Paul Corfield wrote:

On 27 Jun 2006 10:55:19 -0700, wrote:

Has London ever had any bus routes whose outer terminal operates on the
basis of a "loop" say round a big housing scheme perhaps with some
journeys going clockwise and others anticlockwise round the loop? I
suspect not because such "frying-pan" shaped routes don't tend to lend
themselves to having sufficient layover time to recover from
London-type congestion delays. Maybe some of the services which don't
venture into Central London run on this basis?

There are not any I can think of that run from Central London. However
the 379 does a loop at Yardley Lane Estate from Chingford.

http://www.busmap.org/tt4/379.pdf

Both the H2 and H3 (Hampstead Garden Suburb routes) are "loopy" to coin
your phrase.

The 366 is loopy at the Redbridge end of the route with passengers being
able to get on and off the loop and stay on the bus at Redbridge Stn
while it takes layover time before heading off towards Ilford.

http://www.busmap.org/tt4/366.pdf

The 499 gets "loopy" near Becontree on its way back to Romford.

http://www.busmap.org/tt4/499.pdf

The other interesting loop routes are the B15 at Joydens Wood which goes
different ways round a loop in the morning and afternoon.

I thought that one had recently ceased being a loop.

http://www.busmap.org/tt4/B15.pdf

The other one that alternates round a loop is the R5 - once every 2
hours.

http://www.busmap.org/tt4/R05.pdf

There's also the 399 to Hadley Wood, and the 389 (once part of the same
route, but for some unknown reason they split it in two) which it still
seems to be linked with in Barnet.

Setting this thread slightly adrift, there are also some routes that
have one way loops in the middle. These do not give the efficiency
benefits of those on the end (or the whole) of routes because the buses
going both directions still have to go round it, but there are sometimes
reasons to do so anyway. A good example is on route B11, where the
northbound buses did a large anticlockwise loop on the section between
Bexleyheath and Abbey Wood (twice traversing a short section of Brampton
Road that the southbound buses missed). The map claimed it was temporary
until pavement work was complete, so UIVMM it's just a deviation now.

But the reasons for one way loops aren't always good ones. The one on
the B14 is worst. Because of slight difficulty turning right from
Longmead Drive to Bexley Lane, the Albany Park deviation has previously
been run as a two way loop, but in an alledged attempt to make the
service more reliable, TfL decided to make it a one way loop. That this
appalling decision was foisted upon local residents with no consultation
whatsoever was bad enough. The fact that they've failed to reverse the
decision since local residents pointed out how difficult that makes it
to get to the top of the hill (where they can access shops, doctors, and
Albany Park station) highlights an alarming amount of incompetence!
Meanwhile, bus route B14 is less reliable than ever...

--
Aidan Stanger
http://www.bettercrossrail.co.uk