You could once go very far from London on a London bus. Back around 1970, I saw a few in Sydney, NSW, Melbourne, Victoria, and also in Cape Town and Durban, SA. Used Routemasters were exported all around the world. 😉
I rather naughtily skipped to the conclusion before watching the rest of the video. Sorry about that! Obviously a mistake on my part because it didn't quickly answer the question.
When I was a student in the 70's I used to buy the "Red Bus Rover" tickets regularly. Once I decided I would get as much for my money as possible by going the furthest possible distance from where I was based, in Kensington, by red bus. After some research I concluded this was Watford. So I duly embarked on the most pointless and boring journey ever, but got a strange sense of satisfaction that I had beaten London Transport in some way.
Er. don't know how to tell you, but, technically you could have gone to Aylesbury! There was an express bus to there, but I think you would have had all hell on to get back.
@@robertwilloughby8050 But that was not a red bus, it was a Green Line service, the 706/707 which ran from Aylesbury to Westerham (Chartwell in the Summer) or Oxted, via central London (though not Kensington). Red Rovers were not valid on it, though Golden Rovers, later inventions, were (they also allowed travel on most other green LT buses). From Kensington it was possible to travel to Crawley on the 710 that ran from Amersham, by Golden Rover, or the 708 to East Grinstead. However, it was possible to get to St Albans by Red Rover, a good deal further afield than Watford. London Transport also operated the 704 all the way to Tunbridge Wells, although you couldn't use a Rover ticket past Tonbridge. In order to get home (in Coulsdon) from university in Oxford, I once travelled on the City of Oxford bus to Aylesbury, then the 706 direct to West Croydon, then the 414 bus home. This was a lot cheaper than any train. However, I discovered the cheapest way was the Oxford bus to High Wycombe (35p), then a Green Rover (30p) on the LCBS 441 changing at Staines, Addlestone, Leatherhead, and Dorking, and thence on the 414 to Coulsdon from the other direction.
I used to get a Red Bus Rover in the early 80's during the school holidays, i'd spend the day riding buses all over London just changing buses at random, happy days.
What a gem of a channel. The sense of wonder that any transport system around a major city engenders is wonderfully expressed here. It’s not unadulterated love but a respectful retrospective of the intricacies and at times, awful mishaps that any integrated transport system will have. Both a contemporary and historical overview that never bores. Well done Jago.
I sense this video might not be the last bus related video we see on this superb channel and it does make a very pleasant change from the train and underground videos!
Having grown up in Carshalton and moving away 35 years ago I loved the bus routes. Knowing Croydon Cheam and Dorking well. You are pressing all the right buttons recently Jago. Just love this channel.
I once lived between Raynes Park and Morden. My local route was the 157 which was Raynes Park/Morden to Carshalton/Wallington, but eventually crept into South East London and Crystal Palace when the trolleybuses were scrapped. I couldn't resist going the whole way on one occasion! They spoke the same language as me, I was surprised to discover!
I remember some years back taking the 724 from Uxbridge as part of my 3 bus journey to Danbury in Essex . Apart from the bus breaking down (adding an unexpected hour to the journey) it saved me a fair amount of money and was a really nice day's journey
The longest journey I ever did on a London bus was the night bus fron Trafalgar Square to Uxbridge, which took the best part of 3 hours (the central London part is quite circuitous). Even the first bus of the night didn't arrive in Uxbridge until after 4am. If you were lucky the driver would let everyone off to use the toilets at the depot near Ealing.
When i was growing up in the 50s you could get a red rover for 2/6d and travel on any bus in london spent many an hour traveling everywhere going to all the trolley garages
"The last mistake he ever made with a bus". **applauds** But we in my area have the same issue, and it includes three different state-level municipalities and several US counties. I'm glad London has a scheme that allows for inter-suburban buses. And that lorry making a U-turn where it's not allowed. Intriguing.
I know what he's referring to. NHS budget is now well more than £350 million a week more, but don't let facts get in the way of Europhiles' complaints!
Well done for trying to use the word "lorry" but even in the UK we usually now say "truck". In any case it was actually a van. Drivers of vans, partcularly white ones, are permitted to do whatever they like on our roads.
@@hairyairey The shtick at the time was that a) the UK was paying £350 million a week to the EU (not true), b) that the £350 million a week would be immediately available to spend on other things (also not true) and c) that the £350 million a week would be paid into the NHS (also, very much, not true). The massive increase in the NHS budget in 2020 and 2021 was due to Covid, and healthcare expenditure actually decreased in 2022 year on year.
@@jaakkomantyjarvi7515 none of that is true! The NHS budget is more than £350 million a week more excluding covid budget. The amount we were paying to the EU wasn't disclosed at the time but it was around £343 million a week (yes, excluding the rebate but that is not guaranteed and we only had that because Thatcher had the balls to demand it!) And no, it was never claimed the money was immediately available. You are reading far too much into what was written. As all remainers do!
Historical note; the Green Lines[London Transport],was started in 1933,and took over several independent bus services,at first! The LGOC was running the outer suburban services back then! IAN ALLAN had an excellent book covering the up/down and sideways of the various operating entities! Thanks Jago,it's nice to know that the Green Lines still live,even if its just the route name!! Thank you 😇 😊!!
So when did LT take over the outer services from the LGOC? 1933 or later? I remember Green Line buses from the sixties. How exotic they seemed back then.
One Green Line service was aptly numbered as part of its route served both LHR and LGW, the 747, started back when LT country bus services (the LT green bus area before London Country Bus Services) was the operator and RFC's were used, later Plaxton bodied AEC Reliance coaches, ran from Crawley at the southern end. Also a service from Horsham into London Victoria via LGW, Dorking and Redhill/Reigate using RMC's.
@@tonys1636 The first "airport" Green Line route (as in deliberately intended to link airports rather than doing it as an extension/diversion of an existing route) was the 727, also numbered after the aircraft, and I think that's the one which set the national trend of using 7x7 for airport routes. 747 was introduced by LCBS. Green Line ended up with 707/717 (London-Luton via Snorbins), 727 ("stopping" Luton-Heathrow-Gatwick), 747 Heathrow-Gatwick "Jetlink" (extended at both ends to much of south-eastern England at one point), 757 London-Luton (still running), 767 (London-Heathrow) and 777 (London-Gatwick, with extensions to Brighton) - 757-767/777 were all branded as Flightline. I don't think there was a 787 route and 797 was London-Cambridge *not* via Stansted (that was the 799 instead). 737 rings a bell as having been London-Stansted express for a while but I don't have a leaflet for it to confirm, and the only mention I can find of it is as a Slough-Heathrow-Gatwick-Brighton variant of the 773 in the mid-80s. And now they've pretty much all gone.
The 724! From Watford to Heathrow in 40 minutes, a wonderful route. (if no jam on the M25) It takes you right up to the terminal and you just walk in and check in. No wandering around endless underground corridors. Depends where you're going of course.
@bob56gibson yeah sorry I was thinking about the other service between Watford and St Albans (the one that starts at Watford Junction and stops enroute).
I wonder how they define an urban bus route, then. I can think of a couple of routes here in Stockholm that are longer. They do go out into the countryside, but are part of the same network. There's even a night bus between Stockholm and Uppsala, that's 45 miles, and uses the same buses and fares as the rest of the city and county buses.
The Outer Circle was usurped by a slightly longer route, I think it was named either the 60 or the X60, and its route was more or less the outer perimeter of Coventry. It only lasted a couple of years before it was cut down to more manageable routes, and unlike the Birmingham route it was never run by the main bus company (which now calls itself National Express Coventry).
@@edwardburek1717 The main Company National Express Coventry is a subsidiary of National Express West Midlands and actually goes back to 1974 when Coventry City Transport was absorbed into the West Midlands PTE the fore runner of West Midlands Travel, the legal address on Coventry buses is " West Midlands Travel Ltd, Digbeth, Birmingham"
I'm surprised you've missed the "Get Around For £2" offer that has been going on most buses across the country since the start of the year! Almost all operators are taking part, although there are a few that are not - the maximum single fare on any route on participating operators is £2 (although if the normal fare is less then you pay the normal fare). It was initially launched for 3 months, then extended for another 3 months, then extended for another _4_ months, running to the end of October, but there's now a second phase where the fare will be £2.50 ("Get around and be nifty for Two pounds fifty" doesn't have quite the same ring to it) until the end of November 2024. This can give some absolute bargains, like Leeds to Whitby (nearly 80 miles, a single fare was previously £15) or Peterborough to Norwich (over 80 miles).
The price is one difference between UK and TFL. However, I do not expect to make a journey between Peterborough to Norwich (180 mins) for £2 until I read the last comment as I thought it only applies to local journeys although some are except. Wouldn't First lose money as a 2 mile and 80 mile journey is clearly out of hand for that price. You can take the same journey by train or drive in half the time, but at a £26,40 off peak return (£26,30 off peak single, min £10 advance single) so clearly buses are great value. I only expect a journey up to Dereham for £2. While I cannot find the pre £2 price, it's safe to say it';s no more than £14 as thats the price of an all day adult ticket, but even £7 is cheap.
@@annabelholland Operators taking part in the scheme got a government grant, which was intended to cover the shortfall in fares. This was individual to each operator, so one that only runs local routes charging £3 or £4 would get a proportionally smaller grant than one running long distance routes where most people would be paying £10 or more.
Back when I lived in Tulse Hill, I would sometimes take the 68 bus to central London rather than the (much quicker) train. Mostly because it was cheaper, but it was also enjoyable to look at the scenery going by and have some time to think.
I tried the full route of the number 68 when there were those Leyland Olympian buses in use around the late 90's. It was a horrid journey, and the buses should have been scrapped by 1995, as they were a pile of p#$. I don't know what it's like these days on that route, and those buses.
The N68 variant of the route is also an exceptionally long journey from Central London all the way to old Coulsdon basically the daytime 68/468/60 rolled into one lol
A superb video! Two quid for 57 miles. It may sound crazy but that's what fares should be! It should not cost more for one person using public transport than it does to use a car, carrying four people, for the same journey, yet this is nearly always the case. It wasn't the case in London of course when Ken Livingston's GLC was in charge of buses. In the European countries which own a lot of our public transport, as well as their own, fares are a lot more affordable than they are in the UK. The Tories apparently don't believe in a publicly owned transport system except when it's a public in another country which owns it.
London’s fares are really reasonable… I’d say £2.80 for a tube fare or £1.75 for a bus fare isn’t bad when the rest of the country is £2.50 for a bus fare and probably £5+ for a train fare… and it’s especially good given driving in London is a minimum of £15 per day because of the congestion charges
There used to be a good outer circle bus service in Sheffield. As a student i once found a valid bus pass somebody had dropped on the floor. So I treated myself to a post exams grand tour of the city for free. It felt quite adventurous getting to those exotic suburbs well outside the normal student orbit.
I have a gripe with the SL7 (neé X26), as a resident of Hanworth. The SL7 stops relatively regularly at every town centre from Croydon to Teddington (TWICE in Kingston, but this does make sense given the town's layout). It then goes straight on, without stopping, to Hatton cross. This is about twice the distance it covers for each other stop. Well, you say, maybe there isn't anything notable between the stops. Nope, there are multiple towns along the route. Well, maybe it would take it too far off course and defeat the point of an express route? Nope, it already barrels its way down Hanworth high street, where it could connect to 5 other bus routes with ease. Behind traffic lights at which it is usually already waiting. I can't for the life of me understand why it doesn't stop at all at either Apex Corner or Hounslow Road, stops which it already passes. It's as though they have deliberately been ignored for some reason. It's not like we have good train or tube links either, this area is avoided like the plague!
exactly! i use the SL7 daily and it would make SO much sense to stop at apex corner, you can connect to the 285 again before they diverge, as well as the 490 before it goes to twickenham AND and 290 towards staines, it just makes sense to stop there, so why doesn't it?
You could always write to tfl about it or make a petition and get some people you know to sign. I would support it (I live in Catford and have no use for it but why not). It also should be 24hr imo.
@@coolrockplays697Waddon and Beddington aren't far from Croydon or Carshalton so I can understand it not stopping there. However it's usually stuck in traffic at the A23 junctions so might as well add a stop.
Buses used to run right across London. I lived at Clapham Junction, the mid-way point for a number of buses, 19 on Sundays from Streatham to Tottenham; 49 from Crystal Palace to Harlesden; 37 from Peckham to Isleworth. Increasing traffic congestion cut those routes back.
When I was working in Teddington I caught the then X26 from Broad Street out to the end of the route to visit a record shop I'd been told about in Croydon. I got there only to find that said record shop had closed down several years earlier. So I got back on the bus and went all the way to Heathrow, just so I could say I'd ridden the longest route in London. A Saturday pleasantly wasted.
Theoretical the longest journey on a bus is where a 59minute long route/journey terminates at West Croydon, just in-time for the SL7 so you can use the Hopper fare and the longest bus route for £1.75
I always thought of the X26 as an airport bus (usually Kingston to LHR - quicker than the 111), so it's probably a good idea to 'normalise' it by making it a regular inter-suburb route.
No one in their right mind would use the 111 from Kingston to Heathrow. It takes a winding Z shapoed course through west Middlesex: Heathrow, Hounslow, Hanwell, Hampton - I wouildn't have been surpised if they'd added Harrow and Hanwell!) Even when the 726 was hourly, the 285 was a better option than the 111
The 6 .05 x68 from West Croydon to Russell Square used to be my route. Took many a nap on that bus and some of the regulars used to get pissed off if someone was sitting in their favourite seat 😂
Have to say I was definitely not expecting youtube to recommend me a video containing the back of my own head on the 465, completely randomly, when this kind of content isn't something I'd usuallg watch.
Again you’ve featured one of my local TfL routes - the SL7 /X26 which I’ve used for years. I’m about to start several retirement projects including ever Oyster Station (in alphabetical order) and , travelling on as many bus routes as possible. I was thinking of doing it in numerical order. I definitely will be going round the Superloop once its fully in operation.
Never thought I would see the day that Jago would travel all the way to my crummy old hometown, Harlow💀 in fact considering I know most bus routes in harlow since I am a local but I’ve never knew this bus route existed. A lot of bus routes from Harlow are £2 nowadays. Also I should mention, if you take the 420 or 420a buses, they do take you straight to Ongar and North Weald and they have to go pass Epping station anyway and even those journeys are £2 despite 6 months ago, it used to be £6.50 a journey… perhaps that could be a video idea? And even a trip to the Epping-Ongar Railway would make a great video idea! ☺️
the longest route operating in the Sheffield area is the X17 (Wirksworth - Matlock - Chesterfield - Sheffield - Barnsley; express between Chesterfield and Barnsley), clocking in at 40 miles, at a little under 3 hours from end to end; as well as covering a substantial portion of South Yorkshire, the route goes a long way into Derbyshire, and the run from Chesterfield into the Peak District is very scenic
The 465 is a nice route. Used to visit Box Hill a lot and the bus was very convenient. Fast, comfy, not too busy and Box Hill is a favourite place of mine to visit.
Some of the night buses go to the moon and back. I once went to Heathrow from Piccadilly Circus at 03:30 . Surprisingly crowded at the end, as a lot of airport workers got on. Some of the night bus routes are interesting as they combine routes or substitute for Tube lines. Of course, there is no substitute for calling your Dad up at 0230 when the spontaneous party in a place you never heard of that isn’t really London at all and isn’t even listed in the A to Z - and you need a lift home! Yes - I am the father of teenage daughters…A modern curse more chilling than the one cast to deter Egyptian tomb robbers
It feels so surreal just hearing you talk about the bus that links me to Surbiton and Kingston, especially seeing this has become my bread and butter for commuting since 2015. On the other hand, I guess it is surreal seeing a London bus running through leafy Surrey.
Brilliant video as always! Love the lucky shots of the van turning and the 66 race car, combined with your script 👌🏼 The bit about F’ing Ham (surely that’s how it’s spelled) sparked an idea for the most underserviced parts of London (all TfL options considered). After all, it’s about time you made another video that gives a little love to Thames Meat (surely that’s how it’s spelled)!
Ah, the 724 bus! I use it very often to get between Hounslow (via Heathrow) and Watford/Rickmansworth. It is incredibly unreliable!!! It's very frustrating!!!! Arriva fix your buses!!!! Again, another great video Jago ❤❤❤
Thanks Jago....as a past driver on both the old 726/725 Windsor to Gravesend and the 724 (Staines ti Harlow in those days) it's quite enlightening to see how things have developed in the meantime....Keep up the good work.
I used to catch the 724 bus from Hatfield to just above Kings Langley. One of the best ways to get to where I worked at the time, but very slow! The lack of East-West lines south of Peterborough is a huge mistake. You have three lines coming into London that are in places just five miles apart from each other. Rant over...
I’ve no idea where half the places are in this video, I won’t be taking any of these routes, I haven’t any interest in buses, but I find Jago’s videos so relaxing I enjoyed the full 15 minutes.
Nice to see my home town of Hatfield in this video. We have our own bus services run by UNO who are a subsidiary of the University of Hertfordshire. Also the 724 is being joined by a 725 service from Stevenage to Rickmansworth in November 2023. But this is all rather off your patch I fear.
In the late 90s I used to get the 724 from Watford to St Albans and back for work. There was a lady who regularly spent all day on the bus, going back and forward. The drivers knew her and let her stay on at the ends. On her birthday she even had a little party. Beats sitting at home on your own, I suppose .
In the 1960's as a wee boy, my local 38 route ran from Victoria to Royal Forest Hotel Chingford. Pretty long. And there was a Green Line routemaster that started at Harlow, then ran through Chingford and the suburbs into Central London, before turning west to Windsor. I think it was the 718. A very long journey.
I remember a 38 bus from Lea Bridge Road taking nearly two hours for the 11 miles to Victoria in 1978 in the rush hour once (once was quite enough for me), but that may have been exceptional. Buses in London have speeded up a bit since, I think, but it made me wonder, which modern LT bus service has the slowest average speed for the entire route?
That 718 Green Line RMC route out of Harlow sounds like my dream journey, kind of thing I'd have done when I was a kid except it would have cost too much. (I'm not really old enough to have ridden a green RM) A few years ago, the Epping Ongar Railway would sometimes run an RF 1950s single-decker from North Weald to Harlow.
Not to mention the 10A which ran Victoria to Epping or the 279 which ran Mansion house to Waltham Cross and the 25 which used to ru Victoria to Becontree Heath @@frglee
@@PopeLando I loved those RF's. When I lived in Woodford in the mid 60's, there was a number 121 RF, but I can't remember where it ran from and to. I think going north, it terminated at Debden, Rectory Road.
On Sundays half the 38 buses went another 4 miles to the Wake Arms in the middle of Epping Forest. Despite the destination being a pub on a roundabout in the middle of nowhere, the bus would be packed out with families and their picnic bags.
Jago, Yank here. Love your videos even though I’ve never been to London. 4:03, you showed a Popeyes Chicken. You seem to have missed an opportunity to experience something very American in an unlikely setting. Could there be a video where a Brit reviews Popeyes? They have a well-earned reputation for amazing chicken and catastrophic service. I wonder if that holds in the UK.
“The route started in 1966…” while showing the racecar with #66 was really smooooth. As an ex-London bus driver I’d love to see more videos involving buses! Jaggo, anytime you’re up in Scotland, be my guest on the UK’s first and only fully electric intercity coach - Ember.
Interesting video, in Singapore, the longest bus route is 858 at 73.4 km or 45.60 miles, though it is a unidirectional loop from Woodlands to Changi Airport, so a one way trip between those destinations would be roughly of similar length to SL7. The longest bidirectional route in Singapore would be 61 from Bukit Batok to Eunos at 39.7 km or 24.66 miles in its forward direction and 35.7 km or 22.18 miles in its return journey.
The long route i never plucked up the courage to ride all the way (when kids' fares were 10p} was the 2B from North Finchley (where I lived) all the way to Crystal Palace in South London, Routemaster of course.
Many years ago LT published a leaflet 'Beyond The Fringes' showing when you could use your Red Rover outside London. Of course for 2/6 extra you could buy a Golden Rover and go anywhere from Hertford to East Grinstread. Showing my age there.
I found that if you want to spend a really long time on a bus , get one of the night ones, that in the case of the one I caught a handful of times went from central London out to the suburbs in what can only be described a a zig zag route. i.e. 50 miles to do about 20 miles as the crow flies ! (yeah, I'm guessing on the numbers, but it "felt" like that !!!)
The 109 used to loop from Purley to Embankment Station and back. Since they cut that back, I have noticed that routes keep getting shorter. This must benefit the operators since it does not benefit the passengers who have large or heavy packages.
The 109 used to loop two ways from Purley. It would either use Westminster Bridge first coming back over Blackfriars or vice versa.This is because the tram route they replaced did the same thing.This arrangement continued until (I think) the 1980s.
@@WilliamSmith-mx6ze That sounds right. A shorter self-contained route is less subject to severe disruption, for example if an accident brings a whole section to a complete halt.
Note also the 59, West Hampstead (West End Green) to Chipstead Valley, Sundays only. The 159 and 166 (weekdays) laid end-to-end. Less chance of bunching on Sundays. I've no idea whan that was abandoned - I last caught it in 1968.
12:27 _"[...] plus, you'll have the song 'National Express' stuck in your head all day."_ Nope, it's still "Karma Chameleon" from the Kingston segment...
This is what I thought; the furthest south is Dorking via the TfL & Surrey CC funded service 465, Furthest West is probably Slough via TfL funded service 81, furthest East is probably Passingford Bridge in Essex via TfL funded service 375 but the furthest north London Buses Service I have no idea but I am guessing that it is probably the TfL service to Debden but I forget what the route number is...
That would be the 20, my local bus route in Debden. The 397 goes to Debden too, but the 20 skirts around the estate and therefore goes further north. I would actually say that any bus that goes to Waltham Cross are more northerly. Either Lakeside Shopping Centre (Essex) or Bluewater Shopping Centre (Kent) will likely be the furthest east.
Whenever I used to go to London I used to catch the tube, but realising the buses are wayyyy cheaper, almost as quick and come so often and in time compared to Birmingham AND you actually get to see London, it's now my go to way to get around there.
9:49 The vineyard is Denbies and the coaching inn is or was The White Horse. I should know, I used to work at the latter and now I work at the former after the latter was sold. The footage of the hotel must have been taken after the sale in July but before the keys were handed over a few weeks ago as of writing this (Sep 23).
Many years ago my parents decided to travel from Romford to High Wycombe on the 724. When they got to High Wycombe they realised that time had beaten them to look round the town so they hopped back on the same bus and came back home.
11:13 the £2 fare is actually being subsidised by the Department for Transport, covering all single-journey bus fares in England hence why it is so cheap as GreenLine Coaches brand only operates standard bus routes instead of coach services which I believe are legally different, so this means that the GreenLine Coach services operated by Reading Buses from Victoria to Windsor should also probably cost £2 so long fare payment is onboard.
Reading Buses no longer use the Green Line brand. But yes, all their scheduled routes are £2 maximum fare. The exclusion is their new Heathrow-Basingstoke service which counts as an "express coach service" so is outside the £2 agreements.
Hah! I was not expecting the 724 to appear on this video. I used to take this all the time from Harlow as a kid. I had a staff family pass so it was free! Man those buses were rickety, looks like they’re using newer ones now.
With that footage on the SL7, I kept thinking this was a missed opportunity for a collab with Wanderizm 😂 And “the real bus was the friends we made along the way” brought a smile to my face. Thanks, Jago!
The 724 to Harlow and then a local bus to Epping was my back up route in the event of the tube being on strike when I arrived at Heathrow last October. Thankfully or perhaps sadly, looks like an interesting ride, the Tube was working. As was the DLR for my small adventure diversion.
The amount of footage of Croydon, and Cheam, genuinely had me looking for myself to see if I make an appearance 😅 Fascinating as ever, definitely a question I’ve wondered about over the years!
When I was at school my friend in the 1960s and I decided to see whether we could take buses from our home in Brentford to Bognor Regis. We caught the 65 at our local stop in Ealing Road to Kingston-upon-Thames - we were planning to go all the way to Leatherhead - but our bus stopped at Kingston. We took a London Country bus from there to Horsham, then changed to the Southdown bus at Horsham all the way to Bognor (i can't remember the route number). Overall the journey took about 4.5-5 hr which I don't think was bad. I wonder if it's still possible today. In Brentford we had the choice of three trolleybus routes (655, 657 and 667), three diesel bus services (65, 91 and 97) and four Greenline services (701, 702, 704 and 705) - spoilt for choice! I do wonder if the 65 was a contender for the longest route at that time. It ran from Ealing Argyll Road to Leatherhead - quite a run!
Your comment in the readly ad about having poor internet on the tube reminded me that I was in Beijing for 6 months 2011-12 and used the subway extensively. There was always excellent reception.
I did the 724 and X26 in the same day just for fun. A great way to see the area. I was charged £12 on the 724 going the other way though several years ago . A great sandwich shop in Harlow shopping centre though.
The superloop sint't really a solution to orbital travel. The SL7 already existed as the X26 as you said, but most of them already exist, which you also said. Really they should be expanding the trams and/or building new tram systems around London for this purpose, much like Paris has done
There's also a 4th option, furthest TFL branded bus operating from London. In which case there's a bus in operations in Dundee, Scotland with TFL branding
The £2 fare is only available in England outside of London. On cross border services into Wales you can travel for £2 if you're catching the bus from England.
My wife and her friend found out on a shopping trip last week that you don't need to pay £2 to return, it's called a transfer onwards. This was according to the bus driver, so they went to town (Southern England) and back for £2.00
Hi Jago, On your 724 fare of £2 I think you'll find it is not classed as a London service and therefore is subject to the English £2 single journey fare cap. On the subject of how far can you travel on a bus for £2 I think it's probably the X15 from Newcastle to Berwick on Tweed at about 60 miles in 2.5 hours. Oh! And it's operated by double-decker buses
@@simonwinter8839 If it has the ENCTS rose on it, which it should do! Then yes is available to be used in the rest of England after 09:30. Check it up on Mr Google. Last July I went from the North East to Land's End with mine. Cost me £8 for the 4 buses I caught before 9:30.
@@simonwinter8839Most Freedom Passes are treated as English National Concessionary Travel Passes (ENCTP or ENCTS passes) outside of TfL services and are valid after 09:30 weekdays and all day weekends on most other bus services in England.
Brilliant Jago! I’ve used the 465 and it’s my favourite route as it actually leaves London for the Surrey Hills. I’d also recommend the 246 which goes into the Kent countryside at Chartwell on a Sunday. The best value I’ve traveled on is The ASEAG Route 55 in Aachen, which starts at Belgian -German Border at Lichtenbusch and ends in Vaals Netherlands -German border all for €3.10.
I remember the 724 well as it ran through Collier Row up from Romford Station with its distinctive RF buses. Always wondered what happened to it. Hardly surprising though. The GLC and its subsequent authorities were always playing with the routes out here. Such routes as the 250, the 151/251/351, the 175 past Chase Cross (only comparatively revived with the 375), the 400 Express, all of them got the boot and much of it was politically driven.
400 and 402 couldn't compete with the resurgent railway once LTS (now c2c) got their act together. 151/251/351 became commercial routes after deregulation in 1986 and were slowly whittled away as they became unprofitable. It's what happens when a country decides that public services should be purely profit-making businesses. I'm not going to get into whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's a natural result of the change: only the profitable parts survive.
Do you ever come north to Birmingham? We have two routes of 25 mile which get you back to where you started they do a circuit of the city about 4 miles from the centre! The 11a does the route anticlockwise whilst the 11c does it clockwise! A few years ago it was one of the most profitable bus routes in Europe!
Can I just note that the timing of the runner at the end to Jago's quote about the "the real bus is the friends we made along the way" is PERFECTLY timed? Because it is.
I loved the London buses but I just didn’t know the routes as well as the Underground. I reached Feltham by mistake which is the furthest from Central London but not too far from Heathrow.
I have recently found out Feltham is closeish to Hounslow - normally I approach it from the Twickenham direction and really loose my mental mind map of London, however the next step by bus to Bedfont is a real pain
when living in Brixton from 1979-1986 i used the 157 bus to Lillian Baylis Secondary school from Brixton Road...... loved going on it and seeing Houses of Parliament from it's classroom....been living in Dublin since then. fascinating Jago
10:23 There's a bus service from Heathrow to Harlow? I wish I'd known this in 2019, I could have seen my grandfather one last time before he fell ill. EDIT: Seeing you pull in to Harlow bus station at the end really hit hard. I used to get the bus into town from my grandfather's house back when he was alive and I would go to visit him. I have so many good memories of being there.
£2 is what I have to pay just to get into town a mile away on local service and still have to walk to the main road (10 min) to get that since our estate service was cancelled several years ago. And it runs twice per hour, making walking it the cheaper and quicker option. It's also the same as what Arriva charges from town to Alnwick about 30ish miles away on a one way ticket on an hourly service. To conclude £2 for a bus journey that long of a distance is a bargain.
I have wondered what the longest bus route in England is (assuming bus counts as a route with a timetable, where you can pay a fixed fare when boarding) - I reckon the 840 (Leeds - Whitby Coastliner) is a decent shot, at about 72 miles and timetabled 3:25
If you include Scotland, and your criteria for it being a "bus" rather than a "coach" is that you can use a pensioner's bus pass on it; then it would be one of the Citylink services from Glasgow or Edinburgh to the Scottish Highlands. Possibly the 915 from Glasgow to Uig, 2 services per day, journey time 7h45m.
I must admit that when I first read the title of this, my mind definitely strayed into the 'misbehaving' category... I was a keen explorer of London bus routes in my childhood and early teens. My schoolfriends and I used to have races across London using Red Rover tickets, ending up at unlikely places such as the centre of Hampton Court maze and the Spectators' Gallery on top of (I think) Terminal One at Heathrow. I'm trying to remember which was the longest of the old Green Line routes: my then local one, the 718 from Harlow to Windsor, must have been a close contender. Anyway, thanks for another excellent video, Jago.
This video is such a trip to me. Not only do I live in Croydon so seeing footage on RUclips of all of those roads is surreal, I _also_ used to pass that garrage with the car in the wall that's on the 465 route every day on the train.
I used the SL9 from Harrow to Hayes & Harlington to connect with the Elizabeth line. The outward journey at mid-morning was trouble-free and pretty quick. Coming back, however was a very different story. I was at H&H at about 4.30 and the rabble waiting for the buses (there's no such thing as a bus queue any more) was extensive. I let the first bus go, as that thinned out the rabble considerably. The following bus was only 5 minutes behind and there wasn't any difficulty getting a seat. Even with the bus lanes operating, there was much time spent in queues or waiting for the normal buses to move off before we could proceed. Otherwise, it's a good way to travel around London as opposed to in and out. As I can get to Heathrow on the SL9. I shall have to give the SL7 a go as well. When the Superloop's complete, I imagine people will attempt to do the complete circle in the shortest possible time and I might even try it myself.
Like you Jago, ive only just recently undertaken a ride on the Green Line 724 from Heathrow to Harlow. I used to ride this route when it was operated by actual green liveried coaches back in the 90's so decided to have a little ride down memory lane. I caught the 00:25 departure on a Saturday night which also takes in Terminal 5 on its insane journey over to Harlow and so is a few miles longer still than the bog standard 724 routing. The driver was a star and I was able to hop off at nearly all the timing points to get a photo. I also paid the fantastic £2 fare which was an absolute bargain too. It was such fun I must get around to doing it again soon along with doing the Green Line 702 route out from Victoria to Slough, Windsor & Bracknell / Reading for that mad fare of £2 !!
I used to drive the 724, it actually splits (in theory) at St. Albans, to stay outside of the realms of Tachograph Rules (EU regulations), where by a bus route can only be 31 miles to run under UK domestic rules. It's a brilliant route with so much variety, from a driver's point of view, the only real pain being trying to find a space to stop in at Heathrow! I'd go back tomorrow, if I lived close enough to the Harlow Garage still!
![Coheed and Cambria - Searching for Tomorrow [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hDsYGLbmadg/mqdefault.jpg)
Try Readly, with my link you can get 2 months free, which can be cancelled at any time: readly.com/jagohazzard-sep
Jago, I don't think it's fair that you're the first to comment, a week before releasing the video! 😜
It may be cheating but ...
🥇
I hate to nitpick, but how exactly does that differ from their standard offer of first two months free, cancel at any time?
You could once go very far from London on a London bus. Back around 1970, I saw a few in Sydney, NSW, Melbourne, Victoria, and also in Cape Town and Durban, SA. Used Routemasters were exported all around the world. 😉
I rather naughtily skipped to the conclusion before watching the rest of the video. Sorry about that! Obviously a mistake on my part because it didn't quickly answer the question.
That runner at the end. Now that's a run for the bus. Not some silly jog where you move your body more than you move along the street.
That was a perfect catch!
Lived in a lot of places, but only in London did I constantly see people sprinting for public transport like their lives depended on it.
@@julianevans9548For many of us it’s a cheap alternative to going to the gym!
@@julianevans9548might be because these people
1) Don't smoke
2) Find opportunities to sprint
3) Can
When I was a student in the 70's I used to buy the "Red Bus Rover" tickets regularly. Once I decided I would get as much for my money as possible by going the furthest possible distance from where I was based, in Kensington, by red bus. After some research I concluded this was Watford. So I duly embarked on the most pointless and boring journey ever, but got a strange sense of satisfaction that I had beaten London Transport in some way.
Er. don't know how to tell you, but, technically you could have gone to Aylesbury! There was an express bus to there, but I think you would have had all hell on to get back.
@@robertwilloughby8050 But that was not a red bus, it was a Green Line service, the 706/707 which ran from Aylesbury to Westerham (Chartwell in the Summer) or Oxted, via central London (though not Kensington). Red Rovers were not valid on it, though Golden Rovers, later inventions, were (they also allowed travel on most other green LT buses). From Kensington it was possible to travel to Crawley on the 710 that ran from Amersham, by Golden Rover, or the 708 to East Grinstead. However, it was possible to get to St Albans by Red Rover, a good deal further afield than Watford. London Transport also operated the 704 all the way to Tunbridge Wells, although you couldn't use a Rover ticket past Tonbridge.
In order to get home (in Coulsdon) from university in Oxford, I once travelled on the City of Oxford bus to Aylesbury, then the 706 direct to West Croydon, then the 414 bus home. This was a lot cheaper than any train. However, I discovered the cheapest way was the Oxford bus to High Wycombe (35p), then a Green Rover (30p) on the LCBS 441 changing at Staines, Addlestone, Leatherhead, and Dorking, and thence on the 414 to Coulsdon from the other direction.
I used to get a Red Bus Rover in the early 80's during the school holidays, i'd spend the day riding buses all over London just changing buses at random, happy days.
60p for unlimited travel. I remember the red bus rover fondly.
Ten Bob in my time
What a gem of a channel. The sense of wonder that any transport system around a major city engenders is wonderfully expressed here. It’s not unadulterated love but a respectful retrospective of the intricacies and at times, awful mishaps that any integrated transport system will have. Both a contemporary and historical overview that never bores. Well done Jago.
I sense this video might not be the last bus related video we see on this superb channel and it does make a very pleasant change from the train and underground videos!
"Talk to people? Don't be sick!!!!" Genius!
Bus fares are capped at £2 almost everywhere at the moment.
Would be nice if the 757 greenline was £2 but at least it's on the concessionary bus pass
Is that still going? I thought it had ended in like July. It's £4 return into town, so I don't knoe whether it is still or not
@@AndreiTupolevIt has been extended multiple times and will end 31st October when it will be raised to £2.50
@@AndreiTupolev Still applies. I believe its going up to £2-50 in October but carrying on over the winter
Maximum of course, soon to go up to £2.50
Having grown up in Carshalton and moving away 35 years ago I loved the bus routes. Knowing Croydon Cheam and Dorking well. You are pressing all the right buttons recently Jago. Just love this channel.
I once lived between Raynes Park and Morden. My local route was the 157 which was Raynes Park/Morden to Carshalton/Wallington, but eventually crept into South East London and Crystal Palace when the trolleybuses were scrapped. I couldn't resist going the whole way on one occasion! They spoke the same language as me, I was surprised to discover!
I was born in Carshalton! I have very clear memories of feeding the ducks in that pond in the video!
I remember some years back taking the 724 from Uxbridge as part of my 3 bus journey to Danbury in Essex . Apart from the bus breaking down (adding an unexpected hour to the journey) it saved me a fair amount of money and was a really nice day's journey
The longest journey I ever did on a London bus was the night bus fron Trafalgar Square to Uxbridge, which took the best part of 3 hours (the central London part is quite circuitous). Even the first bus of the night didn't arrive in Uxbridge until after 4am. If you were lucky the driver would let everyone off to use the toilets at the depot near Ealing.
What route was it called?
@@MrBoombastic1 It's nearly 40 years ago now, so I couldn't remember. But the Internet says it would've been the N89.
@@pj_naylor Ah thanks! Today's N89 would be no match for the 1980's beast!
@@MrBoombastic1 Now called the N207
N207?
When i was growing up in the 50s you could get a red rover for 2/6d and travel on any bus in london spent many an hour traveling everywhere going to all the trolley garages
"The last mistake he ever made with a bus". **applauds**
But we in my area have the same issue, and it includes three different state-level municipalities and several US counties. I'm glad London has a scheme that allows for inter-suburban buses.
And that lorry making a U-turn where it's not allowed. Intriguing.
I know what he's referring to. NHS budget is now well more than £350 million a week more, but don't let facts get in the way of Europhiles' complaints!
Well done for trying to use the word "lorry" but even in the UK we usually now say "truck". In any case it was actually a van. Drivers of vans, partcularly white ones, are permitted to do whatever they like on our roads.
That the worst thing
@@hairyairey The shtick at the time was that a) the UK was paying £350 million a week to the EU (not true), b) that the £350 million a week would be immediately available to spend on other things (also not true) and c) that the £350 million a week would be paid into the NHS (also, very much, not true). The massive increase in the NHS budget in 2020 and 2021 was due to Covid, and healthcare expenditure actually decreased in 2022 year on year.
@@jaakkomantyjarvi7515 none of that is true! The NHS budget is more than £350 million a week more excluding covid budget. The amount we were paying to the EU wasn't disclosed at the time but it was around £343 million a week (yes, excluding the rebate but that is not guaranteed and we only had that because Thatcher had the balls to demand it!)
And no, it was never claimed the money was immediately available. You are reading far too much into what was written. As all remainers do!
Historical note; the Green Lines[London Transport],was started in 1933,and took over several independent bus services,at first! The LGOC was running the outer suburban services back then! IAN ALLAN had an excellent book covering the up/down and sideways of the various operating entities! Thanks Jago,it's nice to know that the Green Lines still live,even if its just the route name!! Thank you 😇 😊!!
So when did LT take over the outer services from the LGOC? 1933 or later? I remember Green Line buses from the sixties. How exotic they seemed back then.
0 seconds ago
My farther drove the 715 green line from Hertford to Guildford.
One Green Line service was aptly numbered as part of its route served both LHR and LGW, the 747, started back when LT country bus services (the LT green bus area before London Country Bus Services) was the operator and RFC's were used, later Plaxton bodied AEC Reliance coaches, ran from Crawley at the southern end. Also a service from Horsham into London Victoria via LGW, Dorking and Redhill/Reigate using RMC's.
@@grahampaulkendrick7845 LT inherited all LGOC's routes in 1933.
@@tonys1636 The first "airport" Green Line route (as in deliberately intended to link airports rather than doing it as an extension/diversion of an existing route) was the 727, also numbered after the aircraft, and I think that's the one which set the national trend of using 7x7 for airport routes. 747 was introduced by LCBS.
Green Line ended up with 707/717 (London-Luton via Snorbins), 727 ("stopping" Luton-Heathrow-Gatwick), 747 Heathrow-Gatwick "Jetlink" (extended at both ends to much of south-eastern England at one point), 757 London-Luton (still running), 767 (London-Heathrow) and 777 (London-Gatwick, with extensions to Brighton) - 757-767/777 were all branded as Flightline.
I don't think there was a 787 route and 797 was London-Cambridge *not* via Stansted (that was the 799 instead). 737 rings a bell as having been London-Stansted express for a while but I don't have a leaflet for it to confirm, and the only mention I can find of it is as a Slough-Heathrow-Gatwick-Brighton variant of the 773 in the mid-80s.
And now they've pretty much all gone.
As an ex Londoner living in Florida for many years your videos are a tonic but there are also so well constructed. Thankyou
The 724! From Watford to Heathrow in 40 minutes, a wonderful route. (if no jam on the M25) It takes you right up to the terminal and you just walk in and check in. No wandering around endless underground corridors. Depends where you're going of course.
The 724 isn't a London bus though. Also doesn't it run to Luton as well?
724 runs from Harlow via Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, St Albans, Watford and Uxbridge.
@bob56gibson yeah sorry I was thinking about the other service between Watford and St Albans (the one that starts at Watford Junction and stops enroute).
@@quintuscrinis The 321!
The "Outer Circle" route in Birmingham is still, apparently, the longest urban bus route in Europe, at 27 miles. It began in 1926.
I wonder how they define an urban bus route, then. I can think of a couple of routes here in Stockholm that are longer. They do go out into the countryside, but are part of the same network. There's even a night bus between Stockholm and Uppsala, that's 45 miles, and uses the same buses and fares as the rest of the city and county buses.
The Outer Circle was usurped by a slightly longer route, I think it was named either the 60 or the X60, and its route was more or less the outer perimeter of Coventry. It only lasted a couple of years before it was cut down to more manageable routes, and unlike the Birmingham route it was never run by the main bus company (which now calls itself National Express Coventry).
@@edwardburek1717 The main Company National Express Coventry is a subsidiary of National Express West Midlands and actually goes back to 1974 when Coventry City Transport was absorbed into the West Midlands PTE the fore runner of West Midlands Travel, the legal address on Coventry buses is " West Midlands Travel Ltd, Digbeth, Birmingham"
At the moment now since the redevelopment of Perry Barr, number 11 Buses only now run art journeys and do not do the whole circuit
97 years to go 27 miles? The traffic in Birmingham must me a nightmare.
I'm surprised you've missed the "Get Around For £2" offer that has been going on most buses across the country since the start of the year! Almost all operators are taking part, although there are a few that are not - the maximum single fare on any route on participating operators is £2 (although if the normal fare is less then you pay the normal fare). It was initially launched for 3 months, then extended for another 3 months, then extended for another _4_ months, running to the end of October, but there's now a second phase where the fare will be £2.50 ("Get around and be nifty for Two pounds fifty" doesn't have quite the same ring to it) until the end of November 2024. This can give some absolute bargains, like Leeds to Whitby (nearly 80 miles, a single fare was previously £15) or Peterborough to Norwich (over 80 miles).
The price is one difference between UK and TFL. However, I do not expect to make a journey between Peterborough to Norwich (180 mins) for £2 until I read the last comment as I thought it only applies to local journeys although some are except. Wouldn't First lose money as a 2 mile and 80 mile journey is clearly out of hand for that price. You can take the same journey by train or drive in half the time, but at a £26,40 off peak return (£26,30 off peak single, min £10 advance single) so clearly buses are great value. I only expect a journey up to Dereham for £2. While I cannot find the pre £2 price, it's safe to say it';s no more than £14 as thats the price of an all day adult ticket, but even £7 is cheap.
@@annabelholland Operators taking part in the scheme got a government grant, which was intended to cover the shortfall in fares. This was individual to each operator, so one that only runs local routes charging £3 or £4 would get a proportionally smaller grant than one running long distance routes where most people would be paying £10 or more.
It ends at the end of October, but for a year bus fares will be £2.50 each.
@@annabelhollandColchester to Harwich was £2, yesterday (I needed to get to the ferry port, and trains were on strike...)
There's that youtuber/teacher who recently done a London to Scotland stretch using the £2 fares. I both applaud an envy her pursuits 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
Back when I lived in Tulse Hill, I would sometimes take the 68 bus to central London rather than the (much quicker) train. Mostly because it was cheaper, but it was also enjoyable to look at the scenery going by and have some time to think.
The 68 is a good bus route. Have often gone from West norwood to euston, and gave myself extra time so i can enjoy the ride and listen to my music :)
I tried the full route of the number 68 when there were those Leyland Olympian buses in use around the late 90's. It was a horrid journey, and the buses should have been scrapped by 1995, as they were a pile of p#$. I don't know what it's like these days on that route, and those buses.
The N68 variant of the route is also an exceptionally long journey from Central London all the way to old Coulsdon basically the daytime 68/468/60 rolled into one lol
Ah yes the scenery of Camberwell and Tulse Hill must be an amazing sight 🤣
68 is my local but i normally take the 2 because it gets to london faster
A superb video!
Two quid for 57 miles. It may sound crazy but that's what fares should be!
It should not cost more for one person using public transport than it does to use a car, carrying four people, for the same journey, yet this is nearly always the case. It wasn't the case in London of course when Ken Livingston's GLC was in charge of buses.
In the European countries which own a lot of our public transport, as well as their own, fares are a lot more affordable than they are in the UK. The Tories apparently don't believe in a publicly owned transport system except when it's a public in another country which owns it.
London’s fares are really reasonable… I’d say £2.80 for a tube fare or £1.75 for a bus fare isn’t bad when the rest of the country is £2.50 for a bus fare and probably £5+ for a train fare… and it’s especially good given driving in London is a minimum of £15 per day because of the congestion charges
Snappy Snaps? I thought they'd gone years ago. Amazing what you see from a bus.
There used to be a good outer circle bus service in Sheffield. As a student i once found a valid bus pass somebody had dropped on the floor. So I treated myself to a post exams grand tour of the city for free. It felt quite adventurous getting to those exotic suburbs well outside the normal student orbit.
I have a gripe with the SL7 (neé X26), as a resident of Hanworth.
The SL7 stops relatively regularly at every town centre from Croydon to Teddington (TWICE in Kingston, but this does make sense given the town's layout).
It then goes straight on, without stopping, to Hatton cross. This is about twice the distance it covers for each other stop.
Well, you say, maybe there isn't anything notable between the stops. Nope, there are multiple towns along the route.
Well, maybe it would take it too far off course and defeat the point of an express route? Nope, it already barrels its way down Hanworth high street, where it could connect to 5 other bus routes with ease. Behind traffic lights at which it is usually already waiting.
I can't for the life of me understand why it doesn't stop at all at either Apex Corner or Hounslow Road, stops which it already passes. It's as though they have deliberately been ignored for some reason.
It's not like we have good train or tube links either, this area is avoided like the plague!
exactly! i use the SL7 daily and it would make SO much sense to stop at apex corner, you can connect to the 285 again before they diverge, as well as the 490 before it goes to twickenham AND and 290 towards staines, it just makes sense to stop there, so why doesn't it?
fax It should stop at feltham station or even apex corner like you said when i lived there for like a year I was surprised it never stopped there
Also slightly annoying how it doesn't stop at Beddington or Waddon but I can see it .
You could always write to tfl about it or make a petition and get some people you know to sign. I would support it (I live in Catford and have no use for it but why not). It also should be 24hr imo.
@@coolrockplays697Waddon and Beddington aren't far from Croydon or Carshalton so I can understand it not stopping there. However it's usually stuck in traffic at the A23 junctions so might as well add a stop.
Buses used to run right across London. I lived at Clapham Junction, the mid-way point for a number of buses, 19 on Sundays from Streatham to Tottenham; 49 from Crystal Palace to Harlesden; 37 from Peckham to Isleworth.
Increasing traffic congestion cut those routes back.
TfL's trying to reinstate this; the 1 extension for instance, has been extended to run from Hampstead to Canada Water
I remember riding the 91 when it ran from Wandsworth Bridge to Hounslow.
@@hx0d And the 21 now runs from Holloway to Lewisham replacing the 271.
The 37 now goes to Peckham to Putney.
The 49 got cut to Clapham Junctiom and the 249 replaced the part from crystal palace to clapham common
I love buses great video with the the subject you covered. 4:11 car going across Road & 8:47 in car in building.
When I was working in Teddington I caught the then X26 from Broad Street out to the end of the route to visit a record shop I'd been told about in Croydon. I got there only to find that said record shop had closed down several years earlier.
So I got back on the bus and went all the way to Heathrow, just so I could say I'd ridden the longest route in London. A Saturday pleasantly wasted.
I also miss the Eastern National 251 set of routes from Kings Cross / Wood Green to Southend (originally City Coach Company)
Theoretical the longest journey on a bus is where a 59minute long route/journey terminates at West Croydon, just in-time for the SL7 so you can use the Hopper fare and the longest bus route for £1.75
More bus and coach videos, please, Jago. I love 'em. 🙂
Please sit on the top deck at the front, and make pithy remarks about people's gardens as you pass!
@@markglover2525 Okay, but I'm not lighting up or going into a dream for anyone, 🙂
I always thought of the X26 as an airport bus (usually Kingston to LHR - quicker than the 111), so it's probably a good idea to 'normalise' it by making it a regular inter-suburb route.
No one in their right mind would use the 111 from Kingston to Heathrow. It takes a winding Z shapoed course through west Middlesex: Heathrow, Hounslow, Hanwell, Hampton - I wouildn't have been surpised if they'd added Harrow and Hanwell!) Even when the 726 was hourly, the 285 was a better option than the 111
X26 nowadays SL7 mostly mirrors 285 since it also stops at Hatton Cross and Teddington.
@@norbitonflyer5625 Agreed, although it is convient to go from Heathrow to Hounslow and Hampton station at night.
The 6 .05 x68 from West Croydon to Russell Square used to be my route. Took many a nap on that bus and some of the regulars used to get pissed off if someone was sitting in their favourite seat 😂
Have to say I was definitely not expecting youtube to recommend me a video containing the back of my own head on the 465, completely randomly, when this kind of content isn't something I'd usuallg watch.
Again you’ve featured one of my local TfL routes - the SL7 /X26 which I’ve used for years. I’m about to start several retirement projects including ever Oyster Station (in alphabetical order) and , travelling on as many bus routes as possible. I was thinking of doing it in numerical order. I definitely will be going round the Superloop once its fully in operation.
Never thought I would see the day that Jago would travel all the way to my crummy old hometown, Harlow💀 in fact considering I know most bus routes in harlow since I am a local but I’ve never knew this bus route existed. A lot of bus routes from Harlow are £2 nowadays. Also I should mention, if you take the 420 or 420a buses, they do take you straight to Ongar and North Weald and they have to go pass Epping station anyway and even those journeys are £2 despite 6 months ago, it used to be £6.50 a journey… perhaps that could be a video idea? And even a trip to the Epping-Ongar Railway would make a great video idea! ☺️
A trip on the Epping-Ongar Railway? All I’ll say is keep an eye on this channel…
@@JagoHazzardI loved the Epping-Ongar Railway! Long overdue on this channel
the longest route operating in the Sheffield area is the X17 (Wirksworth - Matlock - Chesterfield - Sheffield - Barnsley; express between Chesterfield and Barnsley), clocking in at 40 miles, at a little under 3 hours from end to end; as well as covering a substantial portion of South Yorkshire, the route goes a long way into Derbyshire, and the run from Chesterfield into the Peak District is very scenic
The 726 was a GreenLine bus that I used to see regularly when visiting my aunt in Dartford.
The 465 is a nice route. Used to visit Box Hill a lot and the bus was very convenient. Fast, comfy, not too busy and Box Hill is a favourite place of mine to visit.
Says he's not a real journalist but he's one of the realest on the platform
Some of the night buses go to the moon and back. I once went to Heathrow from Piccadilly Circus at 03:30 . Surprisingly crowded at the end, as a lot of airport workers got on. Some of the night bus routes are interesting as they combine routes or substitute for Tube lines. Of course, there is no substitute for calling your Dad up at 0230 when the spontaneous party in a place you never heard of that isn’t really London at all and isn’t even listed in the A to Z - and you need a lift home! Yes - I am the father of teenage daughters…A modern curse more chilling than the one cast to deter Egyptian tomb robbers
The wee guy running for a bus at the end. A universal experience. 😂
It feels so surreal just hearing you talk about the bus that links me to Surbiton and Kingston, especially seeing this has become my bread and butter for commuting since 2015. On the other hand, I guess it is surreal seeing a London bus running through leafy Surrey.
Brilliant video as always! Love the lucky shots of the van turning and the 66 race car, combined with your script 👌🏼
The bit about F’ing Ham (surely that’s how it’s spelled) sparked an idea for the most underserviced parts of London (all TfL options considered). After all, it’s about time you made another video that gives a little love to Thames Meat (surely that’s how it’s spelled)!
Ah, the 724 bus! I use it very often to get between Hounslow (via Heathrow) and Watford/Rickmansworth. It is incredibly unreliable!!! It's very frustrating!!!! Arriva fix your buses!!!! Again, another great video Jago ❤❤❤
Thanks Jago....as a past driver on both the old 726/725 Windsor to Gravesend and the 724 (Staines ti Harlow in those days) it's quite enlightening to see how things have developed in the meantime....Keep up the good work.
I used to catch the 724 bus from Hatfield to just above Kings Langley. One of the best ways to get to where I worked at the time, but very slow! The lack of East-West lines south of Peterborough is a huge mistake. You have three lines coming into London that are in places just five miles apart from each other. Rant over...
I’ve no idea where half the places are in this video, I won’t be taking any of these routes, I haven’t any interest in buses, but I find Jago’s videos so relaxing I enjoyed the full 15 minutes.
Nice to see my home town of Hatfield in this video. We have our own bus services run by UNO who are a subsidiary of the University of Hertfordshire. Also the 724 is being joined by a 725 service from Stevenage to Rickmansworth in November 2023. But this is all rather off your patch I fear.
In the late 90s I used to get the 724 from Watford to St Albans and back for work. There was a lady who regularly spent all day on the bus, going back and forward. The drivers knew her and let her stay on at the ends. On her birthday she even had a little party. Beats sitting at home on your own, I suppose .
In the 1960's as a wee boy, my local 38 route ran from Victoria to Royal Forest Hotel Chingford. Pretty long. And there was a Green Line routemaster that started at Harlow, then ran through Chingford and the suburbs into Central London, before turning west to Windsor. I think it was the 718. A very long journey.
I remember a 38 bus from Lea Bridge Road taking nearly two hours for the 11 miles to Victoria in 1978 in the rush hour once (once was quite enough for me), but that may have been exceptional. Buses in London have speeded up a bit since, I think, but it made me wonder, which modern LT bus service has the slowest average speed for the entire route?
That 718 Green Line RMC route out of Harlow sounds like my dream journey, kind of thing I'd have done when I was a kid except it would have cost too much. (I'm not really old enough to have ridden a green RM) A few years ago, the Epping Ongar Railway would sometimes run an RF 1950s single-decker from North Weald to Harlow.
Not to mention the 10A which ran Victoria to Epping or the 279 which ran Mansion house to Waltham Cross and the 25 which used to ru Victoria to Becontree Heath @@frglee
@@PopeLando I loved those RF's. When I lived in Woodford in the mid 60's, there was a number 121 RF, but I can't remember where it ran from and to. I think going north, it terminated at Debden, Rectory Road.
On Sundays half the 38 buses went another 4 miles to the Wake Arms in the middle of Epping Forest. Despite the destination being a pub on a roundabout in the middle of nowhere, the bus would be packed out with families and their picnic bags.
Great views of great architecture and trees on these long routes.
Jago, Yank here. Love your videos even though I’ve never been to London. 4:03, you showed a Popeyes Chicken. You seem to have missed an opportunity to experience something very American in an unlikely setting. Could there be a video where a Brit reviews Popeyes? They have a well-earned reputation for amazing chicken and catastrophic service. I wonder if that holds in the UK.
“The route started in 1966…” while showing the racecar with #66 was really smooooth.
As an ex-London bus driver I’d love to see more videos involving buses!
Jaggo, anytime you’re up in Scotland, be my guest on the UK’s first and only fully electric intercity coach - Ember.
Interesting video, in Singapore, the longest bus route is 858 at 73.4 km or 45.60 miles, though it is a unidirectional loop from Woodlands to Changi Airport, so a one way trip between those destinations would be roughly of similar length to SL7. The longest bidirectional route in Singapore would be 61 from Bukit Batok to Eunos at 39.7 km or 24.66 miles in its forward direction and 35.7 km or 22.18 miles in its return journey.
11:32 I especially enjoyed this moment: "[something about] 1966" with a very cool visual aid from that very journey.
The long route i never plucked up the courage to ride all the way (when kids' fares were 10p} was the 2B from North Finchley (where I lived) all the way to Crystal Palace in South London, Routemaster of course.
Many years ago LT published a leaflet 'Beyond The Fringes' showing when you could use your Red Rover outside London. Of course for 2/6 extra you could buy a Golden Rover and go anywhere from Hertford to East Grinstread. Showing my age there.
I found that if you want to spend a really long time on a bus , get one of the night ones, that in the case of the one I caught a handful of times went from central London out to the suburbs in what can only be described a a zig zag route. i.e. 50 miles to do about 20 miles as the crow flies ! (yeah, I'm guessing on the numbers, but it "felt" like that !!!)
Another great video from Jago. Love the, possibly illegal, U-turn by white van man at 4.13!
The 109 used to loop from Purley to Embankment Station and back. Since they cut that back, I have noticed that routes keep getting shorter. This must benefit the operators since it does not benefit the passengers who have large or heavy packages.
The 109 used to loop two ways from Purley. It would either use Westminster Bridge first coming back over Blackfriars or vice versa.This is because the tram route they replaced did the same thing.This arrangement continued until (I think) the 1980s.
If you dare venture out late, you can still catch the N68 all the way from Old Coulsdon to Tottenham Court Road!
@@WilliamSmith-mx6ze That sounds right. A shorter self-contained route is less subject to severe disruption, for example if an accident brings a whole section to a complete halt.
It's Mayor Sadiq's obsession with ridding central London of buses, which he seems to see as nothing but a nuisance
Note also the 59, West Hampstead (West End Green) to Chipstead Valley, Sundays only. The 159 and 166 (weekdays) laid end-to-end. Less chance of bunching on Sundays. I've no idea whan that was abandoned - I last caught it in 1968.
12:27 _"[...] plus, you'll have the song 'National Express' stuck in your head all day."_ Nope, it's still "Karma Chameleon" from the Kingston segment...
This is what I thought; the furthest south is Dorking via the TfL & Surrey CC funded service 465, Furthest West is probably Slough via TfL funded service 81, furthest East is probably Passingford Bridge in Essex via TfL funded service 375 but the furthest north London Buses Service I have no idea but I am guessing that it is probably the TfL service to Debden but I forget what the route number is...
That would be the 20, my local bus route in Debden. The 397 goes to Debden too, but the 20 skirts around the estate and therefore goes further north. I would actually say that any bus that goes to Waltham Cross are more northerly. Either Lakeside Shopping Centre (Essex) or Bluewater Shopping Centre (Kent) will likely be the furthest east.
North is Potters Bar/298. East is Brentwood/498. If you're including TFL school buses, the 608 goes further to Shenfield High School
Whenever I used to go to London I used to catch the tube, but realising the buses are wayyyy cheaper, almost as quick and come so often and in time compared to Birmingham AND you actually get to see London, it's now my go to way to get around there.
The 725 was an even earlier version of the superloop 7 dating from London Transport Green Line days, before London Country.
ahh the Green Line..I used to use the 727 from Crawley to Heathrow, back in 1975-1976...such happy memories...Thanks , Jago!
9:49 The vineyard is Denbies and the coaching inn is or was The White Horse. I should know, I used to work at the latter and now I work at the former after the latter was sold. The footage of the hotel must have been taken after the sale in July but before the keys were handed over a few weeks ago as of writing this (Sep 23).
Many years ago my parents decided to travel from Romford to High Wycombe on the 724.
When they got to High Wycombe they realised that time had beaten them to look round the town so they hopped back on the same bus and came back home.
11:13 the £2 fare is actually being subsidised by the Department for Transport, covering all single-journey bus fares in England hence why it is so cheap as GreenLine Coaches brand only operates standard bus routes instead of coach services which I believe are legally different, so this means that the GreenLine Coach services operated by Reading Buses from Victoria to Windsor should also probably cost £2 so long fare payment is onboard.
Reading Buses no longer use the Green Line brand.
But yes, all their scheduled routes are £2 maximum fare. The exclusion is their new Heathrow-Basingstoke service which counts as an "express coach service" so is outside the £2 agreements.
Hah! I was not expecting the 724 to appear on this video. I used to take this all the time from Harlow as a kid. I had a staff family pass so it was free!
Man those buses were rickety, looks like they’re using newer ones now.
With that footage on the SL7, I kept thinking this was a missed opportunity for a collab with Wanderizm 😂
And “the real bus was the friends we made along the way” brought a smile to my face. Thanks, Jago!
The 724 to Harlow and then a local bus to Epping was my back up route in the event of the tube being on strike when I arrived at Heathrow last October.
Thankfully or perhaps sadly, looks like an interesting ride, the Tube was working. As was the DLR for my small adventure diversion.
The amount of footage of Croydon, and Cheam, genuinely had me looking for myself to see if I make an appearance 😅
Fascinating as ever, definitely a question I’ve wondered about over the years!
That guy at the end really wanted to get his bus
When I was at school my friend in the 1960s and I decided to see whether we could take buses from our home in Brentford to Bognor Regis. We caught the 65 at our local stop in Ealing Road to Kingston-upon-Thames - we were planning to go all the way to Leatherhead - but our bus stopped at Kingston. We took a London Country bus from there to Horsham, then changed to the Southdown bus at Horsham all the way to Bognor (i can't remember the route number). Overall the journey took about 4.5-5 hr which I don't think was bad. I wonder if it's still possible today. In Brentford we had the choice of three trolleybus routes (655, 657 and 667), three diesel bus services (65, 91 and 97) and four Greenline services (701, 702, 704 and 705) - spoilt for choice! I do wonder if the 65 was a contender for the longest route at that time. It ran from Ealing Argyll Road to Leatherhead - quite a run!
I think the routes heading up to Waltham Cross from SE London exceeded the west london routes.
Traveline.Inf says yes! On 5 different buses in 5 hours 45 minutes sadly they're all via Guildford now.
Your comment in the readly ad about having poor internet on the tube reminded me that I was in Beijing for 6 months 2011-12 and used the subway extensively. There was always excellent reception.
If you are going to stir up old memories, all I can say is not all the way. But I would have, narf narf.
I did the 724 and X26 in the same day just for fun. A great way to see the area. I was charged £12 on the 724 going the other way though several years ago . A great sandwich shop in Harlow shopping centre though.
The superloop sint't really a solution to orbital travel. The SL7 already existed as the X26 as you said, but most of them already exist, which you also said. Really they should be expanding the trams and/or building new tram systems around London for this purpose, much like Paris has done
There's also a 4th option, furthest TFL branded bus operating from London. In which case there's a bus in operations in Dundee, Scotland with TFL branding
£2 fare applies to any journey in UK. Even if you go one stop or 3 hours like you did.
The £2 fare is only available in England outside of London. On cross border services into Wales you can travel for £2 if you're catching the bus from England.
My wife and her friend found out on a shopping trip last week that you don't need to pay £2 to return, it's called a transfer onwards.
This was according to the bus driver, so they went to town (Southern England) and back for £2.00
The buses are about £1 a mile here on the south coast
"Not a real journalist"... And that's why we love you!
Hi Jago,
On your 724 fare of £2 I think you'll find it is not classed as a London service and therefore is subject to the English £2 single journey fare cap. On the subject of how far can you travel on a bus for £2 I think it's probably the X15 from Newcastle to Berwick on Tweed at about 60 miles in 2.5 hours. Oh! And it's operated by double-decker buses
@timothyduncan3457.
Can you use a Freedom Pass issued by London Boroughs on this service ?
Leeds to Whitby is 76 miles currently a £2 fare
@@MartinE63 wow
@@simonwinter8839 If it has the ENCTS rose on it, which it should do! Then yes is available to be used in the rest of England after 09:30. Check it up on Mr Google. Last July I went from the North East to Land's End with mine. Cost me £8 for the 4 buses I caught before 9:30.
@@simonwinter8839Most Freedom Passes are treated as English National Concessionary Travel Passes (ENCTP or ENCTS passes) outside of TfL services and are valid after 09:30 weekdays and all day weekends on most other bus services in England.
Brilliant Jago! I’ve used the 465 and it’s my favourite route as it actually leaves London for the Surrey Hills. I’d also recommend the 246 which goes into the Kent countryside at Chartwell on a Sunday. The best value I’ve traveled on is The ASEAG Route 55 in Aachen, which starts at Belgian -German Border at Lichtenbusch and ends in Vaals Netherlands -German border all for €3.10.
I remember the 724 well as it ran through Collier Row up from Romford Station with its distinctive RF buses. Always wondered what happened to it.
Hardly surprising though. The GLC and its subsequent authorities were always playing with the routes out here. Such routes as the 250, the 151/251/351, the 175 past Chase Cross (only comparatively revived with the 375), the 400 Express, all of them got the boot and much of it was politically driven.
400 and 402 couldn't compete with the resurgent railway once LTS (now c2c) got their act together.
151/251/351 became commercial routes after deregulation in 1986 and were slowly whittled away as they became unprofitable.
It's what happens when a country decides that public services should be purely profit-making businesses. I'm not going to get into whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's a natural result of the change: only the profitable parts survive.
Some lovely and fascinating places to stare at out the window. Must be quite fun being a bus driver, in London at least.
Do you ever come north to Birmingham? We have two routes of 25 mile which get you back to where you started they do a circuit of the city about 4 miles from the centre! The 11a does the route anticlockwise whilst the 11c does it clockwise! A few years ago it was one of the most profitable bus routes in Europe!
A minor issue, but the routes are 27 miles long.
@@PLuMUK54 thanks for correcting!
Can I just note that the timing of the runner at the end to Jago's quote about the "the real bus is the friends we made along the way" is PERFECTLY timed? Because it is.
I guess the other answer would be how much distance can you cover using multiple London buses. But that is more Travelling Turtle's thing.
the 465 is a blessing during train strikes when i need to get to my hometown. 465 to dorking, metro 93 to horsham. and its so scenic.
I loved the London buses but I just didn’t know the routes as well as the Underground. I reached Feltham by mistake which is the furthest from Central London but not too far from Heathrow.
I have recently found out Feltham is closeish to Hounslow - normally I approach it from the Twickenham direction and really loose my mental mind map of London, however the next step by bus to Bedfont is a real pain
How far can you go on a London bus?
Feltham
Snigger
when living in Brixton from 1979-1986 i used the 157 bus to Lillian Baylis Secondary school from Brixton Road...... loved going on it and seeing Houses of Parliament from it's classroom....been living in Dublin since then. fascinating Jago
10:23 There's a bus service from Heathrow to Harlow? I wish I'd known this in 2019, I could have seen my grandfather one last time before he fell ill.
EDIT: Seeing you pull in to Harlow bus station at the end really hit hard. I used to get the bus into town from my grandfather's house back when he was alive and I would go to visit him. I have so many good memories of being there.
£2 is what I have to pay just to get into town a mile away on local service and still have to walk to the main road (10 min) to get that since our estate service was cancelled several years ago. And it runs twice per hour, making walking it the cheaper and quicker option.
It's also the same as what Arriva charges from town to Alnwick about 30ish miles away on a one way ticket on an hourly service.
To conclude £2 for a bus journey that long of a distance is a bargain.
I have wondered what the longest bus route in England is (assuming bus counts as a route with a timetable, where you can pay a fixed fare when boarding) - I reckon the 840 (Leeds - Whitby Coastliner) is a decent shot, at about 72 miles and timetabled 3:25
If you include Scotland, and your criteria for it being a "bus" rather than a "coach" is that you can use a pensioner's bus pass on it; then it would be one of the Citylink services from Glasgow or Edinburgh to the Scottish Highlands. Possibly the 915 from Glasgow to Uig, 2 services per day, journey time 7h45m.
Actually it’s the C145 from Plymouth to London only using modified double-deckers
@@katrinabrycefunnily enough I used my bus pass to travel from Uig to Glasgow the day before yesterday!
I took the 840 from York to Whitby 6 years ago. It's also one of the most scenic bus routes I've experienced
The First Excel from Peterborough to Norwich is just over 80 miles, runs every half hour, and takes 3h or 3h15 depending on which strand you get.
I must admit that when I first read the title of this, my mind definitely strayed into the 'misbehaving' category...
I was a keen explorer of London bus routes in my childhood and early teens. My schoolfriends and I used to have races across London using Red Rover tickets, ending up at unlikely places such as the centre of Hampton Court maze and the Spectators' Gallery on top of (I think) Terminal One at Heathrow. I'm trying to remember which was the longest of the old Green Line routes: my then local one, the 718 from Harlow to Windsor, must have been a close contender. Anyway, thanks for another excellent video, Jago.
This video is such a trip to me.
Not only do I live in Croydon so seeing footage on RUclips of all of those roads is surreal, I _also_ used to pass that garrage with the car in the wall that's on the 465 route every day on the train.
I used the SL9 from Harrow to Hayes & Harlington to connect with the Elizabeth line. The outward journey at mid-morning was trouble-free and pretty quick. Coming back, however was a very different story. I was at H&H at about 4.30 and the rabble waiting for the buses (there's no such thing as a bus queue any more) was extensive. I let the first bus go, as that thinned out the rabble considerably. The following bus was only 5 minutes behind and there wasn't any difficulty getting a seat. Even with the bus lanes operating, there was much time spent in queues or waiting for the normal buses to move off before we could proceed. Otherwise, it's a good way to travel around London as opposed to in and out. As I can get to Heathrow on the SL9. I shall have to give the SL7 a go as well.
When the Superloop's complete, I imagine people will attempt to do the complete circle in the shortest possible time and I might even try it myself.
Like you Jago, ive only just recently undertaken a ride on the Green Line 724 from Heathrow to Harlow. I used to ride this route when it was operated by actual green liveried coaches back in the 90's so decided to have a little ride down memory lane. I caught the 00:25 departure on a Saturday night which also takes in Terminal 5 on its insane journey over to Harlow and so is a few miles longer still than the bog standard 724 routing. The driver was a star and I was able to hop off at nearly all the timing points to get a photo. I also paid the fantastic £2 fare which was an absolute bargain too. It was such fun I must get around to doing it again soon along with doing the Green Line 702 route out from Victoria to Slough, Windsor & Bracknell / Reading for that mad fare of £2 !!
Quote of the Day: “The real bus was the friends we made along the way.”
Sick! ;)
I used to drive the 724, it actually splits (in theory) at St. Albans, to stay outside of the realms of Tachograph Rules (EU regulations), where by a bus route can only be 31 miles to run under UK domestic rules.
It's a brilliant route with so much variety, from a driver's point of view, the only real pain being trying to find a space to stop in at Heathrow!
I'd go back tomorrow, if I lived close enough to the Harlow Garage still!
I wonder what would be the longest if the Hoppa fare was used?
It used to be 26 miles (uses a tram though): ruclips.net/video/bL6Asp01R_g/видео.html
He came so close to mentioning Ware!
But it was nowhere to be heard.