London Buses & Croydon Tramlink-Sandilands & Lebanon Road with Metrobuses & Olympians Summer 2000

Back to the last year of the 20th century now from some tram and bus action in the Croydon area. The first part of the Tramlink had opened in May and at the time of filming this vid only tram route 3 to New Addington was in operation. We see trams at Sandilands and some nice traditional on street running on the Addiscombe Road at Lebanon Road where we see Metrobuses and Olympians at work alongside the trams. A couple of shots at East Croydon Station finish this vid. Routes seen are 130, 194, 197, 198, 354 & 466 using Titan, Metrobus and Olympians with Arriva, Metrobus and Stagecoach. The trams at this time were traditional red & cream colour along with the fleet numbers picking up from the end of the London Transport tram numbering system, although one was in First Group colours and a few all-over advert liveries are seen. If you liked the video please subscribe to my channel, there are lots more transport & quirky vids to upload!

[@ccjelley2390]

Excellent footage. I was there on the first day of Tramlink, the First liveried tram was the very first one to run. Clever.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I was also there and have video of the first two trams to arrive at East Croydon Station....they were both red & cream.....no sign of the First liveried one there.....

[@GNTel313]

Metros on the 130 and Olympians too !!. My lords. .... and all those original liveries on the trams too. Many memories 😊

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

My pleasure.....i was there on the first day they entered service....can't believe it was 20 years back now......

[@delcio9038]

wow, i used to take the tram to west croydon from mitcham, its nice to see that it was other colours instead of green, white & blue

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

It started off with the old London Transport tram colours. They even had numbers in the LT tram numbering sequence, 2529 being the highest numbered tram when the original system closed in 1952!

[@delcio9038]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus oh wow, i didn’t even know there was a numbering sequence for trams

[@swtransport099]

Looks like there were quite a few advertiser liveries in the early days! The only ones i know about are the Whitgift Livery, Amey Livery and The Nestle coffee livery

[@si002]

another good video 📹 📼 🎥 more good buses 🚌

[@NewController01]

you know.....I kinda miss the old Red and White livery

[@MPsNewswatch]

The 130 used to be well used before Tramlink, I can't remember how long the trams and the 130 both went to New Addington before it was rerouted to Norwood Junction? I also remember the X30 which was a peak hour express service to and from Croydon and New Addington.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I didn't know the 130 no longer went to New Addington.......I have video of the X30s, Olympians and Metros are what i remember working it.....

[@MPsNewswatch]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus It goes to Thornton Heath now as a single decker route. I think the 130 was one of the first victims of the success of Tramlink. In your vid you can see a tram to New Addington packed while the 130 had plenty of space.

[@jacksebsmith]

@@MPsNewswatch 130 very much still runs to New Addington

[@joelharris1335]

How many of the Croydon Trams where painted into First Group colours?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Just the one, most were in the old London Transport tram livery (and the fleet numbers continued on from LT's tram numbering system from back in 1952!) with one or two odd-ball colour schemes.....

[@joelharris1335]

I think the First Group 'Barbie' livery looks better then the original red and cream livery! What do you think?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@joelharris1335 I liked the traditional LT red & cream, the gold fleet numbers that carried on the LT numbering sequence although the route numbers didn't follow tradition (even numbers for south London, odd for north).....

[@joelharris1335]

Point taken :)

[@uktransportgames]

When Croydon Trams are born

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, this was the year it opened, when the trams were in a proper London livery with gold fleet numbers that carried on from the end of the first London tram numbering system.....

[@trainrover]

Do buses have priority at pulling into traffic there, i.e., right-hand lane changes? Since when if so, do you know? City buses around the province have displayed the highway pictogram on the back end of buses since the mid-80s.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Vehicles are supposed to let a bus pull out from a bus stop but generally don't, and in fact will do almost anything to get in front of the bus, even risk a head on collision by pulling over onto the other side of the road to get in front, regardless of what is coming.....crazy people!

[@jamesfrench7299]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Same in Australia. It's rare for traffic to heed the pictogram of a bus with it's right indicator on stating to give way and motorists get enraged even if the bus asserts it's right of way safely.

[@trainrover]

Really? Wow! too funny. Bus drivers get away with murder here. The missed threshold here is the bumper of inner traffic being alongside the bus, yet you'd swear these yahoos relish squashing the motoring public off to their corresponding insurers..akin to abominable Russian driving here, I suppose, although their getting away with it does seem culturally orchestrated.

[@trainrover]

Answer me this, please: Those TV clips of British cop chases from the '90s, more often filmed infra-red during those damn l o n g wintry nights there by an overhead helicopter: Was that footage ever sped up, because n o Canadia/en would be capable of speedily zipping in and out of two-way traffic along what appeared to us viewers over here as m e r e lanes for roads?!?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@trainrover No, as far as i can tell it is real time. There are lunatics on our roads....we are used to driving along single lane roads anyway....there are lots of narrow lanes around where i live....

[@stephenlittle7534]

I thought TWO WHITE LINES MEAN "NO OVER TAKING". I could be wrong but I don't think so.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Correct! I thought as i filmed this that they were breaking the law.....