Vintage London buses in timetabled Harlow service

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One of the busiest bus stations in the country is to have a new route added - a vintage London service.

The 396 from Harlow bus station will go to and from North Weald on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The new service is part of a trial scheme being run by Harlow Council and the Epping Ongar Railway.

Council spokesman for regeneration Tony Durcan said: "It's certainly been a very long time since a London bus has travelled through Harlow."

The service, which will link up with the Epping Ongar railway at North Weald, will pick up and drop off along the route at all regular bus stops.

Bus pass holders will also be able to use the 396 service, just as they would a regular route.

Generate money
The council hopes the red and green buses will help generate money for the authority, which has had to make savings to meet a £1.8m budget shortfall this year.

The buses being used are AET Regent RT buses, which were made famous in the film Summer Holiday starring Sir Cliff Richard.

The number of the route - 396 - was chosen because it used to be the service run out of Harlow using RT buses in the 1960s.

Mr Durcan said: "Many of our older residents, including some who moved from London in 1950s will remember travelling on the old London buses and riding on a steam train and now they have the opportunity to share that experience with their families."

The Epping Ongar Railway has recently resumed steam and heritage diesel services along what was once the end of the London Underground Central Line.

Tickets for both the bus route and the train service can be bought at the Harlow bus station, which has 400,000 departures each year.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-19094642

www.harlow.gov.uk/news/press_releases/bus_to_epping_-_ongar_railway.aspx << also on the link it mentioned its only a trial period for a month.

Well done to them But i hope to see the Boris Bus join in for a special time.

I also hope they take Oyster cards as well

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The EOR already has the 339 service from Epping to North Weald (some journeys continuing to Ongar). Both routes are run by The London Bus Company. Its great to see such elderly buses being run quite intensively on public bus services, especially considering the dead runs to Northfleet! (unless some of the vehicles are stored at EOR). Even though i'm not far away in Loughton, i've yet to have a go on the vintage bus service, or the EOR itself.

I very much doubt they would ever accept Oyster cards though!

I think the council spokesman is a little incorrect in saying London buses haven't been to Harlow in a long while though. Harlow is full of ex-London Darts from many operators, and many of them used to operate ex-London Titans and Metrobuses. Imperial used to operate Routemasters and RTs on the H1, and Blue Triangle used to operate special Sunday services with RTs only a few years ago!

And it says Harlow is one of the busiest bus stations in the country.... although it is a busy bus station, i think its a bit of an exageration lol.

[snoggle]

Aug 5, 2012 22:28:15 GMT @truffles1234 said:

The EOR already has the 339 service from Epping to North Weald (some journeys continuing to Ongar). Both routes are run by The London Bus Company. Its great to see such elderly buses being run quite intensively on public bus services, especially considering the dead runs to Northfleet! (unless some of the vehicles are stored at EOR). Even though i'm not far away in Loughton, i've yet to have a go on the vintage bus service, or the EOR itself.

I very much doubt they would ever accept Oyster cards though!

I think the council spokesman is a little incorrect in saying London buses haven't been to Harlow in a long while though. Harlow is full of ex-London Darts from many operators, and many of them used to operate ex-London Titans and Metrobuses. Imperial used to operate Routemasters and RTs on the H1, and Blue Triangle used to operate special Sunday services with RTs only a few years ago!

And it says Harlow is one of the busiest bus stations in the country.... although it is a busy bus station, i think its a bit of an exageration lol.

Come on - all the BBC have done is regurgitate a press release. They wouldn't know if a London Bus had landed on the moon never mind if they had served Harlow recently. They only think London Buses are red with conductors and an open back. This is obviously a school holidays trial to see if a direct link to Harlow bolsters visits to the railway. It'll be interesting to see if it works as a venture or not.

Of course it is not going to accept Oyster cards. It's a commercial service and has nothing to do with TfL which I now you understand. The OP seems to get a tad carried away about any bus with an open platform. I can't see the NB4L turning up in Harlow anytime soon - the new schedules requires 7 of the 8 vehicles to be in service M-F although none seem to be in service today.

I agree with you about Harlow - it's only "busy" because there are heaps of crappy buses whizzing round going nowhere. It's a travesty that Harlow is so badly served by bus with unstable routes and poor vehicles. I suspect almost all London bus stations would knock into it a cocked hat in terms of "busy-ness".

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Aug 6, 2012 15:30:20 GMT snoggle said:

I agree with you about Harlow - it's only "busy" because there are heaps of crappy buses whizzing round going nowhere. It's a travesty that Harlow is so badly served by bus with unstable routes and poor vehicles. I suspect almost all London bus stations would knock into it a cocked hat in terms of "busy-ness".

Many London bus stations certainly are busier than Harlow. There are plenty outside of London which are probably busier as well. Definatly is a shame that Harlow has such poor bus operations. Even Arriva/TGM are starting to get like the independents there, and they used to be a much better operator.

I've yet to see a timetable for this 396 service, even on the EOR website. The London Bus Company were at Harlow recently to promote the new service, with their 'Supercar' (the DMS/tube/train).

"The council hopes the red and green buses will help generate money for the authority, which has had to make savings to meet a £1.8m budget shortfall this year" - Hmm, i'm not sure an infrequent vintage bus service will generate significant amounts of money for the council.