Easiest/most complicated bus routes?

[Deleted]

Jun 29, 2012 15:45:24 GMT @isaac1hunt said:

Jun 28, 2012 19:57:14 GMT @truffles1234 said:

Yes, i'd recommend that one! Plenty of narrow country roads, and has to reverse at the nice little village Wickhambreaux. You also get to pass Kent International Airport (where no one gets on or off lol), and also there is a 'level crossing' going over one of the aeroplane roads. Plenty of other routes to recommend, but I wont do that here ;D

Some great routes down in East Kent, I rode the 18 from Hythe to Canterbury recently on a Volvo Olympian and some of the narrow lanes it goes down are barely any wider than the bus. Quite a few scenic rural routes, great fun on double deckers banging the tree branches as they go How the drivers remember these routes, especially the ones with deviations, I don't know especially if they only do them now and again.

They are a different spieces of drivers, Im surpised how they could remember a route that runs from Weymouth to Exter ( I think) which takes 4 hours to do.

[jay38a]

Jun 29, 2012 18:35:47 GMT @eastlondon92 said:

Jun 29, 2012 15:45:24 GMT @isaac1hunt said:

Some great routes down in East Kent, I rode the 18 from Hythe to Canterbury recently on a Volvo Olympian and some of the narrow lanes it goes down are barely any wider than the bus. Quite a few scenic rural routes, great fun on double deckers banging the tree branches as they go How the drivers remember these routes, especially the ones with deviations, I don't know especially if they only do them now and again.

They are a different spieces of drivers, Im surpised how they could remember a route that runs from Weymouth to Exter ( I think) which takes 4 hours to do.

Its the X53 from Poole to Weymouth, takes nearly 5 hours however drivers change at Weymouth and Bridport, so Weymouth based drivers do Poole to Weymouth & Weymouth to Bridport sections while Bridport drivers do the Bridport to Exeter section, so not so much of the route they need to learn.

[goaheadswvlrbest]

The easiest routes that I could do in my sleep must be..
18, 25, 37, 77, 87, 112, 207, 237, 337, 415, 427, 607, H37, H91.

Hardest routes to learn must be..

4, 28, 31, 83, 111, 226, 228, 266, 343 E2, E3, W3, X26

[Deleted]

Surprisingly, X26 was an easy route I learnt , much of it just straight with only a few turns for example, Croydon to Sutton is straight, Sutton to North Cheam and Kingston has only a couple of turns.


Much of Route 434 is Hail & Ride so theres lots of tricky turns to remember.

119 was quite hard to learn, took about three rounders.

[goaheadswvlrbest]

Another few easy routes I thought i would Add! 16, 332 and 149

I find most routes from Merton garage are complex to learn with the exception of the 77, you just gotta love Mertons allocation policy almost anything can turn up on any route.

[vjaska]

Apr 28, 2013 22:03:22 GMT goaheadswvlrbest said:

Another few easy routes I thought i would Add! 16, 332 and 149

I find most routes from Merton garage are complex to learn with the exception of the 77, you just gotta love Mertons allocation policy almost anything can turn up on any route.

I could do the 118 in my sleep, then again I've lived in Brixton for 20 years ;D

[jay38a]

Apr 28, 2013 22:03:22 GMT goaheadswvlrbest said:

Another few easy routes I thought i would Add! 16, 332 and 149

I find most routes from Merton garage are complex to learn with the exception of the 77, you just gotta love Mertons allocation policy almost anything can turn up on any route.

Merton are not as bad as DT were, they used to play, if it fits its fine and lets allocate SDs to DD routes and vice versa (although the SD/DD situation still continues a bit) but theres less mixing of SD buses since they've lost the 126, 162 and 233.

Id struggle to remember the 386 as it dots in and out of side streets like theres no tomorrow. The 405 is pretty simple, the A23 the whole way near enough bar the one diversion off to serve Pamisford Road and to serve Coulsdon.

[M1104]

Apr 28, 2013 23:25:42 GMT vjaska said:

Apr 28, 2013 22:03:22 GMT goaheadswvlrbest said:

Another few easy routes I thought i would Add! 16, 332 and 149

I find most routes from Merton garage are complex to learn with the exception of the 77, you just gotta love Mertons allocation policy almost anything can turn up on any route.

I could do the 118 in my sleep, then again I've lived in Brixton for 20 years ;D

That was my favourite route when at AL. Was only a pity their Metrobuses never had 118 on their blinds, nor the ten odd NVs that replaced them.

The 156, though not a straight line, was still a pretty straightforward route when it was Wimbledon to Clapham Junction.

[DT 11]

Apr 29, 2013 0:56:19 GMT jay38a said:

Apr 28, 2013 22:03:22 GMT goaheadswvlrbest said:

Another few easy routes I thought i would Add! 16, 332 and 149

I find most routes from Merton garage are complex to learn with the exception of the 77, you just gotta love Mertons allocation policy almost anything can turn up on any route.

Merton are not as bad as DT were, they used to play, if it fits its fine and lets allocate SDs to DD routes and vice versa (although the SD/DD situation still continues a bit) but theres less mixing of SD buses since they've lost the 126, 162 and 233.

Id struggle to remember the 386 as it dots in and out of side streets like theres no tomorrow. The 405 is pretty simple, the A23 the whole way near enough bar the one diversion off to serve Pamisford Road and to serve Coulsdon.

The reason for DT doing that was because those Horrible DAF ALX400s were poor maintained and constantly VOR, it was their own fault because those DAFs were totally crap. I find the 160 service much better now with the E400s. The SDs were not throw out on purpose.

SDs do not appear on the 160 & 492 so often these days. If it is the 492 the bus is quickly subbed in Dartford, if the 160 then it it either DT 17 or 18 which are the peak journeys it is very rare now for a Single decker to stay on the 160 all day.


Also East Thames Buses TFL! Have put single deckers on Double decker routes countless times! So DT doing it was not really a problem because of the Craply maintained DAFs.