Route 103 commenced operating on 3 October 1934 between Romford Parkside Hotel and Aveley Prince Albert via Romford – Oldchurch Road– Becontree Heath. – Rainham Road – Dagenham East The Bull -: Rainham - Wennington. The route was initially operated by London Transport from their Hornchurch (RD) garage using AEC Regent STs.
On 9 Decmeber 1936, the route was extended daily from Dagenham East to Rainham and the journeys to Aveley were withdrawn.
On 28 May 1937, the route was extended from Parkside Hotel to Gallows Corner and diverted at Rainham to War Memorial.
On 20 March 1940, the route was withdrawn between Pettits Lane and Gallows Corner but was extended from Romford to Pettits Lane on Sundays.
On 29 October 1941, the AEC Regent STs were replaced by AEC Regents.
On 10 October 1945, the AEC Regents were replaced by Guy Arab bodied Park Royals.
On 12 August 1953, the allocation was transferred from Hornchurch (RD) to Romford (NS) garages and the Guy Arab bodied Park Royals were replaced by AEC Regents.
On 19 May 1954, the AEC Regents were replaced by AEC Regent III RTs.
On 27 June 1956, the route was extended from Eastern Avenue to North Romford.
On 9 October 1963, the Monday to Friday peak bifurcation to Hornchurch Garage was introduced. These journeys were withdrawn in 1970.
On 13 March 1971, the route was converted to single deck one person operation using Swifts.
On 3 August 1975, the route was converted to double deck using Daimler Fleetlines.
On 5 November 1979, the Fleetlines were replaced by Leyland Titans.
On 25 July 1981, the route was withdrawn between North Romford and Stapleford Abbots, this section was replaced by a extending Route 175 .
On 1 September 1990, the route passed to County Bus with Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympian introduced.
On 6 January 1991, the route passed to Grey Green operating from Dagenham Dock (DD) and Stamford Hill (SH) garages.
On 14 March 1992, the allocations was transferred from Dagenham Dock (DD) and Stamford Hill (SH) garages to Barking (DX) garage.
On 2 September 2000, the route was retained by Arriva London with dual doored Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians introduced.
In December 2002, the Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympians were replaced by Volvo Citybuses.
In May 2003, the Volvo Citybuses were replaced by Alexander RH bodied Leyland Olympians.
On 15 October 2005, the route passed to Stagecoach London operating from their Romford NS garage and was converted to low floor operation using Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Tridents.
On 22 September 2012, the route was extended from Rainham War Memorial to Rainham Interchange.
On 13 October 2012, the route was retained by Stagecoach London with Alexander Dennis Enviro 400s introduced.
In April 2015, part of the allocation was transferred to Rainham garage RM.
On 27 June 2015, the Romford (NS) allocation was transferred to Rainham garage (RM), except for one Mon-Fri morning working off Route 86 allocation at Romford garage (NS).
Arriva London will take over the operations of route 103 from 14 October 2017.
I have so many special memories made on route 103 and I wish it all the best for the future in its new tender with Arriva and we can just hope that Stagecoach win it back one day.
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That special place in My heart.
Adventure2017 brought with it some interesting things including London bus tender results as it does every so often but the contract changes have much more of an impact on my life than you may think.
