What is the longest a bus has been stuck for?

[Deleted]

Back in the days of the PR1 (Willesden Junction-Ealing Broadway) - long replaced by an extension to the 226 - the bus once got stuck in one of those quiet little residential streets in Ealing. There was a rather large van seemingly abandoned right in the middle of the narrow road. Nothing could get past and certainly not a full size single deck bus. We were sat motionless for 12-13 minutes before most of the passengers simply gave up and got off.
I should have waited to see if a bus came the other way and drew up to the van not realizing there was a bus the other side of it.

[M1104]

I was stuck in a Pollards Hill-bound 152 bus in traffic for nearly 30 minutes when the level crossing barriers at Eastfields refused to raise. It turned out that the relevant automated switch was faulty.

A similar event happened at the same location when an articulated lorry got wedged on the entrance to the roundabout just after the crossing. The barrier signals then came on but the barrier wouldn't lower due to the obstruction of the lorry's back end.

Traffic users then realised that even if the lorry gets freed they will still have to wait for the barriers to come down and all the backlog of trains to pass through. Unfortunately, my 152 bus was again too close to the barrier to be able to make any kind of effort to turn around.

[snowman]

There were many buses stuck in Kingston about a month ago for over an hour when the car crashed into an SP at Wood Street junction. The one way system was blocked and buses from Eden Street couldn't' go anywhere, and buses from Cromwell Rd couldn't get to Kingston Bridge.

Think it blocked over 20 routes so was unplanned stoppage of over 1% of the network. I think the bus in the contra flow lane behind the SP was stuck for about 4 hours.

[DT 11]

Does snowy conditions count?

A couple of years ago when the snow really came down proper. I was stuck on a 126 for two hours at the Junction of Widmore Road & Kentish Way, gridlock traffic in Bromley. Then I didn't arrive in Grove Park for another hour.

I got on the bus something past two and didn't leave Bromley until the sky began to get dark. That day the 126 was the only bus running through Bromley. All other buses were either stuck or withdrawn due to the conditions.

[guybowden]

Late last year when a lorry hit a car that hit another car that then crushed a cyclist in Lompit Vale by the Esso/Tesco petrol station. I was the third bus in the line (the accident must of happened about a minute before I got there). I sat there for about 45/50 minutes until all the other buses behind could reverse up the road and turn around (there was about 10 to 15 buses). The road was closed for the next 6 hours while they resurfaced it.

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[overgroundcommuter]

Sept 17, 2013 16:48:45 GMT DT 11 said:

Does snowy conditions count?

A couple of years ago when the snow really came down proper. I was stuck on a 126 for two hours at the Junction of Widmore Road & Kentish Way, gridlock traffic in Bromley. Then I didn't arrive in Grove Park for another hour.

I got on the bus something past two and didn't leave Bromley until the sky began to get dark. That day the 126 was the only bus running through Bromley. All other buses were either stuck or withdrawn due to the conditions.

I remember during the 2010 snow, my mother was stuck in Grove Park and while the bus stand by Grove Park Station had 136s parked up told to stay there, the only bus operating was the 124 to Catford which she boarded.   At Catford she was told no buses were operating and walked home.  Around 8.45, the first bus to arrive in Dulwich was a 197 to Peckham from Croydon which you can imagine was packed.

Other buses were stuck at Dog Kennel Hill and Lordship Lane Wood Vale.   Route 356 managed to operate between Upper Sydenham and Shirley despite the steep hills.

[M1104]

Sept 17, 2013 16:30:26 GMT snowman said:

There were many buses stuck in Kingston about a month ago for over an hour when the car crashed into an SP at Wood Street junction. The one way system was blocked and buses from Eden Street couldn't' go anywhere, and buses from Cromwell Rd couldn't get to Kingston Bridge.

Think it blocked over 20 routes so was unplanned stoppage of over 1% of the network. I think the bus in the contra flow lane behind the SP was stuck for about 4 hours.

I remember another incident in the area where a lorry with a very long haul of concrete couldn't make a turn and the traffic lights had to be removed so that the vehicle was free. I believe the junction was where the 131 meets the 85 towards Kingston.

[Steve80]

I been stuck in traffic many times especially on the 3s. I remember one time I left oxford circus stand (handover place), went past two traffic lights and then sat in traffic for 30 minutes. Later found out it was a concert taking place in some building. Various times I got stuck in Trafalgar square due to the cyclist demos. Any of those leicester square premieres and especially when the new james bond or harry potter films are out then expect to sit in traffic in regent street for near an hour. Those tamil protestors in parliament square would bring serious delays as well.

[M1104]

The longest I have been stuck in traffic with my own bus was Regent Street during Christmas time. It took two hours for my 88 to go from Hamleys to the Oxford Street bus stand then the return back pass Hamleys to Clapham Common.