Telling-Golden Miller Volvo B10M / ALX300s

This page created 8th July 2015 by Ian Smith

TGM ALX300 Tellings-Golden Miller had acquired the 726 route from Capital Logistics in 1999, with DAF/Ikarus buses in an Expresslink livery. T-GM bought seven new Volvo B10BLEs with Alexander ALX300 for the old GreenLine south-orbital route 726 (Bromley - Croydon - Sutton - Kingston - Heathrow). They arrived, a little late, in April 2000, as 44-seaters in T-GM's white/yellow/blue livery. They went to West Drayton, but within the month were transferred with the route to Fulwell. They were supposed to be downseated before service to B42F to make room for buggies, luggage, etc, but this was delayed, presumably due to the garage change, and then cancelled.

902 at Bromley South, Nov2000 902 at Bromley South, Nov2000

905 reaches its terminus of Bromley South Station, November 2000.
The Volvos stayed on the 726 for the five years that T-GM held the contract, occasionally supplemented by the odd Dart.

902 at East Croydon 902 crosses Kingston Bridge

902 passes through the heart of Croydon, October 2000, bound for Heathrow, and crosses Kingston Bridge eastbound, June 2001.
But in April 2005 Metrobus took over the Croydon-Heathrow workings as route X26. The seven dedicated buses were sent off to Portsmouth for a repaint. 904 went to Burton's of Haverhill (a T-GM company), while the other six went onto T-GM's Portsmouth-Southampton Express services (X27, X47).

They did not stay there for long. 901 and 902 headed north, for T-GM sister company Classic Buses at Annfield Plain, for Tyneside services. 906 went briefly to MK Metro, where it operated wearing Solent Clipper branding! They all gathered together again at Colchester, where they were mainly used on town services, especially the 8. Some were later used on the Colchester to Stansted Airport service 133. During this time their livery stayed as TGM white with blue and yellow, with slight variations, brandings and fleetname logos. They were variously renumbered in TGM Essex' frequent renumberings, some being done, others not.

Guildford ALX300 However, in September 2013 two (904 and 906) were sent off to Maidstone to be repainted in Arriva interurban blues, and then went to Guildford as maids of all work (as 3827 and 3828). The three survivors at Colchester (901, 903 and 907) soldiered on, receiving Arriva Southern Counties numbers in December 2013. (905 by this time had gone north to Classic Buses on Tyneside). I don't know what happened to 902.

Bus Stop Volvo index TGM Volvo B10BLE bus histories photo refs