As I'd finally had a long weekend to enjoy, on Good Friday I decided to embark on a rather crazy adventure - crossing London from North to South (or from Hertfordshire to Surrey) using only TfL buses, starting from the furthest place north geographically that you can get a London bus route from (Potters Bar) to the furthest place south (Redhill), which I think is also the longest cross London journey you can do using buses only. This was something I'd always wanted to do for a few years but never got round to doing it. However, with it being a four day weekend where I had a free day for once, I thought now was a good time to do it - and especially before the vast majority of buses from my childhood start to disappear with TfL's constant push for zero emission buses. It was very enjoyable with quite a few unique buses and workings taken along the way. I was also able to do it without taking a Superloop route at any point. Here's how it went:
Train to Potters Bar (Thameslink & Great Northern)
313 to Enfield Town Station (
DW559): First time using an Arriva Enfield based route and somehow I'd avoided getting a New Routemaster on the 313, instead ending up with the only DW out on the route. Very surprised this is a New Routemaster route to be completely honest as after we passed the M25's junction 24 and headed down The Ridgeway, it reminded me a lot of rural Huddersfield! This was also a good opportunity for the DW to show some speed though and it's definitely a route I'd do again soon. On the down side though, the DW had a rather annoying whine coming from it.
192 to Edmonton Green Bus Station (
ENN64) - Continued towards Edmonton on a route I've always been intrigued by. The 192 was pretty busy throughout as we went down some pretty narrow roads via Bush Hill Park where roads mainly had parked cars on both sides so I can see why this can't take on anything longer than an 8.9m.
144 to North Middlesex Hospital (HV106) - Next up was the 144 which I'd take as far as North Middlesex Hospital with the rather unique HV106. This HV felt a lot more stable and less jerky than the ones currently found on the 466.
144 to White Hart Lane (DW478) - my plan from North Middlesex Hospital was to change there for a 318, but I didn't realise how far away from the hospital the 144 stopped, so instead of trying to navigate my way around the hospital to find the 318 I decided to get the next 144 and continue on to White Hart Lane where I could get the 318 from instead. Things went a bit pear shaped however when the next 144 was initially showing as being 6 minutes away but this kept on growing for some reason then the bus dropped off the countdown screens before reappearing again. Eventually after a 20 minute delay DW478 turned up which had been curtailed to Wood Green. Other than that though, it was a decent ride down the A10.
318 to Tottenham High Road/Bruce Grove Station (
ENR6) - First journey on an ENR, shame I missed out on the 57 reg EN's but this ENR would have been better comfort wise! Luckily this wasn't far behind my 144 so didn't have long to wait for it to turn up. Sounded in much better condition than ENN64 which I had earlier on - the older MMC's are definitely better than the start-stop versions. But the route itself going around some of Tottenham's finest council estates reminded me a lot of the 450 going round Beulah Hill. Thought I'd get some lunch upon reaching Bruce Grove, but this all changed...
476 to King's Cross Station (
WVN23) - After getting off my 318, I was headed towards the McDonalds in Bruce Grove for some much needed lunch until I saw WVN23 coming down Tottenham High Road without knowing it was out on the route and coming my way. Realising that this could be the final opportunity I get to travel on a WVN on the 476 and it was the only WVN out, I decided to head back to the bus stop and catch it down to Kings Cross. I'd been meaning to do the 476 for a while seeing as it goes right past my office and its one of the few remaining diesel double deck routes which enter zone 1 (after the 476 converts to Hybrid, I can't think of any fully diesel double deck routes which now enter zone 1) and it was a rather good route to say the least, and glad I was able to do it on a B9! When we passed through Stoke Newington (a very nice area it must be said), I was amazed to see around 7 LT's on the 73 stand there! Since the 73 was cut back from Victoria, the 476 now pretty much mirrors the route all the way down to Kings Cross, and heading through Islington brought around some good scenery to go with it. Also bumped into another enthusiast when taking the picture I got at Kings Cross, where we both thought it might be the last day we'd see a WVN appear on the 476 but WVN23 has since remained at NP for the time being.
Got some lunch in King's Cross (at last)
390 to Great Titchfield Street/Oxford Circus Station (LT800) - I did well to avoid a New Routemaster so far on my journey to Redhill, but at the halfway stage I finally got the first one of this trip which was LT800, freshly wrapped in an all black Adidas advert. Nothing really to report from this other than taking in some good city views.
159 to Streatham Station (
LT31) - Finally reached the point where I'd cross the Thames and re-enter South London. I'd debated which way to go to head south, either taking the 1 from Tottenham Court Road south to Elephant & Castle and getting a 468 from there or getting the 159 to Kennington, followed by the 3 to Crystal Palace to avoid any potential long traffic queues in Brixton or Streatham. But the 159 has always been one of my favourite routes to do particularly in Central London given as it passes through most of London's iconic landmarks, so eventually I just decided to go for it and take the 159 all the way down to Streatham. That decision was well justified, I really enjoyed the route and it was interesting to take in the sights and watch the scenery change as I headed away from Central London. There was virtually no traffic between Lambeth North and Kennington which took me by surprise! But I'd highly recommend the 159 as a good route to do end to end.
250 to Thornton Heath Bus Garage (
T43) - After some debate about how to proceed south, either by continuing down the A23 all the way to Croydon, getting the 315 to West Norwood (which turned out to be a no go in the end as there was one due in 4 minutes and it was looking unlikely that I'd make it back to St Leonards Church in time), a 50 to Croydon which I nearly did or getting a 417 down to Crystal Palace. The 250 was not a route I had on my radar, or was expecting to do but once I saw T43 coming along - now unbelievably the only 08 reg T left in active service in Arriva's fleet and again a ride on this was an opportunity I couldn't say no to. We had overtaken it earlier leaving Brixton on the 159, so I was pleasantly surprised that we'd reached Streatham with around 10 minutes in hand before T43 got there. As I was also using plenty of Arriva routes on my way south, I was hoping I'd get a bus that was once based at TC somewhere along the route, though I was more expecting it to be one of the ex 264 DW's now at Enfield so T43 was a pleasant surprise to tick this off. And this bus was fantastic - sounded much healthier than other 08 reg T's I've had before. I also had the top deck to myself for the majority of the journey. Unlike the 109, the 250 avoids the A23 and instead goes via Green Lane and Thornton Heath Station where we'd reached at the same time as a 50 that was 2 minutes in front from Streatham. Unfortunately, there was a beeping noise coming from the cab throughout the journey which sounded like the door open alarm and the driver eventually got fed up of hearing it in the cab, so the bus had to be subbed at TH with T132, but up until that point it was a pretty enjoyable journey. I spoke to the driver who said that the alarm in the cab was driving him insane which I could completely understand, but he was very helpful to everyone on board which was good to see.
250 to Poplar Walk (T132) - We were transferred on to T132, but firstly we witnessed T142 trying to reverse into Thornton Heath Garage from the main road, which was a bizarre idea. Another driver was helping out and eventually they abandoned that idea before they caused chaos before it re-entered service on the 64. I'd done well to avoid major traffic so far, but my luck ran out as there were roadworks taking place on London Road (at the junction with the A213). I'd thought about bailing and getting a 289 from there to Purley but decided to stick it out to West Croydon. I was 6 hours in to my journey when I finally made it back to Croydon.
166 to Coulsdon Town Station (ENL68) - getting a working that was showing on LVF's rare list on this trip was also another one to scratch off my bingo card when newly reblinded ENL68 arrived on the 166 immediately after I'd got off my 250. Getting ENL68 made the 166 feel like old times again which was great, when the 07 and 58 reg ENL's once served the route. This was also the first time I'd do the new section of the 166 via the 455's old route between South Croydon and Purley, but this was one of the more unnecessary changes made IMO. I still think the 312 would have been better off just taking over the entirety of the 455's old route between South Croydon and Old Lodge Lane. I had hoped to get a 434 between Purley and Coulsdon to include it as part of my attempt, but sadly it was a 20 minute wait for the next one which so I abandoned that idea and headed straight to Coulsdon Town when I also thought there was a 405 following us closely behind. Somehow, somewhere though that 405 had got ahead of us without me even seeing it! This annoyingly left me with a 15 minute wait at Coulsdon Town Station as darkness begin to fell.
405 to Redhill Bus Station (
HT18) - 7 hours had now passed since I started this journey in Potters Bar, and I was finally on my last bus. Appropriately it started off with an Arriva bus and finished with an Arriva bus. We crossed the M25 at Merstham, which I hadn't seen since leaving Potters Bar and it was a relatively quick journey into Redhill. I was hoping we'd arrive there before HT19 (which was the bus I'd missed earlier) left Redhill Bus Station so I could head back without waiting too long but sadly that was at Sainsbury's when we arrived into Redhill. I didn't have long before a Thameslink was due to depart Redhill back towards Purley either, but it was a great feeling to finally complete this journey
.
Thameslink to Purley and Southern to Kenley.
So it took me around 7 hours and 20 minutes all in all to travel from Potters Bar to Redhill exclusively using TfL buses (including the long wait at North Middlesex Hospital and a lunch stop at Kings Cross) but it was enjoyable. Surprisingly all but three of the buses I had were operated by Arriva, and I'm sure I could have made this an all Arriva journey if I really wanted to. I was also very surprised I'd only used just one Go-Ahead London route. It was also good to visit some areas in London where I'd never visited before, including Enfield and Tottenham, and seeing how the scenery around London changes as you go into Central London and then out again.
Slough to Brentwood, or the entire superloop next? Who knows if I'll get round to that but it's great to have finally done Potters Bar to Redhill.