Alperton Bus Garage

Operator: Metroline
Subsidiary: Metroline West
Address: Ealing Road, London HA0 4LL
Garage Code:  ON
Opened: June 1939 Closed: Friday 10 September 2021
Peak Vehicle Requirement: 40

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Vehicle Types Operated

Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini 2

Garage History

Alperton Bus Garage was one of only three Central bus garages constructed by the London Passenger Transport Board, opening in June 1939.

The opening of the garage enabled a major reshuffle of staff and vehicles, with Cricklewood, Hanwell, Harrow Weald, and Willesden Garage moving vehicles here to relieve overcrowding.

Following the outbreak of World War II, the garage started to undertake body overhauls of the fleet with this lasting until October 1945.

Although built in a fairly modern style, by the 1970s the garage had become woefully inadequate for the routes it served, leading to several vehicles being parked in the car park of local business overnight and at weekends.

Plans to enlarge the garage were started in 1973 and work on the extension commenced in 1975. Due to the need for the Lifts and Escalators department of LT needing to relocate, and the building requiring alteration, the works were not completed until June 1978.

In the run-up to privatisation of London’s Buses and the creation of 12 business units, operation of the garage was taken over by Centrewest on 1st April 1989. This lasted for eight years until the Centrewest unit was purchased by Firstbus, becoming First Centrewest on 26th March 1997.

With the desire of FirstGroup to withdraw from London Bus operations, Alperton (along with Greenford, Hayes, Uxbridge, and Willesden Junction garages) and its routes were sold to Metroline in June 2013, forming their Metroline West subsidiary.

Following a review of business requirements, the decision was taken to close Alperton and sell the land for residential development. The site was sold to Redington Developments for a reported £25 million in 2019.

With Metroline acquiring a replacement site in nearby Athlon Road for an estimated £ 7 million, Alperton Garage finally closed after 82 years of operation at the end of Friday 10th September 2021.

A farewell open day was organised by Metroline, held the following day on Saturday 11th September and we have a gallery of images from the day here.