Location of St Mary Cray (Y) bus depot.

St Mary Cray (Y)
Location: - Faraday Way.
Opened 30th March 1996 - took the 61, R1, R3, R4 and R11 from the temporary site at Swanley (SJ), however on 29th March buses started their duties at Swanley and finished them at St Mary Cray.
The R1 and R11 were now two distinct daily routes and the R3 and R4 now ran daily.
Branded as ‘Orpington Buses’, CentreWest had a policy of giving each garage an operating name which was carried on the buses.
Initial allocation consisted of 17 x 9.0m Dart + Pointer (DP 1-17) for the R1/R11, 7 x MB811D + Marshall C16 - MM 1-7 for the R3/R4 and 12 x Volvo Olympian + Northern Counties Palatine II (V 1-12) for the 61 - but DP were used Sundays.
There was one MCW Metrobus as a spare for the 61.
Orpington Buses took over the Sunday operation of the 493 from Metrobus starting 7th July and the Mon-Sat operation from Kentish Bus using hired AN from 28th July.
The contract for the 336 and ‘new’ R9 (this replaced the 493) were awarded to Orpington Buses from 17th August along with the reinstatement of a Sunday service to the 336, this saw MM 8-10 added for the 336 and 4 x 9.8m Dart + Pointer (D 38-41) for the R9.
First Bus took over CentreWest from 26th March 1997.
First Bus acquired Capital Citybus on 8th July 1998.
13 x 8.9m Dart SLF + Marshall Capital (DMS 349-361) replaced the MM from late October to early November 1999.
New routes T31 and T32 were introduced on 11th May 2000, 19 x 10.2m Dart SLF + Marshall Capital (DML 362-380) were added to the allocation (the early part of the operation is a bit complicated, but I think it was all from Y using Y based drivers by around October).
First London replaced all CentreWest and Capital identities from 25th March 2001.
The 336 was lost to Metrobus from 18th August 2001.
DML 411-414 replaced D 38-41 on the R9 in November 2001.
In 2002 the contract for the 273 was awarded from 12th January, initially with DW, these were replaced in late February by DMS 450-457 followed by DMS 458-473 to replace the DP on the R1/R11.
Thirteen 10.0m Volvo B7TL + Transbus President - VT 1100-1112 arrived for the 61, entering service from 26th April and completed by the end of the month.
This made all the routes low floor.
Renumbering of all buses by First was announced in 2003, but only took place at Y in 2004, VT 1100-1112 were now VN 32100-112, the DML and DMS had 41000 added to their existing ones.
In 2006 the 61 was lost to Stagecoach from 2nd December but they were awarded the (3rd version) R6.
In 2007 the 273 was lost to Stagecoach from 13th January.
The T31 was lost to Arriva from 12th May and the T32 was halved in frequency.
First sold their Orpington operation to Go-Ahead/Metrobus on 8th December along with the buses (DMS & DML) - but not the garage which closed at the end of traffic on 7th December.
Metrobus took over the R1, R3, R4, R6, R9, R11 and T32, the T32 was transferred to Croydon and the rest to Orpington.
Source - various LOTS newsletters.
Elmers enD.

[@robwaughman4331]

The garage did pass to Metrobus who used it as an overflow garage for Green Street Green for a short time.

[@ElmersEnd]

I've looked through The London Bus for all of 2008 and there's no mention that I can see in the Metrobus sections about them using it as overflow parking, the daytime operation of the 119 moved to Croydon along with 468-485 to make space for the First routes. In TLB521 the news for First London says that all their buses had been moved out of Y by 9th December 2007.

[@robwaughman4331]

@@ElmersEnd It was part of the sale to Go Ahead. It was mothballed until 16.03.13 when we took over Route 126 at MB. 15 buses were outstationed at Y each night. They were for a variety of routes and the drivers signed on and off at MB. They travelled between the two sites on light running buses that were travelling between MB and various start/finish points. The site closed after 11.01.14 and then sold. Info on the Metrobus history page. images-metrobus.passenger-website.com/downloads/fleet-history1808.pdf