London Bus Routes: 507 - G1

The Strange Numbers: Routes 507 - G1

At this point I've completed every normal numbered route from 1 to 499, but there's still a few remaining obscurities, the first being routes 507 and 521. These are a throwback to Red Arrow, a company which ran a variety of short express style Central London routes which carried the 500 numbers. 507 and 521 are the only ones remaining, which was the first routes to use bendy buses in London, but have since lost the Red Arrow name, the express style service, and the bendy buses, in favour of shorter single decker buses with more space for standing than number of seats, as well as also not having a standard dot matrix screen, and instead an LCD screen packed with information. These routes tend to be very busy linking up with major London rail terminuses like Victoria, Waterloo and London Bridge, and serves a lot of back streets in Central London supporting businesses like the Channel 4 Television Studios, one of which only running on Mondays to Fridays, so you can see how it is mainly used by workers. Strangely, there is one more 500 route, the 549, running far away from Central London, and is a very standard route from Loughton to South Woodford, so it might seem strange at first that it carries the 500 number, but I think the reason for this is that it started off as an Essex County Council route, not a TFL one, so when it transferred, it kept the 549 number. 

On to the 600 routes now, where a bit of an explanation is needed. 600 routes are predominately school routes, which I wasn't going to ride as part of the challenge because I'd rather not spend my time travelling with a bunch of school kids at 8 in the morning, so the challenge was to only ride normal bus routes. However, there are 2 routes which don't fall into this category, the first being the 603 from Muswell Hill to Swiss Cottage, except, it kind of does. It runs twice in the morning around 8AM, and twice around 4PM in both directions, so it runs at the times you except a school route to run, but it also runs during the school holidays, which made me feel it's not a school route. They also usually run towards the school, terminating there in the morning, and runs back in the afternoon, but 603 doesn't do that, and serves Highgate School, midway throughout the route, and was very quiet at 8AM from Muswell Hill during the holidays. The route now doesn't run during school holidays, which must mean it's now an official school route, but I can't help but feel if it was a regular route, people would actually start to use it. The other route is 607, which isn't a school route, but actually the very first of 3 express routes in London, but doesn't contain the X prefix the others have because this is a throwback to an old trolleybus route with the same number. It runs from White City to Uxbridge, following the same route as 207 from White City to Hayes-By-Pass, and 427 from Acton High Street to Uxbridge, but rather than stopping everywhere, it only stops at some of the important and busier stops along the route. It was exciting to experience an express route, but it's not the best one to start with because it goes through the most boring areas along the Uxbridge Road like Ealing, Southall and Hayes. Hopefully, the later ones would be better.

Jumping forward to the 900s, as there are no 700s or 800s, and there's only 2 of these routes and they are known as mobility routes. These routes run only a couple times a week, and exist to essentially transfer elderly people from an estate that doesn't have any other bus route to the local town or supermarket. The first is 965, running once in both directions on a Monday, Wednesday and a Friday. I did the route in its return journey from the Sainsbury's in Kingston down to the Riverhill estate near Tolworth. It was an interesting little terminus, which would be good to see a route serve the area regularly, especially with the fact that 965 now no longer exists. There used to be a few more mobility routes with a 931 in Lewisham and a 958 in Woodford, but now the only one to remain is the 969, which makes me wonder how long that one may have left. I did this one starting at the estate, rather early in the morning at Whitton, Gladstone Avenue, noting how a lot of people knew the driver's name, so it was nice to see a familiarity between passengers and driver. This route feels longer than the 965, stretching through Richmond, Mortlake, Barnes, and terminates at Roehampton Vale ASDA, and only runs on a Tuesday and a Friday. Finally, I was done with every numbered route, which now it was time to switch to the lettered prefix routes, starting off with A10, probably standing for Airport, as it serves Heathrow Central. Coming from Uxbridge, it makes it way through to the Stockley Park Business Estate, which is rather cool to travel through, and then runs express all the way to the airport, using an M4 spur road, and genuinely travelled the fastest any other bus had went on the challenge. You may notice in the picture below that there's a tad of blue around the A10 bus. This was part of a trial where they branded some buses in Hayes and Barkingside with a distinct colour and route number so people can tell from far away what service it was. However, I knew it would be a failure from the start, just like the please hold on announcement because the buses would switch onto different routes that they're not branded for, and that's exactly what happened, so luckily, they discontinued it.

Onto the B routes now, which stand for Bexleyheath, consisting of 6 services ranging from numbers B11 to B16, a little bit strange that they don't just run from numbers 1 to 6. 5 of these 6 routes perform a loop on their route, with 3 of them terminating on a loop. B11's loop is around some pretty woodland near East Wickham, and uniquely doesn't terminate at the leisure centre at Thamesmead like all the other routes, but out on the main road beside the retail park. B12 starts in Erith, and is the only B route not to terminate at Bexleyheath, either at the shopping centre or the bus garage, but continues past it to Joydens Wood. Also uniquely, it runs one way on the loop to Joydens Wood before 12PM, and after that time, it runs the other way on the loop, and I'm not exactly sure why this is the case. It does provide some nice views out onto some countryside though with some uncommon wooden bus stop shelters. B13 wasn't the most interesting route, but did travel through The Oval, the first time I got to see that since the 51, and does a loop for its terminus at New Eltham, the driver immediately returning back to Bexleyheath. B14 is the only one not to do a loop on its route, and actually starts down in Orpington, a place I will become more familiar with with lettered routes further down the line. This route does serve a lot of road names that seemed to be named after stations like Chorleywood and Croxley Green, the latter being a closed station where the rails still exist behind a fence. B15 is another rather uninteresting affair, seeming to just keep on serving houses, until it's looped terminus at Horn Park. And finally, is B16, which terminates at Kidbrooke, which homes some nice little parks, and a loop almost immediately after leaving the starting point. However, that loop actually used to be the start of the route, and the current terminus is where the bus did a loop around, but at some point recently before I did B16, they swapped them over. It was nice to see Kidbrooke because I didn't get much of a chance on 178 because of a diversion, and it was good to officially make a start on the prefix routes.

Onto the C routes next, consisting of 5 services, and doesn't seem to stick with one place they're standing for, and are not consistent with their numbers. The first is C1 from White City to Victoria, a rather uninteresting route, and one not immediately clear what the C stands for here. Victoria is Central London so it could stand for that, and although it doesn't travel directly through Chelsea, it gets kind of close at Sloane Square. C2 starts at Regent Street, which is also Central London, but it does travel through Camden on its way to Parliament Hill Fields. This route now no longer exists, being replaced with the 88 extension. If you make your way down to Leatherhead though on the 465, you can still see a C2 plate on a London bus stop, which could potentially stand for Cobham. Next up is C3, starting at Earl's Court Tesco, which can be considered to be the very edge of Central London, but it also passes through Chelsea Harbour, a new development by the Thames which is very nice, and which the bus has to go through a barrier to continue on the route. It ends at Clapham Junction, which again, could be what the C stands for on this route. Now we jump forward to the C10, C4 - 9 not existing, which also starts at Victoria and spends some time in Central London through Pimlico, over Lambeth Bridge, and Elephant & Castle. After a view of Rotherhithe Tunnel, the bus does a rather long route around Doubletree Docklands to terminate at Canada Water, another place name starting with C. Finally is C11, staying well clear of Central London, and runs between Archway and Brent Cross, just like what 143 does, as well as also travelling through Cricklewood, which could be the inspired name for the route number.

The D routes are a lot easier to know what they stand for, and that is Docklands. The 4 routes, D3, D6, D7 and D8, all spend a lot of their time on the Isle of Dogs, around Canary Wharf and by the Thames. D3 starts at the closed Chest Hospital in Bethnal Green and travels through some old style cobbled streets in Wapping to serve Canary Wharf and terminate at Leamouth. Routes around the Isle of Dogs had a bit of a shake up before I started the challenge, so this is where the 277 used to terminate, but now it's the D3. I'm ashamed it took me longer than it should have to realise it's called Leamouth because this is where the River Lea makes its confluence with the Thames nearby at Trinity Buoy Wharf, an amazing secret spot opposite the O2 Arena with a lighthouse and an American Diner. D6 starts at the ASDA at Crossharbour and runs to the Ash Grove Bus Depot. It used to run further to Hackney Central, which I think would have been better for that connection to still exist. D7 runs all the way around the edge of the Isle of Dogs from Poplar, All Saints to Mile End, and the D8 runs between the ASDA again and Stratford. It used to start at Stratford International and run a different route to the northern portal of the Blackwall Tunnel, but switched its start and route with the 108 just before the start of the challenge. 

The E routes for Ealing next, with a total of 10 services, although there's strangely no E4. E1 and E11 both are rather short and run between Ealing Broadway and Greenford Broadway, the E11 going slightly further to Warwick Dene beside Ealing Common, and both serve housing around Drayton Green and Castle Bar Park. E2 and E3 also both start at Greenford Broadway, with the latter terminating at Chiswick, Edensor Road with E2 terminating at Brentford, Commerce Road, beside the bus garage and the Grand Union Canal, a rather pleasant spot to explore the lock there. E8 also used to terminate here, but got extended to serve Hounslow Town Centre. E5 and E6 are the two routes which don't call at a place with Ealing in its name, but they still run around the same areas as some other E routes. Both these routes also terminate near the Grand Union Canal with the E5 at Southall, Toplocks Estate, the good side of Southall, and the E6 at Bull's Bridge Tesco, named after the bridge which passes over the confluence of the Paddington Arm and the regular Grand Union Canal. There was also an incident at the other end of the E6 at Greenford Station, so the buses were starting down at the rather grotty roundabout nearby. E7 runs right up a busy road past the Polish War Memorial and the RAF Northolt base to Ruislip, where at certain times of the weekdays, and on weekends, it doesn't run directly to the tube station, and goes round to serve the High Street first. E9 terminates at the Barnhill Estate in Yeading, which on an old map suggests the estate here was a Hail & Ride section, but it isn't anymore, which makes Route 230 still the only double decker route to have a Hail & Ride section. Finally, E10 starts at Northolt, Islip Manor, nearby to the Northala Fields, an amazing place with some huge hills which I was happy to spend some time exploring, and is a hidden gem of London. 

There are some extra E routes you may not be aware of, because they actually contain another letter, and there are 3 of them, numbered EL1, EL2 and EL3. These stand for East London, and are part of a program called East London Transit, running with their own branded buses, and serving the Barking Riverside development. EL1 is the only one that runs 24 hours, and starts up in Ilford, running to a very sparse terminus where there's new houses and a school being built, and only runs further to that point during the weekdays. This route actually used to be numbered 369 before the East London Transit program came along, and Barking Riverside is currently in the process of getting a new station being built as part of the London Overground extension. EL3 also used to have an old number, the 387, running to Little Heath near the King George Hospital. The EL2 I think is the only brand new route, starting at Becontree Heath, and runs north of Barking Riverside to travel down some really empty industrial roads to Dagenham Dock. I found it strange that the EL routes use new routemaster buses because I found them to be more of a bus you'd get in Central London as a touristy thing, not some industry in East London. Another strange prefix route is the G1, the only G to exist, after there being no F's, and bizzarely must stand for St George's Hospital. Starting at Streatham, Green Lane, it's a rather long single door route, looping around an estate near the hospital, as well as also the Springfield Hospital, before terminating at Battersea, Shaftesbury Estate. The bus was obnoxiously slow throughout, and weirdly, the bus has to reverse at the terminus as there's no way for the bus to turn around.