My quest to travel on every London bus route

[skyscraper101]

The N18

The slowest way home when I lived in Harrow. Pootling along the Harrow Road via Kensal Green Station - Harlesden - Craven Park Road - Craven Park - Hillside - Brentfield - Stonebridge Park *shudder* in the early hours. Only to find it didn't even go to Harrow and stopped at the Sudbury Swan meaning I still had to fork out another fiver to get to my place by cab. Glad I don't live there any more.

 

[rennie]

What did you expect living in Harrow?

 

[pootle]

I am fond of the 73 bus. It used to be so much better as a double decker.

For all my love of the buses, I can't bear a bendy bus and will wait for a normal bus instead, if my journey allows it. Bendy buses make me feel sick!

 

[skyscraper101]

What did you expect living in Harrow?

A bloody bus that goes there and doesn't stop 4 miles short of it would be a start

 

[toblerone3]

If anyone wants to join me on their favourite route, let me know. I could use the company occasionally.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

I like this idea very much.

 

[rennie]

A bloody bus that goes there and doesn't stop 4 miles short of it would be a start

You have a point, sort of.

 

[ajdown]

I'm going to visit every tube station in London that doesn't have any of the letters from the word mackeral in it.

It'll probably take you longer to work out which stations you can visit, than to actually do the journey

 

[Orang Utan]

It'll probably take you longer to work out which stations you can visit, than to actually do the journey

i already know the answer

 

[ash]

Enjoy your trip to Bow orang tang

 

[ash]

oops unfortunate spelling!!

 

[Roadkill]

My faves are the 53 ...

The eastbound 53 coming round the corner when I'm standing at the Elephant or on the New Cross Road at some ungodly hour of the morning is one of the most welcome sights I know. The N1 comes a close second, but it doesn't go as near my place and I get impatient with its dawdling through the back streets of Canada Water and Deptford.

 

[cybertect]

[subscribes and keeps an eye out on the 154]

 

[Miss-Shelf]

I wanted to produce little tracts (or leaflets to give the vernacular) about all the things you could do on a bus route

because when you use buses and not cars you don't try and do journeys that require three changes of bus even if its just a mile or two, you adapt your life to your bus route

visiting shops and restaurants etc on the route

I heart 277 - you can do a lot up and down that route

its great when you go on a bus that you haven't been on for ages

I also heart D3 - approach tavern E2 to wapping round all the little back streets

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

The worst bus route I've encountered as yet is the 123 which runs from somewhere out past Gants Hill to like Turnpike Lane.

When I lived in Gants Hill, I set out from my house two hours before kickoff, in order to go to that old football pub in Turnpike Lane with a few mates to watch England v Germany (Euro 2000). The bus theoretically takes 20 minutes, so 2 hours should have given ample drinking time before the match.

As it happened, I had to wait an hour for the bus, and then the one that came, stopped about 10 metres from the bus stop, let a couple of people off, and then zoomed off, the driver flipping the v at me as he went. It definitely wasn't one which was stopping soon after, as it said Turnpike Lane on the front. I then had to wait another 40 minutes for the next one, and just about got there in time for kickoff.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

I'm 33 for the record.

 

[MrSki]

No 59

Since Eurostar opened in St Pancras I can get home late at night (last bus from King's Cross 1.01am & it only takes about 40 minutes.

Much preferable to the Victoria line. The added bonus is seeing Big Ben (St Stephens tower...) through the centre of the London Eye lit in various colours, whilst going over Waterloo Bridge.

The view the other way is not bad either.

 

[PacificOcean]

The 491. Waltham Cross to Edmonton.

It's a dinky little bus. It makes me happy.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Being from Clapton, my lifeblood was always the 253. Whizzes up to Bethnal Green and the Central Line in one direction, and Finsbury Park, Camden etc in the other.

The 38 was quite useful too...

 

[berniedicters]

i already know the answer

Handy, then, that spelling it correctly - thus: "mackerel" - won't actually change the list of stations. Otherwise you might have had to recalculate.

 

[berniedicters]

Oh. For people who do that kind of thing, there's a facebook group to go with the quest.

 

[Etymologist]

Yes! Amazing. I love london based completism. I'm currently on a slow mission to walk every tube line on the london underground. I say slow because I do a big walk about twice a year. Done the Jubilee Line (in one day!), Northern Line (two separate walks), Half the picadilly, half the central, the east london... But this bus mission is much much bigger. I shall follow the blog with glee. (mine, documenting the tube line walks, is here: http://blog.myspace.com/mustelidae ) Big up hoverdonkey! Welcome.

 

[toblerone3]

Love the bus route and tube line blogs.

 

[marty21]

I heart buses - your mission sounds cool Mr Donkey. At one stage I knew all of the night bus routes up to something like the N50 (which I'm not even sure exists) I'm starting to wonder if I'm not on some sort of spectrum



This is my new favourite bus route, with the 341 coming a close runner up

You also have some ace links on your blog - cassette boy and adam buxton? Nice.

I did an epic journey on the 253 once, got on at Finsbury Park, a little pissed woke up in Finsbury Park I'd been all the way to Whitechapel and back, got off, and got another one back, woke up on Mare Street - decided it was better to walk back to Clapton

 

[marty21]

Oh and a great new route imo, the 393, takes you from Clapton to Chalk Farm (I think it ends up there) takes an age, but if you're not in a hurry, I loves it

 

[19sixtysix]

Nah, I love night buses. I don't have balls, steel or otherwise.

Agree. The night buses are the quickest as well. Drivers tend to put foot down and I fall asleep giving the impression of a very quick journey home. My quickest ever journey was Limehouse to Crystal Palace N15 and N3 in 45 mins. I didn't fall asleep on that one I was holding on to avoid being thrown out my seat.

 

[hoverdonkey]

Oh. For people who do that kind of thing, there's a facebook group to go with the quest.

Ah, yes, please join! I need some virtual moral support.

 

[blossie33]

Being from Clapton, my lifeblood was always the 253. Whizzes up to Bethnal Green and the Central Line in one direction, and Finsbury Park, Camden etc in the other.

The 38 was quite useful too...

The 253 only goes from Euston to Hackney now, you need the 254 if you want Bethnal Green and Algate.

I like the 276 route, Stoke Newington to Newham Hospital via Hackney Wick and Bow, very useful for certain parties

I love London buses and always use them in preference to the tube (time permitting).
I hate the bendy ones though, they are like cattle trucks - as someone else said, I would rather wait for another number than get on one if it's possible.

 

[HobgoblinMan]

Yes! Amazing. I love london based completism. I'm currently on a slow mission to walk every tube line on the london underground. I say slow because I do a big walk about twice a year. Done the Jubilee Line (in one day!), Northern Line (two separate walks), Half the picadilly, half the central, the east london... But this bus mission is much much bigger. I shall follow the blog with glee. (mine, documenting the tube line walks, is here: http://blog.myspace.com/mustelidae ) Big up hoverdonkey! Welcome.

Dude, that's fucking quality. I would love to do that!!!! Respect pal

 

[salem]

Oh and a great new route imo, the 393, takes you from Clapton to Chalk Farm (I think it ends up there) takes an age, but if you're not in a hurry, I loves it

Yup, just by the Morrisons Petrol station. I've only been on it once (while a bit inebriated on the way home from a squat party on Sunday morning) and yes the journey did seem to take forever. But by god when I saw that bus I think a bit of me cried with joy as I'd forgotten all about it and was about to do a long time multi-bus mission to get home.

'My' bus is the 24. Served me well all my life, oldest unchanged London bus route IIRC. Flagship route so always gets the latest and greatest buses, was the first non-red bus when they privatised the buses (good/bad but seeing a big coloured double decker coming to take me to school was an early and happy memory of mine). You often see an MP on there and probably as a result they are kept in top condition, I don't think I've ever seen graffiti or etched glass. And the N24 is for some reason usually pretty empty - like a private taxi, unlike the unruly vomit and violent express (the N5) which follows a very similar route. And best of all it starts/stops right by my house

 

[PacificOcean]

And the N24 is for some reason usually pretty empty - like a private taxi,

Who wants to go from Hampstead Heath to Pimlico at that time of night?