Get around

London bus routes, part one

I was thinking about bus routes that are no longer. This is a contentious topic as most London routes remain in some truncated form of their erstwhile numbersakes. Nor am I using this as some misty-eyed reminiscence for the golden days of transport, as for a disabled person these are the golden days of bus travel. But nostalgia is another country and the bus is a good way to get there.

2b or...

Coming from Golders Green my life was circumscribed by the bus station and its former occupants. My favourite departed route was the marathon 2b from Golders Green to Crystal Palace, serving far off reaches of South London. It was always the fast route along the Finchley Road with its crews hailing from distant Stockwell and Norwood. It did not outlast the GLC.

...244

A very different phenomenon was the rush hour only 244 from Golders Green to Southgate via East Finchley and Muswell Hill. This route caused massive consternation being a one-person operated single decker with a bizarrely complicated ticketing system involving a turnstile. This route's rarity was enhanced by the vehicles' remarkable ability to break down limiting the service futher. I think this route ceased in the early 80s. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

Green Line coaches

A final transport recollection were the two sets of Green Line Coaches that served the station. These were to 712/3 from Dorking to St Albans or Dunstable and the 716/a from Chertsey and Woking to Hitchin via Stevenage. The former were single deckers but the latter were conductor operated. They always had a certain suburban glamour in the days before cheap air travel. I will return to this theme.

We want to hear what you've got to say..

Leave a message for us here.

Messages

Message:	1/1
Date and time:	14/04/2007 at 00:14:26
Sender:	Peter Parke

The 134 ran from Centre Point to North Finchley (still does, I believe) and through the 70's and 80's I often used to take it home to Muswell Hill instead of the horrible Northern Line. When smoking was allowed on the top deck, the pot smoke (not me, I hasten to say) was so thick I'd get off half-stoned. The Colney Hatch mental hospital was open then, and I think they let some of the inmates out for the day. One memorable evening was when one bloke stripped stark naked and sat there at the back of the bus playing a penny whistle!