This is a list of Transport for London (TfL) contracted bus routes in London, England, as well as commercial services that enter the Greater London area (except coaches). Bus services in London are operated by Abellio London, Arriva London, HCT Group, Go-Ahead London (Blue Triangle, Docklands Buses, London Central, and London General), Metroline, RATP Dev Transit London (London Sovereign, London United and London Transit) Stagecoach London (East London, Selkent, and Thameside), Sullivan Buses and Uno. TfL-sponsored operators run more than 500 services.
Non-TfL-sponsored operators include Arriva Shires & Essex, Arriva Southern Counties, Carousel Buses, Diamond South East, Go-Coach, First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, Metrobus, Southdown PSV, Stagecoach South and Trustybus.
In Victorian times, passengers could recognise the owner and the route of an omnibus (Latin: "for everyone") only by its livery and its line name, with painted signs on the sides showing the two termini to indicate the route. Then, in 1906, George Samuel Dicks of the London Motor Omnibus Company decided that, as the line name 'Vanguard' had proved to be very popular, he would name all lines 'Vanguard' and number the company's five routes 1 through to 5. Other operators soon saw the advantage, in that a unique route number was easier for the travelling public to remember, and so the practice of using route numbers soon spread.[1]
Bus routes run by London Transport were grouped as follows.
The London Traffic Act 1924 imposed numbering known as the Bassom Scheme, named after Superintendent (later Chief Constable) Arthur Ernest Bassom of the Metropolitan Police who devised it. For many decades, variant and short workings used letter suffixes (e.g. "77B"). The numbers reflected the company that operated the route.
The numbering was revised in 1934 after London Transport was formed:
Route number | Former type of service |
---|---|
1–199 | "Central Area" red double-decker services |
200–289 | "Central Area" red single-decker services |
290–299 | "Central Area" night routes |
300–399 | "Country Area" north of the River Thames (rural services were operated by London Country Bus Services after 1970) |
400–499 | "Country Area" south of the River Thames (rural services were operated by London Country Bus Services after 1970) |
500–699 | Trolleybuses |
701–799 | Green Line Coaches |
800–899 | "Country Area New Towns" routes |
Route Number | Type of service |
---|---|
1–599 | Most local day routes, including 24-hour services. |
600–699 | School services, normally operating only one return journey per day* |
700–899 | Regional and national coach services |
900–999 | One mobility service within TfL, detailed below |
N-prefixed routes | Night routes |
X-prefixed routes | Express routes |
Other letter-prefixed routes | Local day routes, including 24-hour services, with the letter(s) denoting a key area the bus travels through. |
All routes operate in both directions unless detailed.
Route | Start | End | Operator | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
507 | Victoria bus station | Waterloo station | London General | |
521 | London Bridge station | Waterloo station | London General | |
533[7][55] | Hammersmith | Castelnau | Metroline | |
549 | Loughton | South Woodford | Sullivans Buses[66] | Taken over by Transport for London in 2003. Frequency reduced from a bus every 67 minutes to a bus every 90 minutes in March 2022. No Sunday service.[67] |
The majority of buses numbered between 600 and 699 are school services, running once on each weekday peak period during school term time.[68] The exception to this is route 607, a limited stop express route.
Route numbers from 900 to 999 represent Mobility Buses; these provide a once-a-week return journey to a local shopping centre from relatively low-density neighbourhoods where there is no alternative route in the main bus network. The number of Mobility Buses routes has declined because low-floor and wheelchair-accessible buses run on all London Buses routes.
Route | Start | End | Operator |
---|---|---|---|
969 | Whitton, Gladstone Avenue | Roehampton Vale | Abellio London |
Night bus routes are often related to the day numerical equivalent, normally running the same route but with an extension at either end of the service. This is normally to provide a night service to destinations served by tube or train during the day.[80]
However, there are a few N-prefixed route numbers that have no relation to their daytime equivalents: the N5, N20, and N97 all operate in a different part of London to their respective day routes, and the N550 and N551 (which provide night service on parts of the DLR network) have no corresponding daytime routes.[80]
There are also 24-hour routes, which run day and night but usually with a lower frequency during the night hours. The vast majority run the same route at all times. With the introduction of the Night Tube, some day routes have been extended to run during Friday and Saturday nights to serve the stations.
These bus routes are not contracted to TfL and are therefore not 'London Buses'. All but three run from villages and towns outside Greater London to destinations within (the exception being 812, which runs entirely within the boundary). They are painted in a colour chosen by the operator, so are not necessarily red like London Buses, and most of them do not accept Oyster cards. These routes are operated with a London Service Permit issued by TfL so they are recognised by TfL bus maps and appear on TfL bus stops.[citation needed]
Route | Start | End | Withdrawal date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
5[118][119] | Shepherd's Bush Green | Ladbroke Grove | May 1954 | |
9H[120] | Kensington High Street | Trafalgar Square | 25 July 2014[121] | |
10[122] | Hammersmith | Kings Cross | 24 November 2018[123] | |
15H | Tower Hill | Trafalgar Square | 14 November 2020 (last day of operation 29 September 2019)[124] | |
48[125] | London Bridge | Walthamstow | 12 October 2019[126] | |
82[127] | North Finchley | Victoria | 1 April 2017[128] | |
239[129] | Clapham Junction | Victoria | 2008 | Merged with route 190. |
305[75] | Kingsbury | Edgware | 24 August 2018 | |
310 | Enfield | Waltham Cross | 2006 | Continues to operate between Hertford and Waltham Cross[65] |
311 | Enfield | Waltham Cross | 2006 | Continues to operate between Hertford and Waltham Cross[65] |
391[78] | Richmond | Hammersmith bus station | 1 December 2020 | |
395 | Surrey Quays | Limehouse | 2006 | Introduced in 1999. Operated with a 30 minute service frequency and used the Rotherhithe Tunnel.[59] |
402 | Bromley | Tunbridge Wells | 24 July 2017[130] | Continues to operate between Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells.[65] |
609 | The Harrodian School | Hammersmith bus station | 2019[131] | School service[132] |
648 | Romford | Cranham | 24 July 2021 | |
733 | Oval tube station | Finsbury Square | 2022 | Temporary route introduced on 15 January 2022 and operated by Tower Transit. Created due to a closure of the Northern line.[133] |
C2[134][75] | Parliament Hill Fields | Regent Street | 29 March 2019[135] | |
RV1[136] | Covent Garden | Tower Gateway station | 14 June 2019[137] | |
T31 | New Addington | Forestdale | 2015[33] | Operated by Arriva.[18] |
W10[138] | Enfield Town | Crews Hill station | 12 March 2021[139] |
Route | Start | End | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
439 | Whyteleafe | Waddon Marsh | Consultation held in 2020.[140] Transport for London announced its intention to go ahead with the proposed route in September 2021.[141] |
443 | Caterham | West Croydon bus station | Consultation held in 2020.[140] Transport for London announced its intention to go ahead with the proposed route in September 2021.[141] |
S2 | Belmont | St Helier | Consultation held in 2020.[140] Transport for London announced its intention to go ahead with the proposed route in September 2021.[141] |
There are three special TfL express routes which only run during the Notting Hill Carnival: 2X, 36X and 205X.[142]
Route 23A operates on one day per year to Imber using heritage vehicles.[143][144]
The majority of our schoolday-only routes (routes generally numbered 600-699)