London Bus Route - Route 1

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Route 1: Canada Water - Tottenham Court Road

Operated by: London General (GAL)

Garage: MW

PVR: 16

Length: 9km/6 miles

Bus Type: Gemini 1/Volvo B7TL 10.6m

Note: Above picture is an odd working which is allocated to 453.

Timetable : http://www.londonbusroutes.net/times/001.pdf

Route 1 was one of the first motorbus routes to be introduced in London. It was in operation by November 1908. Despite subsequent route changes, it continues to serve part of its original route, between Aldwych and Elephant & Castle.

Route 1 once ran from Willesden to Lewisham, and more recently part provided a service between Lewisham and Bromley. It has since been curtailed at both ends of the route.

The contract for the service was won in late 1998 by First Capital, a company based in North East London, and it was operated from distant Dagenham depot. Later, the route was re-allocted nearer to Hackney depot.

The Jubilee Line Extension in 1999 saw route 199 withdrawn between Surrey Quays and Elephant & Castle, causing route 1 to become the only route to serve South Bermondsey from East to West. The route suffered severe overcrowding at peak times on this section of the route, requiring extra buses to be drafted in to cover. These vehicles were provided by a various operators, including Blue Triangle. The extra workings were later absorbed by First.

A few years later, East Thames Buses (owned by London Buses) found themself needing to re-locate from its Ash Grove depot to make way for new articulated buses on route 38. A suitable base was found in Southwark, but most of the Ash Grove routes were a long way from Southwark. This caused a swap of routes to occur with various other companies, with East Thames Buses taking over the 1/N1. The changes were introduced from 15 October 2005, with East Thames Buses using a new fleet of Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied-Volvo B7TLs.

On 3 October 2009, East Thames Buses was taken over by Go-Ahead London. Route 1 is now operated by Go-Ahead London, who have a 5-year contract to run the service using the existing buses.

Fleetlist

VWL27/LF52THV

VWL28/LF52THX

VWL29/LF52THZ

VWL30/LF52TJO

VWL31/LF52TJU

VWL32/BX04AZW

VWL33/BX04AZV

VWL34/BX04AZU

VWL35/BX04AZZ

VWL36/BX04BAA

VWL37/BX04BAU

VWL38/BX04BAV

VWL39/BX04BBE

VWL40/BX04BBF

VWL41/BX04BBJ

VWL42/BX04BKL

VWL43/BX04BKK

VWL44/BX04BKJ

WVL271/LX06ECE (Gemini 1)

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