( we still love Roger's boots ) What do we think of the 3xx buses though - how many of them are Double Deckers, and how many of them are smaller routes, run by Single Decker buses?
Several times while passing through Heathrow, I've seen a bus at Hatton Cross for "Butts Farm" but never had time to ride on it. I imagine something like Viz' Arse Farm. Would love to see Geoff out there.
He's just been featured on a BBC report about a once-per-week one-way only rail replacement service for Chiltern Railways. I wonder if Geoff will do a video on this at some point.
When I lived in Upminster, before the M25, I used to consider my school, The Coopers' Company and Coborn School, the true edge of London. The playing fields backed on to a farm, mostly cabbages, and we had to run cross country all round the fields and lanes. Out the front entrance turn left and it was virtually all town to the city centre.
One long gap between bus stops is between Hogarth Roundabout and Hammersmith Bridge Road on the 533. The 533 is an odd route, as it was started when Hammersmith bridge closed, and it goes from one side of the bridge to the other, Castelnau-Hammersmith, via Chiswick bridge. But between Hogarth and Hammersmith it uses the A4, which doesn't have any bus stops on it (and they didn't bother building any new ones), so it doesn't stop.
On the TfL Bus Network I would have thought the longest gap between stops would have been either on the X26/SL7 between either Croydon-Wallington or -Kingston--Heathrow, or on the 465 between Leatherhead (or Mickelham)-Dorking or possibly some sections of the 464 in Tatsfield (Surrey (Well actually, maybe not after consulting a map [EDIT: I mean distance of stops here, not whether Tatsfield is in Surrey or G. London]). Another Edit: I completely forgot about when the X26/SL7 is on diversion due to the major cycle event starting in Kingston causing a long diversion via the M25, thus avoiding Kingston and going via I think the A3 then M25 instead if memory is correct!
A Geoff Marshall bus video about the town I grew up in, what a treat. Watching you nerd out about the routes I used to take every day is an absolute gem.
I often use the 347 to get to Upminster from Gallows Corner as it saves me using two buses to get there. A few years ago Geoff (or a friend of his) asked what the least used bus stop is in London. I suggested Wylie Veterinary Centre on the 347 route. I noticed a close up of this on the next bus stop display. Homage to my suggestion? Probably just coincidence. Finally, around 8 years ago I noticed that Sydenham Hill station had no buses serving it except one on a Friday morning. Obviously I don't live that way anymore so I cannot verify if this service still exists.
The service that served Sydenham Hill was the 931 which was a mobility route. It no longer exists, now the closest route is the 450 which serves Kingswood Estate.
I have ridden the route 388 in Sydney. This operates once per weekday in one direction only, from Wolloomooloo (2 miles SE of the harbour bridge) to Bondi Junction. It is a special variant of the route 389 that serves some public housing.
There is a limited bus service which shares between Doncaster and Epworth known as the 399 which, is run by Hornsby’s and is continuing to Scunthorpe via Westwoodside. Only 2 a day each way
I'm going back a bit but I remember the 18A and/or 18B that would do Doncaster to Dinnington but go via some villages such as Clifton near braithwell and conisborough and there was one or two a day. And not once did i see anyone get on or off there!
As a kid I was fascinated how red buses gave way to green near the fringes of London. The bus stops used to have green roundels around the edges of London too. The 251 from Southend to Wood Green was an odd one. Green buses usually ran to the nearest Greater London town before turning back towards the countryside.
The 251was never a London Country service but operated by Eastern National (who generally worked further out in Essex) and just happened also to use a green livery. There were in fact two Eastern National services linking London and Southend - the 251 which went all round the houses and the 400 that was an express service that basically went along the Arterial Road. With traffic as it is today, I think the 251 would take about half a day to complete its route.
@@HampsteadOwl Ah yes, it was Eastern National, you're spot on. I should have realised that because it was usually a Bristol VR and London Country had Atlanteans. I'm getting old and forgetful. That route would be a long old crawl now.
We had similar in Glasgow. City buses were almost entirely run by Glasgow Corporation (later Strathclyde’s Buses), whereas country buses were run by Scottish Bus Group companies (such as Central, Western, Midland, even Eastern). So, the city buses were green (later Strathclyde Red - essentially Orange) and the country buses were a mixture of reds, blues and greens. Even today, the distinction is there in some places, though not noticeable. The dominant operator in Glasgow is First Glasgow, but their licence is split in 2 with First Glasgow No.1 being the legacy city operator (with 1 and 2 digit numbers) and First Glasgow No.2 being the country operator of the former Central routes (with 3 digit numbers).
@@HampsteadOwl Actually the 251 ran from London Wood Green (the garage used in the tv series On The Buses) to Southend on Sea via Brentwood, Billericay and Wickford. But it started by the City bus company before being taken by Eastern National, also the City Bus Company had a depot in Brentwood which later became the Thermos company and is the site of Sainsburys.
Yes, I always blink twice when I see red buses on routes starting with 3 or 4, being old enough to remember the Country Area. Living in Surrey, if we wanted to go north on a Green Rover ticket, we often used the 347, which ran from Uxbridge via Watford to Hemel Hempstead. Usually RMLs if I remember rightly.
The R5 and R10 in Orpington are only every 2.5 hrs, although the start may be earlier, so more busses in total but less frequent during its operating hours. These 2 routes have a loop, the R5 goes one way around the loop and the R10 goes the other way around. So for part of the route they are basically the same, making it more frequent than the 347, but if you need to go around the loop in a specific direction, it's less frequent. I believe a single bus serves both routes, alternating between them.
Here in NYC, most buses run 24 hours a day or on the 5 AM-12 AM schedule. However, Staten Island is unique for having their limited variants be different numbers instead of tacking on LTD or SBS after the route number. So officially, they are completely different routes. In Staten Island, these routes are additionally peak only, so AM trips go towards St. George and PM trips go from St. George. But even more crazier than that, there are three routes that only operate in the PM Rush Hour, the S81, S84, and S86. According to the timetables, the S86 has only five trips per weekday, making it the least frequent bus in NYC.
Came to you for your tube content but happy to stay for the random bus videos. Its good to see this side of London transport that I'd never really ever think about.
The 347 (and less usefully the 346 and 346A) was my local bus service back in the day. But that was nowhere near Ockendon, but in the Watford area. It terminated at Uxbridge.
I remember route 347 commencing operation in November 2004, when it replaced the majority of mobility route 952 which operated between Romford and Lakeside. Great video by the way Geoff, and at 7:02 I was genuinely yelling "Do It!" to riding the bus back to Romford - which I'm glad you and Roger did.
Even before that the 952 replaced Capital Citybus route 349 which was withdrawn on 10 October 1998, the main difference between the 349 and 952 is that the 349 went via Main Road like the 347 does now while the 952 went via Balgores Lane.
300 series numbers takes me back! My friend Eddie owned Leyland National SB 312, and drove it along the 355 route it used to ply when we were at school together.
Fun facts about the 347: The route originally launched in November 1993 under a different route number, 349, between Harold Hill and Lakeside to help route 510 as well as keep more services running to help decongest the busy 348 at the time. The route was diverted to Romford on October 22 1994. The route was withdrawn on October 10 1998 and replaced by alterations to the 348 when it's Aveley service was withdrawn and replaced by the 324, now known as the 372 since 2002. The route later existed again under the same route called the 952 which was a mobility route that only operated on certain days of the week. By 2004 it was withdrawn, and replaced by the 347 but withdrawn between Lakeside and Ockendon Station.
9:49 There are quite alot 3** buses that are double deckers Geoff 🤣. Dont worry it happens to alot of us. Try the 307 it serves between Barnet Hospital and Brimdown located in the Enfield borough. It even serves Oakwood station on the Piccadily line. You should try it, TFL even orginally proposed it to be part of the 24 hour weekend buses when Night tube services are available, it didnt fall through but it was a cool suggestion. Great video as always, looking forward to your next one.
To be pedantic (can't resist!) - the route of the 347 north of Ockendon station is shared by both the 370 and the 269 Grays - Brentwood bus. The 370 turns left after a mile or so to go via Corbetts Tey, whilst the 269 and 347 continue along the same road until the the 347 turns left to go via Cranham. The 269 was originally an Eastern National route and is now operated by NIBS (I think) under contract to Essex County Council.
Yes, the 269 is now run by NIBS. It's possibly the only London Service Permit route that links Greater London and the Essex admin area too (exc. Thurrock/Southend boroughs), which leads to this ticketing curiosity - for cross-boundary journeys you can use the Essex Saver on applicable TfL buses (provided you already bought one on a non-TfL bus).
The 372, which goes pretty much past my house, is usually a double decker, runs between Hornchurch and Lakeside Shopping Centre. The 370, as mentioned, goes from Romford, through Hornchurch and Upminster to Lakeside
The 372 used to be known as the 324 and I prefer it when it was the 324. The reason being is that the route went all the way from Romford to Gravesend and the route is exactly the same as the 324 in October 1998 except it doesn't have services to Thurrock College as that I believe was renamed Palmers College or just doesn't exist anymore.
Longest distance between bus stops may depend if the Hail and Ride routes or school services count. 19 mins on the W5 between Harringay Superstores & Crouch End. 601 school service takes 5 mins between stops "Bexley Park" and "Wilmington School," but route B13 has 2 where it takes over 2 mins. However, routes 40 and 63 has a stop where its under 30 seconds between the stops of "Southwark Station" and "Pocock Street"
I used to go to the church near there I used to race the bus at times to see if I could keep up lol The stops from Southwark station to St George’s Circus are really close to each other lol
I think the shortest distance between stops has to be Catford bus garage to Bellingham Road in the direction of Downham and Bromley. The stops are less than 100m apart. Other contenders are Lewisham Park to Lewisham Hospital and Catford town centre to Bromley Road/Lewisham town hall. Bromley Road has a ton of short distance stops.
Near me is the route 29, and it has a bus stop going south towards Trafalgar Square called "Rowley Gardens" shared with the 141 and 341. The next bus stop is "Manor House station" exclusively for route 29, which is so short it's about 100 metres between the bus stops.
I am surprised that Roger did not open up his old Country Bus Map and point out the old (green bus) route 347. It ran every 30 minutes from Hemel Hempstead to Uxbridge via Watford, Northwood, and Denham. I first used it in about 1960.
It became the number 8 which has since been the 528 and now the 328. Arriva jiggle it every few years/months/days but its most recent guise is only Northwood to Watford. Last year it was Northwood to Hemel. Before that it was Abbotts Langley to Northwood. How they ever thought it would be on time from Hemel to Uxbridge I do not know.
I wish routes like this existed now, living in Cheshunt, going to Enfield or Edmonton by bus is annoying really, should be 1 bus the whole way but instead is 1 frequent bus to Waltham Cross and 1 that may not turn up or a long wait on the Herts side, county boundaries shouldn't be stopping quality and consistent bus services to neighbouring towns from existing. I envy the days of London Country and Greenline, would've loved to have experienced it.
@@thomasohare8552 Believe it or not, but back in the early nineteen-sixties when I traveled on the Hemel-Uxbridge 347 it usually ran to time! But the vehicles were crew-operated RTs (later RMs) and there was less traffic congestion.
Yes, always double deckers. Single deckers were quite rare back then and usually indicated a low bridge somewhere on the route. (Although someone even nerdier than I am might inform us of the low height double deckers which used to serve serve some of those routes.)@@adamdenning1
I remember the 347 well, having grown up in Upminster, and lived from 2010 to 2012 very close to the Gallows Corner Tesco bus stops! The 347 always seemed a real anomaly - a useful way to cross over from Harold Wood to Upminster (or vice versa) directly - yet far less frequent than you would think was needed! I’d have liked it to run more frequently, but I guess there just wasn’t the demand for it.
@@NiceABCD That’s ironic, because I now live near Stamford Hill, where the current 349 red bus route terminates. But the only other route I remember going through Upminster and Ockendon way back then, was the 373.
Luxury! I once got the bus from Haverfordwest to Rosebush to do a hike up to the top of Foel Cwmcerwyn. It was a bit of a rush as missing the last bus of the day (about 16:00) would've meant waiting a week for the next one.
It’s nice to see you uploading another bus video, also there are thousands of more bus routes across the country that are even less frequent than any of the TfL routes
There was a route in Wolverhampton that ran to Codsall which has two bus services but the 10B Only Monday - Friday at 09:30, 11:30 and 13:30 three times a day usually operated by Double Deckers that did the morning 10 to Perton and then a School bus or did the School bus before the 10B. I called it illstrusious as I only ever saw it 1 or 2 times and never caught it
When I went to Tromsø, I looked at going to one of the places at the end of one of the routes where the views seem amazing. I found a bus that would get ,there for around 2/3 p.m, the only problem being the bus back wasn’t until 6 a.m the next day.
Indeed. In the sparsely populated outskirts of Tromsø (my hometown!) busses are very infrequent. They certainly aren’t profitable, but do provide an invaluable service for those that can’t drive for whatever reason. The government should offer more support to up the frequency.
Interesting video and the bit between Upminster and Ockendon is lovely and very scenic. However, it goes downhill a bit in Ockendon. No wonder Geoff and Roger left swiftly.
Longest distance between stops… here in New York City that has to be either one of the busses that runs over the Verrazzano Bridge because it’s 2 miles long, and the stops are bit of a ways off from the access ramps OR the Q60 that runs from Manhattan to LaGuardia airport via the Triborough bridge, but I’m not sure if that’s longer than 2 miles. Otherwise the distance between stops is supposed to be 750 feet, but because of the street layout it’s sometimes more like approximately 750 feet.
They almost did! They've revised their plans after consultation due to the loss of a bus service around the Cathedrals Estate (named so because a lot of the roads are named after cities and towns with well known Cathedrals) in Cranham. A lot of bus users are also older people and abolition of the route may cut them off from accessing shopping facilities, doctors surgeries and more.
London gets buses that nobody wants or needs. Meanwhile the rest of the country gets their services cut even though they are necessary services. Such is life.
Depends really which fourth party runs the service. They may have a contractual obligation to run X amounts of services etc. TfL just rent the buses really don’t they from the bus companies. Like Arriva etc Correct me if I’m wrong
Following on from your recent video of the least used station in Lincolnshire of Kirton in Lindsey. There is actually a very limited 94 bus service that goes from Kirton in Lindsey to Brigg if any enthusiasts are wanting to tick off the unique 1 round trip railway stations.
it drives me MAD it would be such a good bus route as it now goes to the lizzie line from upminster to harold wood, the part where you said no other bus goes on to, but i’ve lived 5 mins from the 347 my entire life and got on it once x
Probably not your bag but, two stops west outside the Zones and a 10-minute walk from Staines railway station, there's the White Bus 438 which does a one-way route, five times a day Monday to Saturday, to and from Staines bus station in a loop via a housing estate in neighbouring Laleham. The entire bus route is less than 25 minutes and starts at 10:00 / 11:30 / 13:00 / 14:30 / 16:30.
There are a few Dales bus routes into the Yorkshire dales that there is only one bus a week on a Sunday these only operate for about 6 months. Thus giving you about 24 buses per year on those routes!
In Levin NZ 🇳🇿..population 20K..there is no internal bus service but 2x a week a bus does the round trip 50km north to Palmerston North..two other days take you 40 km south to Waikanae to connect with the top end of the electric trains 80km on to Wellington and all scenic points in between..Miss the 3pm return bus back from Waikanae...and you're Stuck...until the Capital Connection train ..8 Mk 2 refurbished carriages...rolls through over 3 hours later.
lines like these are completely normal here in Denmark, where you need a bus route to someplace where there isn't a train connection (because there is some clause that villages over a certain size must have public transport), but there aren't enough pasengers to really justify a bus service. We also have them here in Copenhagen, where they make less sense. I live in the west end of Copenhagen and last year they started running line 134 around here, which is a fairly short route that a few times a day goes an obscure zig-zag between some residential areas. Bits of this line runs a route that either was once part of a different bus line that no longer exists, or part of a line that was planned and never run. 134 was introduced because there are rather large areas between the other bus lines, so you may have to walk a couple km to get to a bus, and for an area that has a sizable population of elderly, that resulted in a lot of complaints. Where the 134 will remain is uncertain, but for now it maintains a few departures a day
TFL does not use any specific numbering system unless it’s a prefix (mostly). Usually they share a common area or function. The ELs share Barking Riverside, the Ws are within the Waltham Forest area, the N routes for night services. There are also examples of 3xx routes being bigger, and/or double deck. The 368 is a local route, but uses double decks. 370 is a longer route, but is more out of the way.
In south London you have the P buses which I believe is for Peckham (although the P4 doesn’t go past Peckham and we used to have a P3 that became the 343) The D buses for the docklands The C buses which I would assume is for central
There is another route that is the 375 which goes from Romford Station to Passingford Bridge which has a service every 1 hour and 25 minutes up until 6:50pm which I believe shares the same bus as the 347 as they change every day😁👍
You are correct that the 375 uses the same bus, but there are two of them. Both routes share ENL111 and ENL112 (which are ex Stagecoach London buses which have had a very good refurb), although 375's sometimes sees double deckers which is a real treat, unlike the 347 because of the low bridge at Upminster
The 375 actually replaced withdrawn Arriva route 500 that went between Romford and Harlow, when it was introduced in 2008. TfL chose Passingford Bridge as the terminus because they only wanted to focus on Havering-atte-Bower and that was the first safest place to turn around. I think it's significance increased when the 575 was withdrawn.
A suggestion for an update is the Stalybridge to Stockport parliamentary train. It has been 7 years since you last did it but it no longer has evil Pacers and now runs on a Saturday. It also stops at a least used station. The challenge would be to record the entire episode in the 34 minutes between the two trains at Denton. I suspect the answer to almost every "does it have" question would be "no".
Where Geoff was saying about London going outside of M25 at Waltham Cross, that is only where the buses run to the bus station at Waltham Cross. The road signs at the boundary of Middlesex and Hertfordshire are within the M25.
Hi Geoff love your videos I drive busses here in Auckland New Zealand and one of our routes 128 has a journey that is 30kms long and with only 4 bus stops runs hourly M-F and 2 hourly on weekends average passenger numbers is about 4 on each trip sometimes nobody first stop from start is 10kms away
Geoff the part of London by Waltham cross actually officially stops by Bullsmoor lane with the bourgh of enfiled extending to included the m25 however every every south of the m25 normally dealt with by London, between bulls moor lane and the m25 is usually a joint operation depending on scale of the task and every north of the m25 is dealt with by ever Hertfordshire or Essex. Waltham cross it self is usually not dealt with by any of London’s services at all and never dose the enfiled or London boundary include Waltham cross. The only thing London is the 5 tfl routes there but most bus services are private and head towards Essex
Geoff, it would be cool if you and Roger would ride the Sunday Summer extension of London Bus Route 246 which enters into Kent (KCC) at Westerham daily and extended to Chartwell National Trust On Summer Sundays. Probably one of the furthest London bus routes into Kent country side.
Longest distance between stops - I imagine some of the longest may be those routes that serve Heathrow central, with it being so tucked away in the centre of everything.
I've quickly written up some code to look through the London Buses routes, and the largest stop distance by far is on the London Superloop route SL7, between Hatton Cross Station and Teddington Broad Street. That's over six miles!
I use this bus on a regular basis, it has the most passengers on the first run of the day, mostly older people going out for shopping. It connects well with Harold Wood Station for the Elizabeth line, but all this will change with the new bus route of the 346.
They should really use minivans for these routes. I know it's impossible because you never know when a wheelchair user or a group of schoolchildren will show up but still. In most cases, 13 passenger seats would be plenty.
The original 347 also ran into London, way back when it ran around Uxbridge.... When this 347 started it was operated by Blue Triangle buses, back in the days when BT was a small independent, enthusiast type operator, before it was sold to Go-Ahead. One route i never drove when i was a driver at BT, back in the early 2000s, it had it's own little pool of drivers who worked it.....
Great video! I’m probably one of the few people watching this video who has already been on this bus before. A very cool route, I hope it doesn’t get cut.
Great video Geoff. Always enjoy your videos and especially when you do buses. Got a few 3xx routes in Enfield. 313,317,307,327, 329, 349, 382,383,384,389 and 399. The 313,317, 307 and 329 double decker but the 313 used to be single deckers until 2020. The 313 goes to Potters Bar which is outside of London. As well as the 317 and 327 going to Waltham Cross.
A route that connects where I lived until I was 10, where I lived in my school years and where I'm planning to move to this year! Don't think I've ever been on this bus though 😅
Our bus was once a day in each direction, that enabled you to have approximately an hour or so in town before returning. Then it went to twice a week and finally was taken off all together, the company claiming 'no one used it'... I rode it a few times and found it was used mostly by pensioners from a caravan park to get to our local hospital/town and was therefore busy for half the route! (Could it be they were all bus pass holders and not profit generating?) Our only alternative now is a 30/40 minute walk down narrow lanes with no verges to a bus stop with a service that had it's frequency reduced from half hourly to hourly by the former local councillor... Ah the joys of a rural life!
The 370 (which you just talked about) is double decker, as well as the 374 from Lakeside as well, and I’m sure there are much more 3xx buses that are double decker.
Writing to you from Toronto, the TTC (Toronto transit commission) does occasionally cancel bus routes when the ridership just drops to the point of vanishing. That might be a topic for a video, or maybe a series of them, London lost bus routes, kind of along the lines of London’s lost railways!
Another bus route which extends out of London. The 498 goes from Romford to Brentwood. I think there is a gap of about 1.3 miles between the stop at Petersfield Avenue on the A12, and then the Holiday Inn on Brook Street, as the bus travels on the final stretch of the A12 within Greater London before passing around a very large roundabout with the M25.
There are a few routes across London that are 300 routes which I know of that operate as double decker such as the 320,333,337,341,343,345,353,363,390.
I used to work for Capital Citybus in the early 1990’s and we had a bus service tagged onto the end of 165/365. It went from Rainham (Essex) to South Ockenden at about 1800 hrs . I did this for a week and never picked a soul up.
I have checked the bus that ran on it today (11/01/2024), and can confirm it only does this route, there is nothing else bolted on to the front or end of it. It comes out of Grays depot at 0840 to start the 347 and returns there after the 347 finishes, arriving just after 1700, and doesn't leave the depot again in passenger service for the rest of the day.
I used to live in Harold Wood and often used to to get my shopping from Gallows Corner Tesco, often walking there and catching it with my shopping on the way back
From the OS map it looks like the Greater London boundary is just on the north side of the M25 between Potters Bar and Waltham Cross but it's a very narrow sliver of land which nobody lives on.
Yeah, most of the boundary on that stretch was adjusted to follow the outer motorway edge when the road was built. Same goes for the section west of Heathrow and the bit between north of Harold Hill and east of Upminster (before the curiosity that is the pocket of territory in which North Ockendon lies).
That Enviro 200 (at least, I think it's an E200) has a very familiar-sounding engine; we have a different variant of that bus running the suburban services in my city. As for the 347 route, I find it so bizarre that it only runs four times a day in each direction.
I thought there would be a lot of comments about busses outside of the TFL area. This video and comments would be useful as part of the "levelling up" debates . Or, Monty Python could have a sketch about it - "4 buses a day, you were lucky! We only had one on Feb 29th" etc
Quite funny fact, near where I live outside of Harlow (Essex), there is also a 347 bus, but it runs about five times a WEEK in each direction. To date I have never actually seen this bus and looking at bus timetables it’s conflicting to whether it’s three services on Tuesdays and Thursdays or only two. It’s also the only bus for four separate villages so a bit of a link for these places definitely. So yeah, 347 must be a number reserved for least serviced routes 🤷🏻♂️
If you include hail and ride sections I reckon the 336 has one of the longest sections without a bus stop between Lewisham town hall and Dunfield Road (towards Locksbottom). Thats about 1.5 miles. Thats one example near me but I'm sure there are others that beat it.
Arriva does operate the busses here in the south east of the Netherlands. And passenger numbers are really low these days. I remember when I went to school by bus in the 70's and 80's there were times that they had to use 3 busses to take all the passengers. The first 2 were already completely loaded!
A service with that frequency is luxury compared with one that used to run locally: it went from Selby via Harrogate to a destination I forget, and ran once in each direction on the first Sunday of winter months. Not one you would want to miss, with a month to wait (or possibly nine) until the next arrives. I never found out what purpose it served.
Im from just a few miles down the road from Ockendon and it's never been a busy bus route for some reason. Oh and Ockendon is Essex lol. And red buses go to London Road Brentwood which is also just outside the M25. Looking forward to seeing you post a video when we have our new train station open at Beaulieu Park Chelmsford in 12 months time.
Well there are two of them, and the bigger one (South Ockendon, including Ockendon station where Geoff and Roger ended up) is indeed Essex. The much smaller settlement of North Ockendon is Greater London though, crazy as that sounds. Not even the GL boundary reviews of the early 90s changed that.
@@timothyrider1127 yeah, I noticed that North Ockendon is not really much. I do cut through there sometimes if traffic bad on the A130 and need to use the A127. Don't know why they done the whole "Greater London" borough thing and tried to take over other counties. My friends from Ilford and Barking are still happy and proud to say that they are from Essex.
@@100tallpaul it’s because these places grew out of London in very distinct periods largely hand in hand with industry and transport progression. All of London was part of the surrounding counties at some point 👍🏻
I once had a puncture in the wilds of Warwickshire but fortunately was close to a bus stop and was the only passenger for the entire 1 hour journey into Leamington Spa for me and my bike. A bargain at £2.
I live in the wilds of Warwickshire and, out and about, quite often see our local 77 bus which, as it happens, goes into Leamington. Perhaps it was the route you took. More often than not there is no one on board and if there were more than five I would stop and photograph it as a collector's item.
@@HampsteadOwl It was indeed the 77 from Napton. Service only something like every 2 hours so it's a shame it's not more frequent as it then might be more frequented.
To knock off a few infrequent bus routes: In the book Great British Bus Journeys by David McKie (well worth a read), he mentions a bus (I cannot remember which one) which runs fortnightly, on alternate Thursdays. Given the book was written in 2005 it almost certainly doesn't run any more ('twas courtesy of Fords of Althorne - Southminster area), but it's worth a mention. However, that is nothing to Tavistock Country Bus's 112 service, which runs one return trip, on the fifth Saturday of the month, from April to September. So that's either two or three times a year. No idea if it actually still runs but TCB says that it is back to pre-COVID timetables so I assume it still does. From experience of Devon's buses, this is not abnormal.
this ... sounds brilliant, thank you !! * adds to bucket list * for a thing to do when Summer comes around. "Least Frequent Bus in Whole of Britain" ... right?
@@geofftech2 Right, assuming a) it definitely still runs (on which I shall get back to you) and b) it isn't a normal Devon bus, in which case you would have a 1 in 3 chance of having to wait for the next one!
Geoff, you should do more bus videos. Incidentally, I remember the old London Country Buses route 347. It used to operate between Uxbridge and Watford then, I think, on to Hemel Hempstead.
Distance between two physical TfL bus stops... The one in Warminater and the nearest to that which is probably Slough? Also, Imberbus could thus be declared the least frequent "London" bus service of 1 day a year, though I guess there are a load of buses for that day!
In Oxford, we have the 63S (63 diverting to serve schools and not dean court) and that is once a day service (per direction) and that’s on school days only
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( we still love Roger's boots )
What do we think of the 3xx buses though - how many of them are Double Deckers, and how many of them are smaller routes, run by Single Decker buses?
Always nice to see Roger.
Does the 3xx have any sense or are those randomly assigned?
Single deck 3xx routes:
300
303 (uses DD’s sometimes)
305 (Got withdrawn in 2018)
309
312 (Partially DD)
314
315
316 (Sometimes has DD’s on it though residents in Ladbroke Grove don’t like DD’s on the 316)
318
322
323
324
325 (Has used DD’s during the pandemic)
326
327
331
336
339
346
347
350
352
354
355 (Partially uses DD’s)
356
Sunday only 357’s
358
359
360
362
364
366
367
371 (Partially uses DD’s)
375(Partially uses DD’s)
376
377
378
379
380
382
383
384
385
386
389
391 (Withdrawn in 2020)
393
394
395
396 (Partially uses DD’s)
397
398
399
DD 3xx routes (Not including routes that partially use them except 357)
301
302
304
306
307
308
313
317
319
320
321
328
329
330
332 (Withdrawn in 2023)
333
335
337
340
341
343
344
345
349
353
357
363
365
368
370
372
381
387 (Renumbered EL3 in 2017)
388
390
Several times while passing through Heathrow, I've seen a bus at Hatton Cross for "Butts Farm" but never had time to ride on it. I imagine something like Viz' Arse Farm. Would love to see Geoff out there.
375 is sometimes a double decker
Four services a day?! Wow! That's our most frequent bus service where I am!!
One per week where I live. :(
We only have them when we don't need them. lol
My nearest 3 times day 3 days a week between 10am and 1pm
@@AngelaHurst-tu7phunited states ?
One every 15 mins here 😢😢 😂
Love Roger, he's a gift that keeps on giving. Please more of him Geoff 😅
Because he’s an icon thats why!
He's just been featured on a BBC report about a once-per-week one-way only rail replacement service for Chiltern Railways. I wonder if Geoff will do a video on this at some point.
@@andymerrett uhhh why is the bbc doing a report on it... its a year old...
i hate the mainstream news sometimes....
I love the 1968 bus map. And the boots.
When I lived in Upminster, before the M25, I used to consider my school, The Coopers' Company and Coborn School, the true edge of London. The playing fields backed on to a farm, mostly cabbages, and we had to run cross country all round the fields and lanes. Out the front entrance turn left and it was virtually all town to the city centre.
One long gap between bus stops is between Hogarth Roundabout and Hammersmith Bridge Road on the 533. The 533 is an odd route, as it was started when Hammersmith bridge closed, and it goes from one side of the bridge to the other, Castelnau-Hammersmith, via Chiswick bridge. But between Hogarth and Hammersmith it uses the A4, which doesn't have any bus stops on it (and they didn't bother building any new ones), so it doesn't stop.
Nah I think the longest distance might actually be near Romford on routes 66/296 between Mawney Road & Whalebone Lane North.
I live next to Mortlake Bus Garage and it’s all a bit weird here now!
On the TfL Bus Network I would have thought the longest gap between stops would have been either on the X26/SL7 between either Croydon-Wallington or -Kingston--Heathrow, or on the 465 between Leatherhead (or Mickelham)-Dorking or possibly some sections of the 464 in Tatsfield (Surrey (Well actually, maybe not after consulting a map [EDIT: I mean distance of stops here, not whether Tatsfield is in Surrey or G. London]).
Another Edit: I completely forgot about when the X26/SL7 is on diversion due to the major cycle event starting in Kingston causing a long diversion via the M25, thus avoiding Kingston and going via I think the A3 then M25 instead if memory is correct!
@@wclifton968gameplaystutorials Tatsfield is indeed Surrey. The urban settlement on the Greater London side in that area is all Biggin Hill.
I would have guessed 465 as well :~)
A Geoff Marshall bus video about the town I grew up in, what a treat. Watching you nerd out about the routes I used to take every day is an absolute gem.
Hurrah for Geoff Marshall bus content! I am in a right rabbit hole of London's weirdest and best routes. Thanks for the video!
I often use the 347 to get to Upminster from Gallows Corner as it saves me using two buses to get there.
A few years ago Geoff (or a friend of his) asked what the least used bus stop is in London. I suggested Wylie Veterinary Centre on the 347 route. I noticed a close up of this on the next bus stop display.
Homage to my suggestion? Probably just coincidence.
Finally, around 8 years ago I noticed that Sydenham Hill station had no buses serving it except one on a Friday morning.
Obviously I don't live that way anymore so I cannot verify if this service still exists.
The service that served Sydenham Hill was the 931 which was a mobility route. It no longer exists, now the closest route is the 450 which serves Kingswood Estate.
There are no buses that stop at the station's access points, the closest bus route is the 450
I have ridden the route 388 in Sydney. This operates once per weekday in one direction only, from Wolloomooloo (2 miles SE of the harbour bridge) to Bondi Junction. It is a special variant of the route 389 that serves some public housing.
Thanks!
the SL7 route has the longest distance between two bus stops - Hatton Cross Underground Station and Teddington / Broad Street
There is a limited bus service which shares between Doncaster and Epworth known as the 399 which, is run by Hornsby’s and is continuing to Scunthorpe via Westwoodside. Only 2 a day each way
I'm going back a bit but I remember the 18A and/or 18B that would do Doncaster to Dinnington but go via some villages such as Clifton near braithwell and conisborough and there was one or two a day. And not once did i see anyone get on or off there!
@@onlineamigait was 18B which use to run a weekend only to Maltby, assuming I’m correct the bus you’re referring to was the 396.
@@jamesrobert994 yes it probably was that. It was usually a tiny bus as well.
There are plenty of bus routes about the place that only run once a week
@@grassytramtracks yes my local route is one bus every two weeks
As a kid I was fascinated how red buses gave way to green near the fringes of London. The bus stops used to have green roundels around the edges of London too. The 251 from Southend to Wood Green was an odd one. Green buses usually ran to the nearest Greater London town before turning back towards the countryside.
The 251was never a London Country service but operated by Eastern National (who generally worked further out in Essex) and just happened also to use a green livery. There were in fact two Eastern National services linking London and Southend - the 251 which went all round the houses and the 400 that was an express service that basically went along the Arterial Road. With traffic as it is today, I think the 251 would take about half a day to complete its route.
@@HampsteadOwl Ah yes, it was Eastern National, you're spot on. I should have realised that because it was usually a Bristol VR and London Country had Atlanteans. I'm getting old and forgetful.
That route would be a long old crawl now.
We had similar in Glasgow. City buses were almost entirely run by Glasgow Corporation (later Strathclyde’s Buses), whereas country buses were run by Scottish Bus Group companies (such as Central, Western, Midland, even Eastern). So, the city buses were green (later Strathclyde Red - essentially Orange) and the country buses were a mixture of reds, blues and greens. Even today, the distinction is there in some places, though not noticeable. The dominant operator in Glasgow is First Glasgow, but their licence is split in 2 with First Glasgow No.1 being the legacy city operator (with 1 and 2 digit numbers) and First Glasgow No.2 being the country operator of the former Central routes (with 3 digit numbers).
@@HampsteadOwl Actually the 251 ran from London Wood Green (the garage used in the tv series On The Buses) to Southend on Sea via Brentwood, Billericay and Wickford.
But it started by the City bus company before being taken by Eastern National, also the City Bus Company had a depot in Brentwood which later became the Thermos company and is the site of Sainsburys.
Yes, I always blink twice when I see red buses on routes starting with 3 or 4, being old enough to remember the Country Area. Living in Surrey, if we wanted to go north on a Green Rover ticket, we often used the 347, which ran from Uxbridge via Watford to Hemel Hempstead. Usually RMLs if I remember rightly.
The R5 and R10 in Orpington are only every 2.5 hrs, although the start may be earlier, so more busses in total but less frequent during its operating hours.
These 2 routes have a loop, the R5 goes one way around the loop and the R10 goes the other way around. So for part of the route they are basically the same, making it more frequent than the 347, but if you need to go around the loop in a specific direction, it's less frequent.
I believe a single bus serves both routes, alternating between them.
I used the R5 a few months back, lovely route to travel on. (And you're right about the R5/10 sharing a bus.)
Same is true I think for both H18/19 and H9/10 in NW London but they're more frequent
I really enjoyed this video, but I really don't know why! Perhaps it is simply Geoff and Roger's joy and excitement on this bus ride!
It's funny how virtually no one rides this route.
I personally like to think the driver(s) choose to wear a rabbit helmet every now and then.
thanks, that's so kind! it IS exciting, just to ride an odd/obscure bus route like this ...
Here in NYC, most buses run 24 hours a day or on the 5 AM-12 AM schedule. However, Staten Island is unique for having their limited variants be different numbers instead of tacking on LTD or SBS after the route number. So officially, they are completely different routes. In Staten Island, these routes are additionally peak only, so AM trips go towards St. George and PM trips go from St. George. But even more crazier than that, there are three routes that only operate in the PM Rush Hour, the S81, S84, and S86. According to the timetables, the S86 has only five trips per weekday, making it the least frequent bus in NYC.
Came to you for your tube content but happy to stay for the random bus videos. Its good to see this side of London transport that I'd never really ever think about.
Dam right
The 347 (and less usefully the 346 and 346A) was my local bus service back in the day. But that was nowhere near Ockendon, but in the Watford area. It terminated at Uxbridge.
I remember route 347 commencing operation in November 2004, when it replaced the majority of mobility route 952 which operated between Romford and Lakeside.
Great video by the way Geoff, and at 7:02 I was genuinely yelling "Do It!" to riding the bus back to Romford - which I'm glad you and Roger did.
Even before that the 952 replaced Capital Citybus route 349 which was withdrawn on 10 October 1998, the main difference between the 349 and 952 is that the 349 went via Main Road like the 347 does now while the 952 went via Balgores Lane.
300 series numbers takes me back! My friend Eddie owned Leyland National SB 312, and drove it along the 355 route it used to ply when we were at school together.
Fun facts about the 347:
The route originally launched in November 1993 under a different route number, 349, between Harold Hill and Lakeside to help route 510 as well as keep more services running to help decongest the busy 348 at the time. The route was diverted to Romford on October 22 1994. The route was withdrawn on October 10 1998 and replaced by alterations to the 348 when it's Aveley service was withdrawn and replaced by the 324, now known as the 372 since 2002. The route later existed again under the same route called the 952 which was a mobility route that only operated on certain days of the week. By 2004 it was withdrawn, and replaced by the 347 but withdrawn between Lakeside and Ockendon Station.
9:49 There are quite alot 3** buses that are double deckers Geoff 🤣. Dont worry it happens to alot of us. Try the 307 it serves between Barnet Hospital and Brimdown located in the Enfield borough. It even serves Oakwood station on the Piccadily line. You should try it, TFL even orginally proposed it to be part of the 24 hour weekend buses when Night tube services are available, it didnt fall through but it was a cool suggestion. Great video as always, looking forward to your next one.
To be pedantic (can't resist!) - the route of the 347 north of Ockendon station is shared by both the 370 and the 269 Grays - Brentwood bus. The 370 turns left after a mile or so to go via Corbetts Tey, whilst the 269 and 347 continue along the same road until the the 347 turns left to go via Cranham. The 269 was originally an Eastern National route and is now operated by NIBS (I think) under contract to Essex County Council.
Yes, the 269 is now run by NIBS. It's possibly the only London Service Permit route that links Greater London and the Essex admin area too (exc. Thurrock/Southend boroughs), which leads to this ticketing curiosity - for cross-boundary journeys you can use the Essex Saver on applicable TfL buses (provided you already bought one on a non-TfL bus).
The 372, which goes pretty much past my house, is usually a double decker, runs between Hornchurch and Lakeside Shopping Centre. The 370, as mentioned, goes from Romford, through Hornchurch and Upminster to Lakeside
The 372 used to be known as the 324 and I prefer it when it was the 324. The reason being is that the route went all the way from Romford to Gravesend and the route is exactly the same as the 324 in October 1998 except it doesn't have services to Thurrock College as that I believe was renamed Palmers College or just doesn't exist anymore.
Longest distance between bus stops may depend if the Hail and Ride routes or school services count. 19 mins on the W5 between Harringay Superstores & Crouch End. 601 school service takes 5 mins between stops "Bexley Park" and "Wilmington School," but route B13 has 2 where it takes over 2 mins. However, routes 40 and 63 has a stop where its under 30 seconds between the stops of "Southwark Station" and "Pocock Street"
I used to go to the church near there I used to race the bus at times to see if I could keep up lol
The stops from Southwark station to St George’s Circus are really close to each other lol
I think the shortest distance between stops has to be Catford bus garage to Bellingham Road in the direction of Downham and Bromley. The stops are less than 100m apart. Other contenders are Lewisham Park to Lewisham Hospital and Catford town centre to Bromley Road/Lewisham town hall. Bromley Road has a ton of short distance stops.
Near me is the route 29, and it has a bus stop going south towards Trafalgar Square called "Rowley Gardens" shared with the 141 and 341. The next bus stop is "Manor House station" exclusively for route 29, which is so short it's about 100 metres between the bus stops.
I am surprised that Roger did not open up his old Country Bus Map and point out the old (green bus) route 347. It ran every 30 minutes from Hemel Hempstead to Uxbridge via Watford, Northwood, and Denham. I first used it in about 1960.
It became the number 8 which has since been the 528 and now the 328. Arriva jiggle it every few years/months/days but its most recent guise is only Northwood to Watford. Last year it was Northwood to Hemel. Before that it was Abbotts Langley to Northwood. How they ever thought it would be on time from Hemel to Uxbridge I do not know.
I wish routes like this existed now, living in Cheshunt, going to Enfield or Edmonton by bus is annoying really, should be 1 bus the whole way but instead is 1 frequent bus to Waltham Cross and 1 that may not turn up or a long wait on the Herts side, county boundaries shouldn't be stopping quality and consistent bus services to neighbouring towns from existing. I envy the days of London Country and Greenline, would've loved to have experienced it.
I used this as a kid living in Northwood in the late 60s and early 70s. Double decker every time, I seem to recall
@@thomasohare8552 Believe it or not, but back in the early nineteen-sixties when I traveled on the Hemel-Uxbridge 347 it usually ran to time! But the vehicles were crew-operated RTs (later RMs) and there was less traffic congestion.
Yes, always double deckers. Single deckers were quite rare back then and usually indicated a low bridge somewhere on the route. (Although someone even nerdier than I am might inform us of the low height double deckers which used to serve serve some of those routes.)@@adamdenning1
I remember the 347 well, having grown up in Upminster, and lived from 2010 to 2012 very close to the Gallows Corner Tesco bus stops! The 347 always seemed a real anomaly - a useful way to cross over from Harold Wood to Upminster (or vice versa) directly - yet far less frequent than you would think was needed! I’d have liked it to run more frequently, but I guess there just wasn’t the demand for it.
It actually was originally known as the 954 in 2004 and even before that it was the 349 in 1998.
@@NiceABCD That’s ironic, because I now live near Stamford Hill, where the current 349 red bus route terminates. But the only other route I remember going through Upminster and Ockendon way back then, was the 373.
@@NineWorldsFromDrew I mean the 348 came along in 1990 and then eventually there 349 in 1993
Here in Australia, we call those boots FMB’s.
Great to see another bus video, thanks!
Luxury! I once got the bus from Haverfordwest to Rosebush to do a hike up to the top of Foel Cwmcerwyn. It was a bit of a rush as missing the last bus of the day (about 16:00) would've meant waiting a week for the next one.
You were lucky. We dream of 1 bus a week in North Yorkshire
@@andymckenna1262 You were lucky. I dream ... oh, I've forgotten
It’s nice to see you uploading another bus video, also there are thousands of more bus routes across the country that are even less frequent than any of the TfL routes
Another fun route to ride would be the 465 which goes all the way to Dorking!
There was a route in Wolverhampton that ran to Codsall which has two bus services but the 10B Only Monday - Friday at 09:30, 11:30 and 13:30 three times a day usually operated by Double Deckers that did the morning 10 to Perton and then a School bus or did the School bus before the 10B. I called it illstrusious as I only ever saw it 1 or 2 times and never caught it
1:26 Roger’s boots are the definition of SLAY 🔥
They were certainly unexpected - I had to pause the video and go back to make sure I wasn't seeing things!
When I went to Tromsø, I looked at going to one of the places at the end of one of the routes where the views seem amazing. I found a bus that would get ,there for around 2/3 p.m, the only problem being the bus back wasn’t until 6 a.m the next day.
Indeed. In the sparsely populated outskirts of Tromsø (my hometown!) busses are very infrequent. They certainly aren’t profitable, but do provide an invaluable service for those that can’t drive for whatever reason. The government should offer more support to up the frequency.
Interesting video and the bit between Upminster and Ockendon is lovely and very scenic. However, it goes downhill a bit in Ockendon. No wonder Geoff and Roger left swiftly.
Reminds me of CapMetro in Austin's couple routes that run hourly during midday but only on one day of the week.
Longest distance between stops… here in New York City that has to be either one of the busses that runs over the Verrazzano Bridge because it’s 2 miles long, and the stops are bit of a ways off from the access ramps OR the Q60 that runs from Manhattan to LaGuardia airport via the Triborough bridge, but I’m not sure if that’s longer than 2 miles.
Otherwise the distance between stops is supposed to be 750 feet, but because of the street layout it’s sometimes more like approximately 750 feet.
With all the cuts TfL has had to make (in the suburbs etc) I'm surprised a route like this hasn't been cut.
I guess this service is using a bus and idle time in shifts between the peak hours
lol tfl just consultated on removing the 347. Turns out tfl failed to cut it xD
They almost did! They've revised their plans after consultation due to the loss of a bus service around the Cathedrals Estate (named so because a lot of the roads are named after cities and towns with well known Cathedrals) in Cranham. A lot of bus users are also older people and abolition of the route may cut them off from accessing shopping facilities, doctors surgeries and more.
London gets buses that nobody wants or needs. Meanwhile the rest of the country gets their services cut even though they are necessary services. Such is life.
Depends really which fourth party runs the service. They may have a contractual obligation to run X amounts of services etc. TfL just rent the buses really don’t they from the bus companies. Like Arriva etc
Correct me if I’m wrong
Following on from your recent video of the least used station in Lincolnshire of Kirton in Lindsey.
There is actually a very limited 94 bus service that goes from Kirton in Lindsey to Brigg if any enthusiasts are wanting to tick off the unique 1 round trip railway stations.
Done that 😁
it drives me MAD it would be such a good bus route as it now goes to the lizzie line from upminster to harold wood, the part where you said no other bus goes on to, but i’ve lived 5 mins from the 347 my entire life and got on it once x
Probably not your bag but, two stops west outside the Zones and a 10-minute walk from Staines railway station, there's the White Bus 438 which does a one-way route, five times a day Monday to Saturday, to and from Staines bus station in a loop via a housing estate in neighbouring Laleham. The entire bus route is less than 25 minutes and starts at 10:00 / 11:30 / 13:00 / 14:30 / 16:30.
There are a few Dales bus routes into the Yorkshire dales that there is only one bus a week on a Sunday these only operate for about 6 months. Thus giving you about 24 buses per year on those routes!
Geoff and Roger work so well with these kind of videos 👍
Where I live in Cornwall the 373 runs once a week. The 371 twice a week and the 372 once a week. Now that's even more less frequent than London.
In Levin NZ 🇳🇿..population 20K..there is no internal bus service but 2x a week a bus does the round trip 50km north to Palmerston North..two other days take you 40 km south to Waikanae to connect with the top end of the electric trains 80km on to Wellington and all scenic points in between..Miss the 3pm return bus back from Waikanae...and you're Stuck...until the Capital Connection train ..8 Mk 2 refurbished carriages...rolls through over 3 hours later.
Surprised Geoff's forgotten the 307, a double decker route which runs between (among other places) High Barnet and Oakwood. A tube challenge staple.
Genuinely excited that you've done a video that goes into Thurrock 😊
lines like these are completely normal here in Denmark, where you need a bus route to someplace where there isn't a train connection (because there is some clause that villages over a certain size must have public transport), but there aren't enough pasengers to really justify a bus service. We also have them here in Copenhagen, where they make less sense.
I live in the west end of Copenhagen and last year they started running line 134 around here, which is a fairly short route that a few times a day goes an obscure zig-zag between some residential areas. Bits of this line runs a route that either was once part of a different bus line that no longer exists, or part of a line that was planned and never run. 134 was introduced because there are rather large areas between the other bus lines, so you may have to walk a couple km to get to a bus, and for an area that has a sizable population of elderly, that resulted in a lot of complaints. Where the 134 will remain is uncertain, but for now it maintains a few departures a day
Most of these routes are getting cut thanks to our amazing Transport Minister who loves cars more than public transport.
TFL does not use any specific numbering system unless it’s a prefix (mostly). Usually they share a common area or function. The ELs share Barking Riverside, the Ws are within the Waltham Forest area, the N routes for night services.
There are also examples of 3xx routes being bigger, and/or double deck. The 368 is a local route, but uses double decks. 370 is a longer route, but is more out of the way.
And the SL's for Superloop 😉
In south London you have the P buses which I believe is for Peckham (although the P4 doesn’t go past Peckham and we used to have a P3 that became the 343)
The D buses for the docklands
The C buses which I would assume is for central
Oxford Circus has big bus routes like the 139, 390, 453
K busses for kingston
@@RANDOMZBOSSMAN1 The P5 doesn't go through Peckham either.
There is another route that is the 375 which goes from Romford Station to Passingford Bridge which has a service every 1 hour and 25 minutes up until 6:50pm which I believe shares the same bus as the 347 as they change every day😁👍
You are correct that the 375 uses the same bus, but there are two of them. Both routes share ENL111 and ENL112 (which are ex Stagecoach London buses which have had a very good refurb), although 375's sometimes sees double deckers which is a real treat, unlike the 347 because of the low bridge at Upminster
The 375 actually replaced withdrawn Arriva route 500 that went between Romford and Harlow, when it was introduced in 2008. TfL chose Passingford Bridge as the terminus because they only wanted to focus on Havering-atte-Bower and that was the first safest place to turn around. I think it's significance increased when the 575 was withdrawn.
A suggestion for an update is the Stalybridge to Stockport parliamentary train. It has been 7 years since you last did it but it no longer has evil Pacers and now runs on a Saturday. It also stops at a least used station. The challenge would be to record the entire episode in the 34 minutes between the two trains at Denton. I suspect the answer to almost every "does it have" question would be "no".
Taking the 246 from Bromley to Chartwell on Summer Sundays and Bank Holidays is fun. Single decker down narrow lanes way put of Greater London.
Yesssss Roger fantastic 👏 ever since he waved to the bus at Inverness Airport station he became a vital reporter to bus videos. Long live the 347
347 green bus was Hemel Hempstead to Uxbridge via Watford and Northwood.. brilliant route..
I was out and about too. It was cold, but the sun made up for the wind chill factor. Smiling helps. Love ya mate.
Where Geoff was saying about London going outside of M25 at Waltham Cross, that is only where the buses run to the bus station at Waltham Cross. The road signs at the boundary of Middlesex and Hertfordshire are within the M25.
Random related factoid - in nearby Holmesdale Tunnel, part of the clockwise M25 hard shoulder is on the Herts side of that boundary.
@@ListenUp-py1qm Indeed. Though as recently as September 2023 there was still a _County of Middlesex_ sign on the A1010!
Hi Geoff love your videos I drive busses here in Auckland New Zealand and one of our routes 128 has a journey that is 30kms long and with only 4 bus stops runs hourly M-F and 2 hourly on weekends average passenger numbers is about 4 on each trip sometimes nobody first stop from start is 10kms away
7:12 “(W)rap up in Romford”, while the snooker was on? I like what you did there!
Wot?
Geoff the part of London by Waltham cross actually officially stops by Bullsmoor lane with the bourgh of enfiled extending to included the m25 however every every south of the m25 normally dealt with by London, between bulls moor lane and the m25 is usually a joint operation depending on scale of the task and every north of the m25 is dealt with by ever Hertfordshire or Essex. Waltham cross it self is usually not dealt with by any of London’s services at all and never dose the enfiled or London boundary include Waltham cross. The only thing London is the 5 tfl routes there but most bus services are private and head towards Essex
Geoff, it would be cool if you and Roger would ride the Sunday Summer extension of London Bus Route 246 which enters into Kent (KCC) at Westerham daily and extended to Chartwell National Trust On Summer Sundays. Probably one of the furthest London bus routes into Kent country side.
Nice video! So happy I found your channel! :)
Longest distance between stops - I imagine some of the longest may be those routes that serve Heathrow central, with it being so tucked away in the centre of everything.
I've quickly written up some code to look through the London Buses routes, and the largest stop distance by far is on the London Superloop route SL7, between Hatton Cross Station and Teddington Broad Street. That's over six miles!
Almost right
I use this bus on a regular basis, it has the most passengers on the first run of the day, mostly older people going out for shopping. It connects well with Harold Wood Station for the Elizabeth line, but all this will change with the new bus route of the 346.
very trippy seeing you zooming around my area! maybe i should actually take this bus one day…
They should really use minivans for these routes. I know it's impossible because you never know when a wheelchair user or a group of schoolchildren will show up but still. In most cases, 13 passenger seats would be plenty.
The original 347 also ran into London, way back when it ran around Uxbridge.... When this 347 started it was operated by Blue Triangle buses, back in the days when BT was a small independent, enthusiast type operator, before it was sold to Go-Ahead. One route i never drove when i was a driver at BT, back in the early 2000s, it had it's own little pool of drivers who worked it.....
Actually originally it was First London that created the route after withdrawn 954 but it was later transferred to Blue Triangle
Great video! I’m probably one of the few people watching this video who has already been on this bus before. A very cool route, I hope it doesn’t get cut.
Great video Geoff. Always enjoy your videos and especially when you do buses. Got a few 3xx routes in Enfield. 313,317,307,327, 329, 349, 382,383,384,389 and 399. The 313,317, 307 and 329 double decker but the 313 used to be single deckers until 2020. The 313 goes to Potters Bar which is outside of London. As well as the 317 and 327 going to Waltham Cross.
A route that connects where I lived until I was 10, where I lived in my school years and where I'm planning to move to this year! Don't think I've ever been on this bus though 😅
Our bus was once a day in each direction, that enabled you to have approximately an hour or so in town before returning. Then it went to twice a week and finally was taken off all together, the company claiming 'no one used it'... I rode it a few times and found it was used mostly by pensioners from a caravan park to get to our local hospital/town and was therefore busy for half the route! (Could it be they were all bus pass holders and not profit generating?) Our only alternative now is a 30/40 minute walk down narrow lanes with no verges to a bus stop with a service that had it's frequency reduced from half hourly to hourly by the former local councillor... Ah the joys of a rural life!
Longest distance between stops has to be the X68 (SL8 as it is now) between Waterloo and Norwood
Did you mean SL6 SL8 goes to Uxbridge and white city
@@SuperloopSL9-u4e Yep, thanks, SL6
@@falafel4618 I can film a full journey on the SL8
The 347 is quite a rare route but has very scenic parts along the route.
370 a lot better
The 370 (which you just talked about) is double decker, as well as the 374 from Lakeside as well, and I’m sure there are much more 3xx buses that are double decker.
Writing to you from Toronto, the TTC (Toronto transit commission) does occasionally cancel bus routes when the ridership just drops to the point of vanishing. That might be a topic for a video, or maybe a series of them, London lost bus routes, kind of along the lines of London’s lost railways!
Another bus route which extends out of London. The 498 goes from Romford to Brentwood. I think there is a gap of about 1.3 miles between the stop at Petersfield Avenue on the A12, and then the Holiday Inn on Brook Street, as the bus travels on the final stretch of the A12 within Greater London before passing around a very large roundabout with the M25.
The gap between Petersfield Avenue and Holiday Inn is longer than the one on the 347 - by about a mile, according to Google Maps.
Good knowledge that
There are a few routes across London that are 300 routes which I know of that operate as double decker such as the 320,333,337,341,343,345,353,363,390.
Even 330 ( wanstead park station to pontoon dock) Enviro 400
335 ( Kidbrooke to North Greenwich) old enviro 400 24/7
I used to work for Capital Citybus in the early 1990’s and we had a bus service tagged onto the end of 165/365. It went from Rainham (Essex) to South Ockenden at about 1800 hrs . I did this for a week and never picked a soul up.
Surely you mean Rainham (Greater London) 😂
@@richardwager283 No, I mean Rainham in Essex. I was born in Dagenham,Essex.
@@richardwager283 Given there is a Rainham (Kent), and a Rainham (Greater London) - lets not confuse things by inventing a Rainham (Essex) as well xD
Was it by chance the 323?
Not confusing anything at all. Get a grip of yourself. You know exactly what I mean.
I have checked the bus that ran on it today (11/01/2024), and can confirm it only does this route, there is nothing else bolted on to the front or end of it. It comes out of Grays depot at 0840 to start the 347 and returns there after the 347 finishes, arriving just after 1700, and doesn't leave the depot again in passenger service for the rest of the day.
I grew up in ockendon, its really cool to see that this very unkown town is being mentioned.
I used to live in Harold Wood and often used to to get my shopping from Gallows Corner Tesco, often walking there and catching it with my shopping on the way back
From the OS map it looks like the Greater London boundary is just on the north side of the M25 between Potters Bar and Waltham Cross but it's a very narrow sliver of land which nobody lives on.
Yeah, most of the boundary on that stretch was adjusted to follow the outer motorway edge when the road was built. Same goes for the section west of Heathrow and the bit between north of Harold Hill and east of Upminster (before the curiosity that is the pocket of territory in which North Ockendon lies).
That Enviro 200 (at least, I think it's an E200) has a very familiar-sounding engine; we have a different variant of that bus running the suburban services in my city. As for the 347 route, I find it so bizarre that it only runs four times a day in each direction.
I thought there would be a lot of comments about busses outside of the TFL area. This video and comments would be useful as part of the "levelling up" debates . Or, Monty Python could have a sketch about it - "4 buses a day, you were lucky! We only had one on Feb 29th" etc
Quite funny fact, near where I live outside of Harlow (Essex), there is also a 347 bus, but it runs about five times a WEEK in each direction. To date I have never actually seen this bus and looking at bus timetables it’s conflicting to whether it’s three services on Tuesdays and Thursdays or only two. It’s also the only bus for four separate villages so a bit of a link for these places definitely. So yeah, 347 must be a number reserved for least serviced routes 🤷🏻♂️
If you include hail and ride sections I reckon the 336 has one of the longest sections without a bus stop between Lewisham town hall and Dunfield Road (towards Locksbottom). Thats about 1.5 miles. Thats one example near me but I'm sure there are others that beat it.
It’s nice to know we’ve graduated to least used bus routes.
Thanks for the boots shot. Geoff and Roger side channel is a must surely?
Arriva does operate the busses here in the south east of the Netherlands. And passenger numbers are really low these days. I remember when I went to school by bus in the 70's and 80's there were times that they had to use 3 busses to take all the passengers. The first 2 were already completely loaded!
Tavistock Country Bus 112 to Dawlish runs on the 5th Saturday of the month from April to September. Now that is infrequent.
a future video, for sure .. yes!
A service with that frequency is luxury compared with one that used to run locally: it went from Selby via Harrogate to a destination I forget, and ran once in each direction on the first Sunday of winter months. Not one you would want to miss, with a month to wait (or possibly nine) until the next arrives. I never found out what purpose it served.
I live in Upminster and the 347 is the nearest stop and it is used more to Romford then ockendon
The longest distance between 2 bus stops is probably now the X68 as it runs fast from Waterloo to Norwood, don’t know about superloop
Always good to see a bus video! 👍👍
Always
Im from just a few miles down the road from Ockendon and it's never been a busy bus route for some reason. Oh and Ockendon is Essex lol. And red buses go to London Road Brentwood which is also just outside the M25. Looking forward to seeing you post a video when we have our new train station open at Beaulieu Park Chelmsford in 12 months time.
Well there are two of them, and the bigger one (South Ockendon, including Ockendon station where Geoff and Roger ended up) is indeed Essex.
The much smaller settlement of North Ockendon is Greater London though, crazy as that sounds. Not even the GL boundary reviews of the early 90s changed that.
@@timothyrider1127 yeah, I noticed that North Ockendon is not really much. I do cut through there sometimes if traffic bad on the A130 and need to use the A127. Don't know why they done the whole "Greater London" borough thing and tried to take over other counties. My friends from Ilford and Barking are still happy and proud to say that they are from Essex.
@@100tallpaul it’s because these places grew out of London in very distinct periods largely hand in hand with industry and transport progression. All of London was part of the surrounding counties at some point 👍🏻
I once had a puncture in the wilds of Warwickshire but fortunately was close to a bus stop and was the only passenger for the entire 1 hour journey into Leamington Spa for me and my bike. A bargain at £2.
I live in the wilds of Warwickshire and, out and about, quite often see our local 77 bus which, as it happens, goes into Leamington. Perhaps it was the route you took. More often than not there is no one on board and if there were more than five I would stop and photograph it as a collector's item.
@@HampsteadOwl It was indeed the 77 from Napton. Service only something like every 2 hours so it's a shame it's not more frequent as it then might be more frequented.
To knock off a few infrequent bus routes:
In the book Great British Bus Journeys by David McKie (well worth a read), he mentions a bus (I cannot remember which one) which runs fortnightly, on alternate Thursdays. Given the book was written in 2005 it almost certainly doesn't run any more ('twas courtesy of Fords of Althorne - Southminster area), but it's worth a mention.
However, that is nothing to Tavistock Country Bus's 112 service, which runs one return trip, on the fifth Saturday of the month, from April to September. So that's either two or three times a year. No idea if it actually still runs but TCB says that it is back to pre-COVID timetables so I assume it still does.
From experience of Devon's buses, this is not abnormal.
this ... sounds brilliant, thank you !!
* adds to bucket list * for a thing to do when Summer comes around. "Least Frequent Bus in Whole of Britain" ... right?
@@geofftech2 Right, assuming a) it definitely still runs (on which I shall get back to you) and b) it isn't a normal Devon bus, in which case you would have a 1 in 3 chance of having to wait for the next one!
@@geofftech2did you look at the 969?
Geoff, you should do more bus videos.
Incidentally, I remember the old London Country Buses route 347. It used to operate between Uxbridge and Watford then, I think, on to Hemel Hempstead.
Distance between two physical TfL bus stops... The one in Warminater and the nearest to that which is probably Slough?
Also, Imberbus could thus be declared the least frequent "London" bus service of 1 day a year, though I guess there are a load of buses for that day!
In Oxford, we have the 63S (63 diverting to serve schools and not dean court) and that is once a day service (per direction) and that’s on school days only