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Routes provided by independent
operators within
the London Transport area seem always to have held a special fascination
for many. These two routes were somewhat unique however.
Following
an overtime ban by London Transport central area crews starting in
January 1966 certain sections of red bus routes were withdrawn from
operation.
To minimise the effect on the travelling public permission was given by
London Transport for independent operators to provide certain services
in
substitution. For a month or more a couple of dozen firms - large and
small - provided cover over a wide ranging geographical spread of
routes; some of these being coach operators running buses for the first
time. When the industrial action ceased all but two of these substitute
routes ceased running, as might be expected. But two routes were not
taken back by London Transport and remained independently operated for
many years after.
These were the 98B, which ran for twenty-two years, and the 235 which
ran for fourteen years.
ROUTE 98B
As a consequence of the 1966 industrial action part of
lengthy route 98B running north from Feltam and Hayes was discontinued by London Transport. This was the
northernmost part that ran from Ruislip station to Rayners Lane
station by a somewhat circuitous route via Eastcote, Pinner, Hatch End
and North Harrow, with the route being a bit like an inverted U, taking some eight
miles to reach end points two miles apart as the crow flies. This
service was to have a somewhat chequered
history. The original operation started on 15th February 1966 and was
half-hourly between Ruislip and Pinner only, operated by World Wide
Coaches of Camberwell. Ten days later a new operator took over, Hall's
Coaches of Hounslow, but that lasted only a week. May 1966 saw Valliant
Direct Coaches of Ealing running hourly between Ruislip and North
Harrow only: but that was only for three weeks during the month of May.
After two months
without buses operations restarted on 1st August on a half hourly
headway provided by Elms Coaches
of Kenton (LT had operated every 15 / 20 minutes). The half hourly
service required three vehicles and six drivers. The buses were
one person operated using Ultimate ticket machines. One of their
Bristol single-deckers
HBL 88 (ex-Thames Valley) is pictured here. At
the end of November the
route was extended to its full length from Ruislip to Rayners Lane, and
thus things continued for some years until the end of March 1970.
During April and May 1970 the service was operated by Atlas Coaches of
Edgware. Another inter-regnum followed, five months without service.
During November and December a minimal service was provided by Thamesmead Motor
Services of London SE21 with one bus. This ran every 80
minutes, but the Saturday
service was discontinued. Finally stability came to the route from 24th
May 1971 when it was taken over by Elmtree Transport of
Wealdstone
- proprietors Bernard Cheek and Dave Davie - who
ran the service Monday to Friday every 45 minutes with two buses. When
Elmtree first took over they asked for permission to extend the 98B
from its seven mile long U-shaped route by closing the gap between
Ruislip and Rayners Lane and making it into a circle; this was refused
on the grounds that it would compete with the Metroploitan Line trains.
Their tenure on the
route was to last nearly seventeen years until the late 1980s. The last
day of operation was Friday 22nd January 1988; by this time London
Transport's H13 was covering almost all of the route.
But
the later history of the route is unclear as an alternative source
suggests that
until 1997 part of it was operated by Scorpio Coaches as service 398
(Ruislip - Eastcote - Rayners Lane - South Harrow) under a London Buses
Agreement as a
commercial route, not part of the London Buses network. In
the last few years of its operation by Scorpio Coaches London Transport
did give some support and the frequency was increased from hourly to
every 45 minutes. London Transport wanted
another frequency increase and Scorpio (rebranded as Blue and White by
this time) could not muster the operational support to facilitate
this. Thus in 1997 the 398 was formally tendered as a 'proper' LT bus
route to Sovereign. This information is substantiated by the London Buses route history website.
ROUTE 235
A much simpler story attaches to route
235.
This was a short route running half hourly southward from Richmond station to
Richmond Hill, and was referred to locally as 'The Hill Bus'. The
original service was provided by Isleworth Coaches starting on 31st
January 1966 and operations subsequently passed to Continental Pioneer
of Richmond
in May 1968, with peak frequency then increased to 22 minutes. Tim
Lewis was the founder and owner of the successful Continental Pioneer
company, started in 1964 and specialising in holidays for
schoolchildren. Eight
years after Pioneer took over, from 31st August 1976, the hill terminus
was altered to an
extended one-way loop anti-clockwise from Friars Stile Road via Queens Road and Marchmont Road. This
avoided an awkward reverse turn at the original terminus at Cardigan
Road. However the extended route meant a 30 minute headway at all times
with the one bus operation and the previous enhanced frequency at peak
times was no longer practicable. The 235 route was now promoted as
serving Richmond Park. The timetables
appear to have been planned with suitable gaps in departures for crew
relief, but this was a continuation of the way London Transport had
provided the route. Being a route up and down a hill more people
travelled in the upward direction with many commuters preferring to
walk down the hill to the station in the morning.
A variety of
vehicles operated on the route including Bristols, an ex-LT RT and a
front entrance version of the Routemaster. In 1973 a
Ford/Willowbrook single decker was bought new with aid of bus grant and
appropriately
registered PGX235L. Always a busy route increased capacity was provided
in November 1979 when an ex-Portsmouth Corporation double-deck
Atlantean was introduced. After twelve years the route was relinquished
by Continental Pioneer on 27th September 1980 and existing London
Transport route 71 was diverted to cover the service. (London Transport
had introduced the 235 in March 1956, operating Mondays to Saturdays;
and also on summer Sundays from Easter 1956 until the end of the 1960
season. It was a one-bus operation from Twickenham garage using an RT).
On the last day Continental Pioneer's blue liveried AEC Reliance single decker KHM1D
(ex-British European Airways) ran the route suitably decorated with goodbye messages.
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