"Loopy" Bus Services
 

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?
--
gordon

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

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?
--
gordon

I don't know about buses going in both directions round the loop, but
there are loads of routes with a large loop at the end with buses going
in just one direction round it. There's the 60 and 434 in Coulsdon and
the 466 nearby in Caterham to name but three near here.

Peter

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

In message .com,
writes
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?

I seem to recall that Stratford had two "S" prefix routes like this
which had the additional refinement of different destination blind
colours depending on the direction travelled!
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

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.

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

HTH as a sample.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

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?

Route 207A (not the Hayes-Chelsea one from the 1960s), withdrawn in
1999, went Uxbridge - Charville Lane Estate - Uxbridge in one
direction only, with a hail-and-ride section on some parts in the
Charville Lane area. The service was once an hour and the round trip
journey time could often match that, making the service horribly
unreliable.

The actual route was Uxbridge Road - (H&R)Hewens Road - (H&R)Pole
Hill Road - Charville Lane - Bury Avenue - Goshawk Gardens -
Weymouth Road - Kingshill Avenue - Lansbury Drive - Uxbridge Road.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl...0&ie=UTF8&om=1

The 207A was replaced by the (not so) half-hourly U7 route, diverting
off the Uxbridge Road past Hillingdon Hospital, which runs Charville
Lane Estate - Uxbridge as a normal route.

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

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?
--
gordon

crap humour mode
Hmm, loopy bus services eh? Problem is they go round in circles.
/crap humour mode

Thamesmead has bus routes that service all or part of a loop, see the
Thamesmead spider map here (in PDF format):
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/spiders/pdf/thamesmead.pdf

I'm no expert on the area whatsoever but Thamesmead is an interesting
and largely unknown part of London, a sort of experimental new suburb
built in the 1960's as a new utopia which hasn't quite worked out as
planned. I'd recommend those involved in local planning of all sorts
take some time to study it (as I'm sure many do) - there are I'm sure
lessons to be learnt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamesmead
http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/bexley/thamesmead.html

The latter Ideal Homes website is a great resource for the history of
the growth of south/south-east London (http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/).

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

There's also the H9 and H10 in the Harrow area..

The H9 used to be the H10 with yellow destination blinds, but got
renumbered to reduce confusion.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

Colin McKenzie wrote:
Why only outer terminal?
Do you already know about the 109, which used to loop along the
Embankment between Westminster and Blackfriars bridges for its inner
terminal?

Hadn't considered the possibility of such a routeing at the Inner
London end. What did the buses show as their destination on the way to
the "loop" and was there a recognised point on the loop for the blinds
to be changed and layover taken?
--
gordon

"Loopy" Bus Services
 

In message .com,
writes

Hadn't considered the possibility of such a routeing at the Inner
London end.

The 109 was the bus replacement for the Purley-Embankment tram service,
and so followed the same loop as the tram tracks along the Embankment.

What did the buses show as their destination on the way to
the "loop"

Embankment Station (via Blackfriars) or Embankment Station (via
Westminster), according to which way round the loop they were going.

and was there a recognised point on the loop for the blinds
to be changed and layover taken?

Embankment Station - as in tram days.

--
Paul Terry