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Paul Corfield · August 16th 06, 09:33 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 16 Aug 2006 13:29:57 -0700, "MIG"
wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article ,
(Stuart) wrote:

Orienteer wrote:
There used to be, but no longer!

Central bus routes were 1 - 199, single deck routes 200-299,
country buses north of the Thames 300-399, south 400-499,
trolleybuses 500-699, Greenline routes 700 - 799.

AIUI there is a system whereby when routes are split up they get
prefixed with a 3 and the route spawns a school bus that gets a 6
at the front. For example the 71, 371, 671 and the 29, 329, 629

3xx or 4xx.

I thought that beginning 3xx or 4xx implied that the route wasn't
direct. It certainly seems to work that way in practice.

I rather like this theory.

I think that these prefixes are used simply because they are the parts
of the overall numbering scheme which were "vacant" after London Country
Buses were sold off. IIRC 3xx was LCBS north of the Thames, 4xx south of
the Thames and 7xx was pretty much the Green Line series of numbers -
that's a very rough and ready view before I get pounced on my the bus
historians reading this!

As many of the old and long trunk services have been chopped up into
bits, to ensure that the suburban parts of these routes were not devoid
of buses due to congestion in the centre, these numbers have had to be
used. Add in the hugely increased density of the network today compared
to the sixties due to lots of local routes then you can see why a much
larger numbering series is needed.

Like the 484, which seems to visit every single house in south London
while going nowhere much. And a 3 something which I got on at Queen
Elizabeth Hospital to go a very short distance to Woolwich centre. I
think it went via Margate.

The 386 by any mischance? Still if you had to reach a house in South
London or perhaps drop in on Margate on the way to Greenwich I guess you
might see the 386 and 484 as being valuable little routes. I can
personally think of one or two little routes I'd like near my front door
but I suspect I shall never get them.
--
Paul C

Admits to working for London Underground!

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