumbered as the U7
(Uxbridge Stn - Brunel University - Hillingdon Hosp. - Hayes End - Charville Lane Estate),
received three 10.3m Dart SLFs with East Lancs Spryte bodywork. As well as their distinctive astyling,
these stood out for their livery: bright yellow with scarlet skirt and orange roof.
They operated from a base in North Hyde Gardens, in Hayes (Middlesex).
WB4-7: 10.3m Sprytes for H50Four more Sprytes came in April 2000. These had an equally striking but more tasteful livery of mainly dark green with a red slash and lighter green front and front upper quarter. They were route-branded for the H50 as the Trainlink, linking the prestigious Stockley Park business park with Hayes & Harlington Station and West Drayton Station. With a targetted business clientele, they came with air-conditioning, housed in a pod on the roof.
Wing's 8.8m MPDsWing's bought ten red Plaxton-bodied 8.8m MPDs for route E6 Bull's Bridge - Hayes & Harlington Stn - Greenford in May 2002. These were in overall red with yellow "go-faster slashes" near the back.Tellings - Golden Miller take overAt the end of March 2004 T-GM took over Wing's Buses. With the company came the seven 10.3m Sprytes on the U7 and H50, and the ten MPDs on the E6, as well as the Hayes depot. The Sprytes were given numbers 451 to 457, and the MPDs became 349-358.
W437CRN on the H50 at West Drayton Stn, April 2004, already wearing T-GM fleetnames.Travel London takes overTravel London (part of National Express) had reappeared in London in February 2004, buying the Connex operations. In June 2005 they made another large bid for London business, taking over the London and Surrey bus operations of Tellings-Golden Miller, which included the Wings' Buses operation. Renumbering saw the Sprytes become DE414-DE420, and later 8414-8420.
8419, previously DE419, leaves Uxbridge Station on the U7, October 2008.The original yellow/orange three were sold in December 2007. The MPDs stayed on the E6 through the company changes. In the meantime their operating base had shifted from from North Hyde Gardens to Springfield Road (April 2005) and back again (September 2006). The Travel London takeover resulted in their base code becoming WS instead of TM. The buses were also renumbered twice, first to DP65-DP74, and then 8065-8074. They stayed on the E6 until its loss to Metroline in May 2007, when operation of the H28 was moved from Fulwell as compensation. But their use on the H28 was brief, as the original H28 buses also soon moved across from Fulwell. The MPDs were transferred to Byfleet in August 2007, and began to be repainted in Travel Surrey red and white livery. They were also fitted with digital displays. But a year later, in August 2008, there was a short-term need for the take-up of TfL route 434, where the new buses were not going to arrive in time. Surrey livery and digital displays would not do for the three buses involved (8065-8067). They were repainted all-red, and fitted with roller blinds in time for their transfer to Beddington Cross. The new buses arrived, and the red trio became a float for i-Bus fitting, moving round Beddington Cross, Walworth and Fulwell as the fitment programme proceeded. They returned to Byfleet in February 2009.
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The four green Sprytes were repainted red by Travel London and transferred to the 152 from Beddington Cross in April 2006.
New EnviroDarts arrived for that in December 2006, and two of the East Lancs buses (DE417, 418)
returned from Beddington Cross to Hayes, displacing red/orange/yellow DE414, 415 to Fulwell for the Kingston University contract.
DE419 followed to Hayes for the U7, but DE420 went to Byfleet.
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