# What's The Longest London Bus Route That Goes Through The Centre?



## El Jefe (May 15, 2008)

anyone care to take a stab at the longest London bus route that takes in central London? IE, not some bizarre Edgeware to Chiswick monstrosity...


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## Brainaddict (May 15, 2008)

This might help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bus_routes_in_London


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## knatchbull (May 15, 2008)

Some of the night buses seem to go on very long routes but as for 'normal' buses something like the 36 is pretty long (New Cross to Queens Park through Victoria, Park Lane, Marble Arch, Paddington)

I read somewhere that the longest bus route is Heathrow to Croydon X26 which must be over 20 miles (obviously not through the centre)


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## Firky (May 15, 2008)

The Prada Willi Snydome Charity Bus is the biggest bus.


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## TopCat (May 15, 2008)

35?


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (May 15, 2008)

I think even the long ones all end/start in the centre (unless night bus versions).


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## El Jefe (May 15, 2008)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I think even the long ones all end/start in the centre (unless night bus versions).



Rubbish


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## Final (May 15, 2008)

113 has a fairly long route (Edgware to Oxford St).


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## Madusa (May 15, 2008)

Does this include Night Buses?


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## Kanda (May 15, 2008)

176? Oxf St - Penge?


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## PacificOcean (May 15, 2008)

148?  

Shepards Bush to Camberwell?

As for Night Buses it must be a toss up between the N159 to New Addington/Old Coulsdon or the N279 to Waltham Cross.


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## Madusa (May 15, 2008)

I reckon it's the N207. Oxford Circus - Uxbridge


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## Biddlybee (May 15, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> anyone care to take a stab at the longest London bus route that takes in central London? IE, not some bizarre Edgeware to Chiswick monstrosity...


Do you know the answer?


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## El Jefe (May 15, 2008)

BiddlyBee said:


> Do you know the answer?



Not the foggiest.

And I'm not counting nightbuses


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## ddraig (May 15, 2008)

that one that goes to bexleyheath
54/N53?


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## Madusa (May 15, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Not the foggiest.
> 
> And I'm not counting nightbuses



 waste my time!

Oooh, look, 10 mins till hometime!


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## Sunray (May 15, 2008)

The 25 goes from Oxford Circus to Ilford?  Thats on the M25


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## Idaho (May 15, 2008)

The 171 used to go from Wood Green to Catford. Don't know if it does the full route still.


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## Kanda (May 15, 2008)

Longest is the X26, doesn't go through town though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Buses_route_X26


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (May 15, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Rubbish



Is it?


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## El Jefe (May 15, 2008)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> Is it?



Yeh, most of them them start / end at suburban garages, compared with the number of routes overall, only a few stop in the centre of town


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (May 15, 2008)

Kanda said:


> Longest is the X26, doesn't go through town though.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Buses_route_X26



I get this from my house to the airport and back door to door. £1. Nice.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (May 15, 2008)

El Jefe said:


> Yeh, most of them them start / end at suburban garages, compared with the number of routes overall, only a few stop in the centre of town



I thought you asked for ones that go though the centre? I was saying that ones that touch the centre tend not to go any further. I can't think of any anyway.


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## Roadkill (May 15, 2008)

ddraig said:


> that one that goes to bexleyheath
> 54/N53?



I don't think the 54 is all that long, but the 53 goes all the way from Whitehall to Plumstead.


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## marty21 (May 15, 2008)

it's not the longest route, and doesn't go through central london, but the S2 from clapton to Stratford takes fucking ages got it this morning, never again


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## onthebrightside (May 15, 2008)

Kanda said:


> 176? Oxf St - Penge?



I've done that all the way from Penge. A most tedious way to use up your day but at the time it seemed a good use of a bus pass.


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## Madusa (May 15, 2008)

lol, anyone remember the bus passes you had to scratch the date off of?


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## RubyToogood (May 16, 2008)

I think basically they stopped doing the long routes that go through the centre of town and out the other side, because congestion screws up the timetable too much. There used to be loads of long ones that went all the way from one outer suburb to the one opposite. There's a trend for bus routes to get shorter and shorter, which is annoying when they all stop at West Norwood and you wanted to go to Crystal Palace


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## BarryB (May 16, 2008)

marty21 said:


> it's not the longest route, and doesn't go through central london, but the S2 from clapton to Stratford takes fucking ages got it this morning, never again



You would have liked it in its former guise when it was the 178 which was a double decker but had a lowered roof to ensure that it didnt come off whilst going under railway bridges.

BarryB


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## rennie (May 16, 2008)

marty21 said:


> it's not the longest route, and doesn't go through central london, but the S2 from clapton to Stratford takes fucking ages got it this morning, never again



not that far though!


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## rennie (May 16, 2008)

RubyToogood said:


> There's a trend for bus routes to get shorter and shorter, which is annoying when they all stop at West Norwood and you wanted to go to Crystal Palace



Tell me about it.


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## knatchbull (May 16, 2008)

RubyToogood said:


> I think basically they stopped doing the long routes that go through the centre of town and out the other side, because congestion screws up the timetable too much. There used to be loads of long ones that went all the way from one outer suburb to the one opposite. There's a trend for bus routes to get shorter and shorter, which is annoying when they all stop at West Norwood and you wanted to go to Crystal Palace



There are various websites available that give details of the history of bus routes - see http://www.busesatwork.co.uk/ for example


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## PacificOcean (May 16, 2008)

knatchbull said:


> There are various websites available that give details of the history of bus routes - see http://www.busesatwork.co.uk/ for example



Blimey, wern't bus routes long in 1948?

The 12 went from South Croydon to Harlesden


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## Streathamite (May 16, 2008)

doesn't the 36 still go from peckham to queens park? now THAT's long!


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## Gavin Bl (May 16, 2008)

29 from trafalgar square to enfield town is a fair old pull - alot of the buses going that way actually - 279 up to Waltham Cross, is it?


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## RubyToogood (May 17, 2008)

Streathamite said:


> doesn't the 36 still go from peckham to queens park? now THAT's long!


New Cross to Queen's Park apparently, via Peckham, Camberwell, Vauxhall, Victoria, Marble Arch, Paddington, Royal Oak.


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## PacificOcean (May 17, 2008)

Gavin Bl said:


> 29 from trafalgar square to enfield town is a fair old pull - alot of the buses going that way actually - 279 up to Waltham Cross, is it?



The 279 starts at Manor House now though.


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## Gavin Bl (May 17, 2008)

PacificOcean said:


> The 279 starts at Manor House now though.



fair do's, its got to be 15 years since I took a bus trip up the Hertford Road


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## PacificOcean (May 17, 2008)

Gavin Bl said:


> fair do's, its got to be 15 years since I took a bus trip up the Hertford Road



A rival to Oxford Street now.

If you like pound shops and "chicken" & chips for a quid that is.


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## Dick_Richard (Apr 3, 2016)

Longest bus to Central London is the X68
Longest bus through Central London is the 36
Hope this helps sorry for late reply


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 3, 2016)

Dick_Richard said:


> Longest bus to Central London is the X68
> Longest bus through Central London is the 36
> Hope this helps sorry for late reply


Excellent first post - polite, informative, concise


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## Pickman's model (Apr 3, 2016)

Dick_Richard said:


> Longest bus to Central London is the X68
> Longest bus through Central London is the 36
> Hope this helps sorry for late reply


and that's further than from oxford circus to ilford


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Apr 3, 2016)

DaveCinzano said:


> Excellent first post - polite, informative, concise



2nd post is a blinder too


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 3, 2016)

Bahnhof Strasse said:


> 2nd post is a blinder too


*FOLLOWS*


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## Dick_Richard (Apr 3, 2016)

Cheers guys


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 3, 2016)

Ah. That _difficult third post_


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## wtfftw (Apr 3, 2016)




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## Puddy_Tat (Apr 3, 2016)

at 8 year bump.



RubyToogood said:


> I think basically they stopped doing the long routes that go through the centre of town and out the other side, because congestion screws up the timetable too much. There used to be loads of long ones that went all the way from one outer suburb to the one opposite. There's a trend for bus routes to get shorter and shorter, which is annoying when they all stop at West Norwood and you wanted to go to Crystal Palace


 
in large part, that.

until the mid 80s (from a Brixton-ish perspective) the 109 ran Purley - Victoria Embankment, the 159 from Thornton Heath to West Hampstead, the 3 from Crystal Palace to Camden Town, the 137 from Crystal Palace to Archway, the 2B from Crystal Palace to Golders Green, and so on.)

Converting the outer ends to one-person buses was one reason for chopping routes in to smaller chunks, reliability another, and also since each route is now franchised, it's not so easy to have buses and drivers from both ends of the route (the 3 generally used to have buses from Chalk Farm garage and also from somewhere south of the river - traditionally Norwood.)  Not many of London's bus operators have depots in multiple corners of London.

Having said that, some of the longest routes were really only that long on paper, and buses either never or very rarely ran all the way through - when the 12s got as far as South Croydon, buses from Croydon didn't go north of Oxford Circus, and I have a recollection of Saturday 12s from Forest Hill not going north of the Elephant, so if you wanted to get to the west end, you had to get a 12 and change to a 12 somewhere north of Peckham.

And meh to 279s to Waltham Cross - again until the early 80s, they ran as far as Hammond Street out in the wilds of Hertfordshire (again, on paper this was from Smithfield, but generally Hammond Street buses only ran as far south as Manor House.)


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 4, 2016)

On the one hand I feel I must applaud everyone on some fascinating insights and commendable folk knowledge


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 4, 2016)

On the other


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