London's Newest Bus Routes: 2018 - 2021

Continuation Of The Challenge: 2018 - 2021

On the 30th of August 2018, I rode the final London bus route I needed to do to say I've been on every single one, and that was the X68 from Russell Square to West Croydon. However, if any new bus routes came in, I would need to ride them too, and I wanted to ride any new extension to a route or major rerouting or new terminus. Only a couple days after I finished, Route 305 from Edgware to Kingsbury Circle was axed, and Route 303 from Edgware to Colindale, Superstores was rerouted to cover for the 305 loss to also terminate at Kingsbury Circle, and it was safe to say a lot of people were confused on its first weekend in service. At this same time, Route 125 was proposed to be extended from Finchley Central to replace the terminus of Colindale, Superstores, but this didn't happen to almost a year later, but strangely only went as far as Colindale Station. It did serve a road full of houses that didn't previously have a bus route however, so that's good for the local residents. 

There were other bus routes that I did which got completely axed since I finished the challenge, such as the 10, 48, 82, 305, 391, 965, C2, RV1 and W10. There were some minor changes to cover for some of these route losses like extending the 55 from Leyton, Baker's Arms to Walthamstow Central to cover the 48, and the 14 to Russell Square to cover the 10 by British Museum, as well as some other small cuts like a clearance of Oxford Street by swapping the terminuses of Marble Arch and Oxford Circus around, which I never bothered to do. There were some I did do however like the 23 from Westbourne Park, and instead of it going Liverpool Street, it cuts off from Marble Arch and covers the 10 to Hammersmith. I did this because I was nearby after a small walk getting to explore Regents Park, Primrose Hill and walking the Regents Canal opposite the London Zoo up to Little Venice for the first time, which was all rather fun, and definitely one of the better parts of the canals in London. Another one I did was the 88 from Clapham Common to Parliament Hill Fields to cover for the loss of C2, and strangely was scheduled to take 88 minutes, and was a lot of fun to do to see some sights of London I hadn't seen in a very long time. A brand new route though which I technically did have to do was the 301 from Woolwich to Bexleyheath, Shopping Centre. It strangely completely misses out the town of Woolwich, and leaves immediately starting opposite the market, as well as also being an introductory route for Crossrail, which to this day still isn't running in the area. B11 was meant to be cut at the same time from Thamesmead to Abbey Wood, as this route was going to cover that loss, but that hasn't happened either. You could see the destruction of the old housing estates near Abbey Wood at that time, which I'm assuming by now might be a new construction site for apartments. This is a double decker route, and actually has a Hail & Ride section, which means that 230 is now no longer the only double decker route with a Hail & Ride section. It was a good first new route after the challenge, and was excited to do more when they got introduced. 

The first time I travelled over Hammersmith Bridge on Route 33, I found it so weird because only one single decker is allowed on it at a time, and it was really bumpy so just felt like it was going to fall apart at any moment. It seems my prediction was half right as they closed the bridge to traffic because it became unsafe and unstable, so all routes which travelled over it were altered to terminate at either the north or south side of the bridge, with 419 taking over the 72's section down to Roehampton. Route 209, instead of terminating at Castlenau, which is the place south of the bridge, diverted up to go over Putney Bridge to keep the connection over the Thames, but strangely, they cut it back to Castlenau a while later. Instead, they introduced a brand new Route 378, also starting at Mortlake like 209, and runs up Putney Bridge, but bizarrely had no indication to continue up to Hammersmith, which doesn't make much sense to me why they wouldn't just keep the diverted 209 as a route. It would have saved me time having to come all the way down to an uninteresting place like Mortlake for a route which shouldn't exist. They also introduced a temporary Route 533 from Hammersmith to Castlenau, via Chiswick Bridge, not Putney Bridge. To this day, Hammersmith Bridge has still not reopened, and there was a plan to introduce a temporary ferry service over the Thames to cover for the fact people were no longer allowed to walk over it either, but unfortunately you'd have to pay, which is unfair for the local residents as it should be free for all the trouble they've had to put up with, but it *still* doesn't exist. A new route which I was looking forward to was the 335 from North Greenwich to Kidbrooke, which they introduced solely because Kidbrooke was becoming a very developed area with many high rise expensive apartments being built, so a connection to the Millennium Village Leisure Park, O2 Arena and the tube station was needed. It terminates where B16 terminated in Kidbrooke, and was interesting to see London's Newest Bus Route mixing with what was the current oldest London bus in service on the B16 at the time.

On a weekend in December 2019, 6 new routes were introduced in West London, 2 of them being night route, all part of Crossrail changes, which is now a year late. Route 266 was cut back from Hammersmith to Acton High Street, and new Route 218 was introduced to cover this section and terminate at North Acton. Route 306 was also introduced to start at the other end of the High Street at Acton Vale to also cover the 266 loss to Hammersmith, and the 391 loss, which also got cut back from Sands End Sainsbury's to Hammersmith. Some 266 and 391 bus stop plates didn't get removed either, and also notice how there's more changes to Hammersmith routes here. I can't help but feel it would be more beneficial for the 266 and 306 terminuses to change so that the two routes can overlap, creating better connections. Route 440 also got altered, starting at Turnham Green Church, and looping around where it used to run via Gunnesbury, noticing how they didn't replace the towards information on the bus stop, and then by the Chiswick Business Park, as the 27 also got cut back from here to.. Hammersmith. The other end of the route got extended from Stonebridge Park to Wembley, First Way, even though the blind said Fourth Way, and they didn't bother recording announcements for the new terminus even though they did for the others. It was interesting to explore Wembley at night with its Christmas lights however, and I got to use the awkward Sudbury & Harrow Road Station, which was the only station in London I hadn't stopped at before. Route 140 also got cut from Heathrow Central to Hayes & Harlington Station, and new Route 278 was introduced to cover this section, and continue to Ruislip, providing a new connection between Hillingdon and Ickenham which I've always said should be a connection, so it was great to see. The last daytime route to be introduced was Route X140, which is the now the last numerical ordered route in London, and runs from Harrow to Heathrow Central, stopping at only the important stops on the 140 route. It's weird though that X140 didn't start at Harrow Weald, where the actual 140 starts, especially as by far it's the smallest express route. Route 340 also starts at Harrow and runs by Harrow Weald to Edgware, so I think it would have been better to have this route numbered X40 and run across London from Edgware to Heathrow. It also doesn't run on the 140 route between Harrow and South Harrow, and runs express another way which is probably a shorter route. It needed an express section though, because 140 was in the top 5 busiest routes in London.

Another new route that was introduced as part of Crossrail changes was 497, starting out at Harold Wood Station, on the eastern end of the Elizabeth Line. This was a very short route that serves a previous unserved housing road in Hail & Ride to Gallows Corner Tesco, and then goes up to terminate at Harold Hill, Gooshays Drive, even though the last stop is actually titled 'Chippenham Road' so I don't know why they chose that terminus name. It was actually originally proposed to continue further to the 174 terminus at Dagnam Park Square, which would have added more connections for local so I don't know why they cut it shorter. Recently though, it's come up in thought that to completely axe this route only a year and a half after it was introduced because not many people used it, and TFL are probably losing money running it. I can't help but feel if it was introduced when the full Elizabeth Line opened, and it ran to its original proposed terminus, maybe it would have gotten used more. It did give me the opportunity to check out Bedfords Park nearby which has a deer enclosure and a great view of London, and then Eastbrookend Country Park afterwards during sunset, which I remember passing through on 174 and wanting to go back to explore. Somewhere else I went to explore whilst out to do another bus route is Kenley Aerodrome, where you can go right up to see the airfield runway which was a great experience. This route would have been 404, which I've done before, but got an extension from Coulsdon Town to a new housing development nearby named Cane Hill, which didn't have announcements recorded yet. It also has to do a loop of the town to still serve the station by using the By-Pass, before the steep twisty road to Cane Hill.

There was a proposal for another route change in Ealing Broadway for Crossrail, and that was to extend a route beyond on the 65 route via South Ealing to terminate at Osterley Tesco. It was originally going to be 112, then E10, and then E1, but they all got blown out. However, 112 did get extended on the other side of the route from Brent Cross to North Finchley, and I did it 2 months later because there was supposed to be some more changes to occur which didn't in the end. Even though I did it so much later, it still went wrong because there was a burst water main in North Finchley, so all buses were terminating at Henly's Corner. Another change which I did on the same day was the extended 384 from Barnet, Quinta Drive to Edgware via the 107 and 292 by Moat Mount. This also gave me the opportunity to see the abandoned half built viaduct north of Edgware that was going to form part of the Northern Line extension to Bushey Heath which never happened, so it was cool to get up close to them and see it. Cockfosters, the other end of 384, did only just become a step free station, so I could see the brand new shiny lift too. However, a couple of days later, the 383 got an extension from Woodside Park to Finchley Memorial Hospital, which was supposed to happen earlier so I could do it on the same day as 112 and 384. However, the burst water main was still affecting North Finchley, and because this extension also serves the area, I got put on diversion to the hospital, a new terminus not previously served before. These buses were also branded, and I've mentioned before how badly the previous branding trials were, but this one is actually good, as 383 is the only London route to be served by the company Uno, so these buses wouldn't have an issue by switching to a different route, and it was good to see the extension added to the branding on the first day of service.

They originally cut the 391 from Fulham, Sands End to Hammersmith because the route was too long and was apparently often unreliable, so it's rather ironic that they completely axed the route a year later in favour of extending the 110 to Hammersmith, creating a very long route from Hounslow Bus Station. It covers the entirety of 391 to Richmond, noticing how near Kew, they didn't bother to replace some of the number plates on bus stops. Afterwards, the route to St Margaret's, providing a small unique express section to the Twickenham Stadium, and then follows the previous 110 to Hounslow, taking about an hour and a half. The section to West Middlesex Hospital was taken over by a rerouted H22 so that it doesn't terminate at Manor Circus anymore. This gave me the opportunity to walk a section of the River Thames I hadn't done before from Richmond Lock alongside Kew Gardens to Barnes Bridge, noticing that the Thames often bursts its banks here, as it was flooded and there were signs about pointing for an alternative walking route when flooded. 

The final new route introduced after I finished the challenge was Route 456, which I mentioned when talking about Route W10. That's because this new route is exactly the same, but is an extension beyond Enfield Town by routes 377, W9, 125 to serve Winchmore Hill Station, providing a lovely village green and a nearby wetlands place I'd like to go back and explore, W6 and then getting to the new terminus of North Middlesex Hospital. It stops at a bus stop named after the hospital but continues for another 4 stops afterwards to get closer to the hospital as the North Circular is in the way. Most of the previous W10 route was Hail & Ride, and the new route was supposed to have fixed bus stops, even at the new roads around Winchmore Hill too, but that didn't happen. It remained Hail & Ride, the bus stop announcements weren't recorded, some temporary stops were introduced, and there didn't seem to be any timetables at bus stops, with some W10 Hail & Ride stands still having their old W10 timetables. Although there was issues with the introduction of this route, it is a very good one as it adds so many new connections for local residents, and highly improves the timetable and frequency of the route. Nearby to North Middlesex Hospital, there was an old bus which had turned into a kebab shop, and in a side street under the grotty North Circular Road subway there was just an abandoned bus where the inside was trashed, and I really don't know why it was there.