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Bus numbering
Greetings.
Is there any scheme to how London bus routes are numbered? Regards, Tristan -- _ _V.-o Tristan Miller [en,(fr,de,ia)] Space is limited / |`-' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= In a haiku, so it's hard (7_\\ http://www.nothingisreal.com/ To finish what you |
Bus numbering
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. "Tristan Miller" wrote in message g... Greetings. Is there any scheme to how London bus routes are numbered? Regards, Tristan -- _ _V.-o Tristan Miller [en,(fr,de,ia)] Space is limited / |`-' -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= In a haiku, so it's hard (7_\\ http://www.nothingisreal.com/ To finish what you |
Bus numbering
"Orienteer" wrote in
k: 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. What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Is there any official reason why (a) the W prefix was brought in, and (b) why they still use it? Iain |
Bus numbering
Iain wrote:
"Orienteer" wrote in k: 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. What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Is there any official reason why (a) the W prefix was brought in, and (b) why they still use it? Iain a) Think it is based on the bus garage, so you get U buses around Uxbridge and H buses around Hounslow. b) Why not? Have a look at http://www.londonbusroutes.net/routes.htm Stu |
Bus numbering
"Stu" typed
a) Think it is based on the bus garage, so you get U buses around Uxbridge and H buses around Hounslow. H buses are round Hampstead Garden Suburb and Harrow too. -- Helen D. Vecht: Edgware. |
Bus numbering
Stu wrote:
Iain wrote: "Orienteer" wrote in k: 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. What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Is there any official reason why (a) the W prefix was brought in, and (b) why they still use it? Iain a) Think it is based on the bus garage, so you get U buses around Uxbridge and H buses around Hounslow. There's also H around Harrow and Hampstead, and E for Ealing, C for Chelsea-ish, P for Peckham, K for Kingston, D for Docklands, B for Bexleyheath, R for Orrrrpington or Richmond, S for Sutton or Stratford etc... It might make the routes easier to identify in places like Ealing, where there are quite a lot of these E-routes; whenever you're outside Ealing, you know that E-routes go there. That doesn't really work for some of the others though (like C). -- Dave Arquati Imperial College, SW7 www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London |
Bus numbering
On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 22:00:23 +0100, Dave Arquati wrote:
It might make the routes easier to identify in places like Ealing, where there are quite a lot of these E-routes; whenever you're outside Ealing, you know that E-routes go there. That doesn't really work for some of the others though (like C). Not all the E-routes go to Ealing Broadway though (or even particularly near it). |
Bus numbering
"Helen Deborah Vecht" wrote in message ... "Stu" typed a) Think it is based on the bus garage, so you get U buses around Uxbridge and H buses around Hounslow. H buses are round Hampstead Garden Suburb and Harrow too. Helen, I've always wondered. How do you pronounce your surname? Is it as it looks? I think "Vekt". The "ch" is probably different .. i.e. soft c .. etc .... Nut I never was good at linguistics ... or spelling. |
Bus numbering
Iain wrote: "Orienteer" wrote in k: 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. What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Is there any official reason why (a) the W prefix was brought in, and (b) why they still use it? Iain I am sure that there hasn't been a W based on Woodford, at least for many decades. I think there were two versions of W relatively recently. Mainly it was routes around, and based at, Wood Green. There was one W route based in Walthamstow, which was the W21 circular route, but this was replaced by the 212 and various kinds of 97 around 1979ish I think. |
Bus numbering
Dave Arquati wrote: Stu wrote: Iain wrote: "Orienteer" wrote in k: 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. What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Is there any official reason why (a) the W prefix was brought in, and (b) why they still use it? Iain a) Think it is based on the bus garage, so you get U buses around Uxbridge and H buses around Hounslow. There's also H around Harrow and Hampstead, and E for Ealing, C for Chelsea-ish, P for Peckham, K for Kingston, D for Docklands, B for Bexleyheath, R for Orrrrpington or Richmond, S for Sutton or Stratford etc... It might make the routes easier to identify in places like Ealing, where there are quite a lot of these E-routes; whenever you're outside Ealing, you know that E-routes go there. That doesn't really work for some of the others though (like C). I thought C was for Camden. |
Bus numbering
In message . com, MIG
writes There's also H around Harrow and Hampstead, and E for Ealing, C for Chelsea-ish, P for Peckham, K for Kingston, D for Docklands, B for Bexleyheath, R for Orrrrpington or Richmond, S for Sutton or Stratford etc... It might make the routes easier to identify in places like Ealing, where there are quite a lot of these E-routes; whenever you're outside Ealing, you know that E-routes go there. That doesn't really work for some of the others though (like C). I thought C was for Camden. That's what I thought. Then TfL introduced (or renumbered an existing part of a route) the C10 which runs from Victoria to Canada Water. -- Paul G Typing from Barking |
Bus numbering
"elyob" typed
"Helen Deborah Vecht" wrote in message ... "Stu" typed a) Think it is based on the bus garage, so you get U buses around Uxbridge and H buses around Hounslow. H buses are round Hampstead Garden Suburb and Harrow too. Helen, I've always wondered. How do you pronounce your surname? Is it as it looks? I think "Vekt". The "ch" is probably different .. i.e. soft c .. etc .... Nut I never was good at linguistics ... or spelling. Ch as in 'loch', if you can, k if you can't... -- Helen D. Vecht: Edgware. |
Bus numbering
MIG wrote:
Iain wrote: "Orienteer" wrote in k: 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. What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Is there any official reason why (a) the W prefix was brought in, and (b) why they still use it? Iain I am sure that there hasn't been a W based on Woodford, at least for many decades. I think there were two versions of W relatively recently. Mainly it was routes around, and based at, Wood Green. The W8 and W9 went nowhere near Wood Green, but they did serve Winchmore Hill. |
Bus numbering
Dave Arquati wrote: There's also H around Harrow and Hampstead, and E for Ealing, C for Chelsea-ish, P for Peckham, K for Kingston, D for Docklands, B for Bexleyheath, R for Orrrrpington or Richmond, S for Sutton or Stratford etc... A is for Airport? -- gordon |
Bus numbering
"Helen Deborah Vecht" wrote in message ... "Stu" typed Helen, I've always wondered. How do you pronounce your surname? Is it as it looks? I think "Vekt". The "ch" is probably different .. i.e. soft c .. etc .... Nut I never was good at linguistics ... or spelling. Ch as in 'loch', if you can, That'll exclude most of the English, then! k if you can't... No bother to those of us north of Hadrian's Wall! -- gordon |
Bus numbering
John Rowland wrote: MIG wrote: Iain wrote: "Orienteer" wrote in k: 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. What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Is there any official reason why (a) the W prefix was brought in, and (b) why they still use it? Iain I am sure that there hasn't been a W based on Woodford, at least for many decades. I think there were two versions of W relatively recently. Mainly it was routes around, and based at, Wood Green. The W8 and W9 went nowhere near Wood Green, but they did serve Winchmore Hill. Ah, but from here, Winchmore Hill IS near Wood Green ... |
Bus numbering
Paul G wrote:
I thought C was for Camden. That's what I thought. Then TfL introduced (or renumbered an existing part of a route) the C10 which runs from Victoria to Canada Water. Neither C1 nor C3 go near Camden, but both do go to Kensington and Chelsea in some way or other. Neil |
Bus numbering
Neil Williams wrote: Paul G wrote: I thought C was for Camden. That's what I thought. Then TfL introduced (or renumbered an existing part of a route) the C10 which runs from Victoria to Canada Water. Neither C1 nor C3 go near Camden, but both do go to Kensington and Chelsea in some way or other. Neil What does RV stand for, by the way? Ri Ver? I can't see any point at all in using letters for certain routes, given that all routes go to a number of places and could be named after one of them, if it was worth it. If it only applied to circular routes or something it might make sense. |
Bus numbering
R for Orrrrpington. Roundabout, actually. Ian |
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Iain wrote: What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Confusingly Potters Bar had PB1. Should it not have been merely P1 in order to enable the usual clashes with other potential "P" locations? -- gordon |
Bus numbering
MIG wrote:
What does RV stand for, by the way? Ri Ver? No idea. RV1 is a bit of a special case, though, as it's almost a branded "tourist bus" that happens to be part of the main TfL fares system. Neil |
Bus numbering
On 16 Aug 2006 02:47:17 -0700, Neil Williams wrote:
What does RV stand for, by the way? Ri Ver? No idea. RV1 is a bit of a special case, though, as it's almost a branded "tourist bus" that happens to be part of the main TfL fares system. IIRC they have the word "Riverside" on them somewhere. |
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On 15 Aug 2006 16:22:21 -0700, "MIG"
wrote: I am sure that there hasn't been a W based on Woodford, at least for many decades. Err so what do the W13 and W14 do then other than wandering around Woodford? They go nowhere near Walthamstow although I accept they were implemented as part of the Walthamstow network tendering exercise that gave us W11 - W16. I think there were two versions of W relatively recently. Mainly it was routes around, and based at, Wood Green. There was one W route based in Walthamstow, which was the W21 circular route, but this was replaced by the 212 and various kinds of 97 around 1979ish I think. The W21 was a circular wasn't it? Therefore the 212 and 97A replaced it. -- Paul C Admits to working for London Underground! |
Bus numbering - W21, 212, 97A
Paul Corfield wrote: The W21 was a circular wasn't it? Therefore the 212 and 97A replaced it. That's correct, the W21 was Walthamstow Central - Church Hill - Fulbourne Road - Highams Park - Larkshall Road - New Road - Chingford Mount - Crooked Billet - Hoe Street - Walthamstow Central circular. Buses going round one way (can't remember which now) used a black-on-yellow ultimate blind. The 212 largely replaced the W21. The 212 ran Chingford Yardley Lane - Mansfield Hill - Chingford Mount - Crooked Billet - Hoe Street - Walthamstow Central - Church Hill - Fulbourne Road - Highams Park - Larkshall Road - Chingford Station. The 'via' blinds on the 212 emphasised the Walthamstow Central bit, ISTR by using capital letters. The 97A covered the bit direct along the New Road that the 212 missed, and had various other terminals at the north and south ends before being renumbered 357 a few years ago. Somewhat later on the 212 was cut back to be Walthamstow Central to Chingford Station only, with the 215 being introduced to cover Yardley Lane to Walthamstow Central. This was resurrecting the old 276 route which the 212 had replaced itself a few years before. |
Bus numbering
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 |
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Paul G wrote:
I thought C was for Camden. That's what I thought. Then TfL introduced (or renumbered an existing part of a route) the C10 which runs from Victoria to Canada Water. I thought C was for 'Central' |
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Paul Corfield wrote: On 15 Aug 2006 16:22:21 -0700, "MIG" wrote: I am sure that there hasn't been a W based on Woodford, at least for many decades. Err so what do the W13 and W14 do then other than wandering around Woodford? They go nowhere near Walthamstow although I accept they were implemented as part of the Walthamstow network tendering exercise that gave us W11 - W16. I am undone. |
Bus numbering
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. 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. |
Bus numbering
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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In message ,
Colin Rosenstiel writes Potters Bar falls outside the TfL area (although there is some cross over in the TfL funded routes also operate within Potters Bar), so it's up to Hertfordshire County Council what the routes are called. Not when the PB1 first started, surely? You live and learn. Apparently the PB1 was started in 1977 by Dial-a-Ride; although a different website says PB1 was based on the 284 bus route at that time. Anyone know any more? I wasn't born and only lived in Potters Bar 1987 to 2000 :) Just looked on busmap.org and the 284 appears in the 1970 map (doing a loop around Mutton Lane, Darkes Lane and the High Street) but not the 1958 map. -- Paul G Typing from Barking |
Bus numbering
Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
But someone on high decreed that suffix letters were not 21st century so they have all gone, with the last being the 77A (now roughly the 87). The 11 in Birmingham goes up to 11E doesn't it? So the Outer Circle can be divided into sectors? If you want suffix letters, go to Chennai (Madras) in India. Many numbers seem to have all possible suffix letters from A to Z. And the 18A has Ashok Leyland Titan rear platform double-deckers. It's pretty confusing for visitors, though. Colin McKenzie -- On average in Britain, you're more likely to get a head injury walking a mile than cycling it. So why aren't we all exhorted to wear walking helmets? |
Bus numbering
Colin Rosenstiel wrote: The 11 in Birmingham goes up to 11E doesn't it? So the Outer Circle can be divided into sectors? From my Brum days (many years sgo now, so the info may be out of date), the Birmingham Outer Circle route 11 is split into 11A and 11C, for anti clockwise and clockwise operations respectively. The inner circle route 8 is similarly split. 'E' is a generic suffix across the whole system to denote a bus that is terminating before the end of the route. Quite a sensible system really. The one thing that I couldn't master (until I became familiar with the geography of the city) was that radial routes never changed their destination blinds, and you just had to know if they were running to or from the city! Peter |
Bus numbering
On Wed, 16 Aug 2006 01:31:34 +0100, "John Rowland"
wrote: MIG wrote: Iain wrote: "Orienteer" wrote in k: 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. What about the W-prefixed buses? I've variously heard that the W stands for Walthamstow, Woodford, and even West (which seems unlikely seeing as they're mostly based around northeast London). Is there any official reason why (a) the W prefix was brought in, and (b) why they still use it? Iain I am sure that there hasn't been a W based on Woodford, at least for many decades. I think there were two versions of W relatively recently. Mainly it was routes around, and based at, Wood Green. The W8 and W9 went nowhere near Wood Green, but they did serve Winchmore Hill. But they were close to, and similar to (i.e. PAYB standee vehicles) the W1-6 which were in the Wood Green area. From memory the W1-6 were the first in the W series, and were all in the Wood Green area. (The W21 came not long after in a separate stage on the bus restructuring plan, so we'll ignore that). W7 came slightly later as a direct replacement for the 212. Although it didn't go that near Wood Green it could be considered to form part of a network with the other W routes, as two of them also served Finsbury Park station and they also interested at the base of Muswell Hill. W8 was not much later and a replacement for the 128. It was quite a way outside the Wood Green area, it's closest approach to an existing W route was, I think, Ridge Avenue which wasn't TOO far from Winchmore Hill, where the W4 could be found. W9 came quite a bit later and was different, as it was a minibus with hail-and-ride sections. The other very early lettered schemes, all modelled on Red Arrow with single-decker PAYG vehicles, turnstiles and very few seats, were at Ealing (e1-3) and the M1 (Morden - Wimbledon or something like that). |
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Paul G wrote in
: Potters Bar falls outside the TfL area (although there is some cross over in the TfL funded routes also operate within Potters Bar), so it's up to Hertfordshire County Council what the routes are called. The 313 goes from Chingford, through Enfield, up the Ridgeway and into Potters Bar, and according to the timetable I've just downloaded from TfL it's "Operated by Arriva London for London Buses". Iain |
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