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| Screenshot of the Front page of London Bus Routes website |
London Bus Routes is a website that features timetables for
bus routes that serves in London. Here
you can find a timetable for your local bus route in London. The website pages
were originally designed for Microsoft Internet Explorer, but it gives a retro
feel that your visiting a website with less graphics due to slow dial up
technology over a decade ago. Another positive thought that the pages on this
website load lot quicker under a broadband connection. This website is
maintained by Robert Munster in which he works as a bus schedulecompiler for one of the major London Bus operators. His website is not
affiliated to Transport for London or any of the bus operators.
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| Bus Routes page |
On the Bus Routes page it has a list of routes for the London Bus service
and some commercial routes (in which will be mentioned as ‘Non-TfL’ in red) which
goes into the London boundary. The routes are categorised into main daytime
network, Night buses, mobility routes, school routes and even tram services. On
the first column it have the bus routes listed on the next column it tells you
where the bus goes from and it journeys to areas in London as well where the
route terminates, third column mentions the company that operates the route.
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| Example of the timetable page for a bus route |
So for example, I clicked on route 108 which gives me the
timetable for the route. It gives me the option whenever I can see the
timetable on the Saturday by clicking on the Saturday button. Then it gives me
the timetable for the route 108’s Saturday service.
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| Example of the PDF printable timetable for a London Bus route |
Also you can print out the timetable by clicking on the
Printable full PDF version. You need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your
computer or on your smartphone/tablet device. Then it gives you a timetable in
printable format. It looks like the one what you see at your local bus stop.
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| Operational details page |
It’s not just the timetables, it also contains the
operational details for London Bus routes. It have a table which list the bus
routes and mention what bus types it uses and the PVR (Peak Vehicle
Requirement) to tell how many buses the route need to operate. Also it mentions
the garage code what garage the route is operated from, the length of the route
in miles and kilometres, the length of the route it takes in minutes and the
frequency of the route like every 6 minutes for a bus when your waiting for a
Route 24 bus.
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| Service changes page |
The Service changes shows the changes being made to the
London bus routes, for example it show you the changes which is going to be
made for your bus routes like a new timetable and the new fleet of buses for
the route. It mentions the expected date to show you when the changes will
occur.
You can click on the routes near to the top and it takes you
down to the page to the route you clicked on.
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| Diversion on the service changes page |
Also when you scroll down it shows you the diversions and it
mentions the date when it occurs and when the diversion end. It also shows you
where the route will be diverted towards and gives you the reason why the
diversion occurred.
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| Garages page |
The website has a garages page which shows you a list of
garages that operate the London Bus services. It is categorised by the bus
franchise company like Go Ahead or Stagecoach, next to the company name it
shows you the Peak Vehicle Requirement the company operates. Also in brackets
it shows you how much of the London Bus network it operates, for example Go
Ahead London which currently operates 23.98% of the London bus network.
Below the franchise name it split into companies which are
responsible for the garages like Blue Triangle Buses Ltd. which is part of
Go-Ahead group. it also shows the address of where their offices is held which
is usually at their garage also it shows the PVR of buses it operates from the
company and the percentage of the London bus operation it form part of.
Underneath it, it shows you the garage code, if you scroll
up to the webpage it lists the garage codes down. On the side of the buses it
usually have a garage code like BW for Bow garage, when you click on BW it
takes you to the details for the Bow garage. It shows you the address, the
routes it operate, and the PVR of buses it operates.
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| London Bus Routes on Wayback Machine |
The website dates far back as 2001 as what I seen by using
the InternetArchive Wayback Machine. So you might be interested to check their
historical sites and visit the bus operations page to show what buses your
route previously used and the peak vehicle requirement the route had operated.
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| Timetable page viewed with Android on Firefox browser |
Back on the main page, it have a link for the timetables and
beside it, it says “This page is designed to be suitable for viewing on
smartphones.” So I clicked on the page with Firefox on my Android smartphone
and it requires me to zoom in, in order to see the route numbers.
Lastly, I do like the website as it holds London Bus
information like timetables, operations, garage information and service
changes. It does appeal to many people like passengers wanting to find a
timetable for their bus route and such. The operations page does appeal to bus
enthusiasts as it show the bus types which the route uses. Also the garages page
which the passengers can find the route and the address for the garage to visit
there for lost property. I say this site is one of my favourites and I am glad
to write a review for it.
Website URL: http://www.londonbusroutes.net/
Thanks for reading.