TfL's Express Bus Routes
7 August 2022
ABOVE: Metroline West VMH 2567 (LA68 DWZ), a Volvo B5LH MCV EvoSeti, picks up on route 607 at The Grapes, on the Uxbridge Road in Hayes, Middx, on Saturday 2nd April 2022. Hayes Town is to the south, and Express route X140, which picks up a few hundred yards away on Yeading Lane, is one of the options to get people there.
Back in April, I wrote an article that considered the merits of adding new Express services to the London Bus network. This was on the back of Transport for London’s (TfL’s) Bus Action Plan, which suggested an appetite for new Express routes in the capital.
Since then, we have had the dreadful revelations of the Central London Bus Review, which diminishes the likelihood of new bus routes of any sort, and, indeed, threatens the loss of many existing and long-standing services. (I have already said my piece about this review here and here, so won’t say any more now.)
It’s a reasonable assumption, then, that the four Express routes that exist today are going to be the limit for the time-being.
So what are these four routes? I’ll look at each in turn.
607 (Uxbridge to White City)
The 607 was created as an Express alternative to the 207 in 1990, in the days when both routes ran from Uxbridge to Shepherds Bush. In its early days the 607 only ran every 15 minutes, so a 207, where the frequency was significantly higher, could often do the job faster, especially on a shorter journey.
Incidentally the route number 607 was chosen in homage to the trolleybus route 607 that preceded the motorbus 207, parading up-and-down the Uxbridge Road from the 1930s until 1960.
Nowadays there are two overlapping stopping services – the old 207 runs Hayes By-Pass to White City, whilst the service to Uxbridge has been picked up by the relatively-recent 427 (Uxbridge to Acton High Street). People will jump from the stopping services to save a few minutes, and are prepared to endure a more-crowded service to do so. And yes, it’s still possible to keep pace on the stoppers sometimes – I did so the other night on a trip from Ealing Common to Southall High Street.
There’s a regular type of annoying passenger on the 607 – the ones who “haven’t realised” that the bus is an Express, and plead with the driver to be let off (some more aggressively than others). The drivers have heard it all before, of course, and generally (and rightly) ignore such pleas.
This is a route I know very well, having grown up in the area and having had something of an obsession with route 207 (and, by extension, its younger siblings) since the 1980s. I remember travelling on a 607 on the first day, when the driver at Hanwell Broadway proudly proclaimed that the first stop would be “Southall Station” which not only wasn’t and isn’t on the route, but also overlooked the Ealing Hospital stop in between.
It can be a brisk run from Uxbridge, especially as buses take a short-cut out of town, avoiding the town centre stops that the 427 serves. The Uxbridge Road as far as Hayes is a two-lane each side dual-carriageway and there are rarely delays apart from at traffic lights.
Then we get to Southall, and everything usually slows to a crawl. The dual-carriageway has turned into a narrow and crowded town centre street and traffic often proceeds at a snail’s pace. Out the other side and you’re back onto dual-carriageway for another mile-and-a-half, during which time one passes under the most historical piece of Southall that still stands: the Iron Bridge.
Incidentally the route number 607 was chosen in homage to the trolleybus route 607 that preceded the motorbus 207, parading up-and-down the Uxbridge Road from the 1930s until 1960.
Nowadays there are two overlapping stopping services – the old 207 runs Hayes By-Pass to White City, whilst the service to Uxbridge has been picked up by the relatively-recent 427 (Uxbridge to Acton High Street). People will jump from the stopping services to save a few minutes, and are prepared to endure a more-crowded service to do so. And yes, it’s still possible to keep pace on the stoppers sometimes – I did so the other night on a trip from Ealing Common to Southall High Street.
There’s a regular type of annoying passenger on the 607 – the ones who “haven’t realised” that the bus is an Express, and plead with the driver to be let off (some more aggressively than others). The drivers have heard it all before, of course, and generally (and rightly) ignore such pleas.
This is a route I know very well, having grown up in the area and having had something of an obsession with route 207 (and, by extension, its younger siblings) since the 1980s. I remember travelling on a 607 on the first day, when the driver at Hanwell Broadway proudly proclaimed that the first stop would be “Southall Station” which not only wasn’t and isn’t on the route, but also overlooked the Ealing Hospital stop in between.
It can be a brisk run from Uxbridge, especially as buses take a short-cut out of town, avoiding the town centre stops that the 427 serves. The Uxbridge Road as far as Hayes is a two-lane each side dual-carriageway and there are rarely delays apart from at traffic lights.
Then we get to Southall, and everything usually slows to a crawl. The dual-carriageway has turned into a narrow and crowded town centre street and traffic often proceeds at a snail’s pace. Out the other side and you’re back onto dual-carriageway for another mile-and-a-half, during which time one passes under the most historical piece of Southall that still stands: the Iron Bridge.
ABOVE: VMH 2562 (LA68 DXF), another Volvo / EvoSeti, passes under the famous Iron Bridge, east of Southall, whilst working route 607 to Uxbridge, on Sunday 7th August 2022
This magnificent bridge carries the main railway line west from Paddington. The original was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, although that burned down in 1847. This replacement is made of wrought iron. To the south of the bridge stood the AEC works; such an important historical site for any bus enthusiast.
Just beyond, on the 607, is the Wharncliffe Viaduct, another Brunel design. The brick-built viaduct carries the railway across the Brent Valley, between Southall and Hanwell, at an elevation of 66 feet, and looks spectacular from the roadside.
The remainder of the 607 service, from Hanwell to White City, is on typical suburban London streets, thronged with people going about their lives. Progress is slow. The 13-mile end-to-end trip on the 607 can take 85 minutes. And usually does.
X26 (Heathrow Central to West Croydon)
ABOVE: Go-Ahead Metrobus WVL 343 (LX59 DFC), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, is at Hatton Cross Bus Station, en route to West Croydon on route X26 on Tuesday 29th March 2022. This photo shows off the single door arrangement (unusual for a double-decker bus in London), as much of the downstairs section has been commandeered for luggage (given that the bus serves Heathrow Airport). There are therefore only 17 seats downstairs.
The X26 is unique in this quartet, in not having been created as an alternative to a single stopping service. It’s another historical route, descended from the Green Line 726 coach service, which, at its extremes, ran from Gravesend to Windsor. I believe it was one of the later Green Line services and the current iteration arrived in 2005, albeit operated hourly with single-deckers. Frequency was doubled in 2008 but double-deckers only arrived in 2017.
At 24 miles in length, this must surely be the longest bus route in London. And at the standard fare of £1.65, it must also one of the best-value rides to be had, especially if you can link it with another ride using the TfL Hopper Fare. Video producer Geoff Marshall did exactly that, and his video on the subject is well worth a look.
ABOVE: Go-Ahead Metrobus WVL 341 (LX59 DEU) at Hatton Cross, Faggs Road, on Tuesday 29th March 2022, towards the end of the long haul from Croydon. I have taken this picture from a footbridge over Faggs Road. The bus station, featured in the previous picture, is just out of shot to the right, but buses towards Heathrow stop on Faggs Road and do not go into the bus station.
The route only runs about every half-hour, which feels like a shocking lost opportunity. It’s allocation of 10 buses means a round trip time of five hours, which must also be a London record!
From Heathrow, we have a quick tour of the back of the airport as far as Hatton Cross, before we run non-stop all the way to Teddington, with a journey time that can be up to 27 minutes!
ABOVE: WVL 335 (LX59 DDN) is on the Cheam Road, approaching Belmont Rise, Cheam, on route X26 towards Heathrow Airport, on Friday 29th July 2022
Then our tour across South London gets underway in earnest – Kingston, New Malden, Worcester Park, Cheam, Wallington and Sutton come and go. Carshalton Pond is worth a special mention – always a lovely spot for a photo.
ABOVE: Carshalton Pond
To parallel this route with stopping services would require three buses, the 285 (Heathrow to Kingston), 213 (Kingston to Sutton) and the 407 (Sutton to Croydon – continues to Caterham).
ABOVE - STOPPING SERVICE: Abellio 2401 (SN61 DFL, left) and 2404 (SN61 DFU) pass on route 407, on the Carshalton Road east of Sutton, on Friday 29th July 2022.
And finally into Croydon – the total trip can be as quick as one hour and 17 minutes from Heathrow, but peak journeys are scheduled to take as much as two hours and 21 minutes!
My journey is something akin to the average – one hour and 44 minutes. It’s also the quietest journey I have ever undertaken on the route, with only about 10 of us arriving into Croydon; I wonder whether the pandemic has been a factor here.
People along the route seem to accept the X26 – they don’t try to hail it down where it doesn’t stop, and no-one on board tries to get off somewhere it isn’t scheduled to stop. Perhaps because it’s a completely different service to the others in the area, and people understand that.
X68 (Russell Square to West Croydon)
ABOVE: Go-Ahead London General MHV 57 (BV66 VKH), another Volvo / Evoseti (or should that be eVoSeti?), turns from Waterloo Road into Baylis Road, near London Waterloo Station and adjacent to The Old Vic Theatre, on Friday 1st April 2022.
The X68 is a curious beast. Just 12 journeys from West Croydon into central London in the morning peak and 12 back out in the evening peak. There’s a five-mile long non-stop section between Norwood and Waterloo, but buses serve all stops either side of this.
But it’s also very clearly defined that the “first set down” will be after the non-stop section, so no local customers before the non-stop bit!
Except that that’s not what is happening in practice when I try out the route out one Tuesday afternoon. Four people get off the X68 at Waterloo station, via the front door, as presumably the driver has declined to open the middle door. No sooner have we pulled off the stop than someone rings the bell for the next stop (although no-one makes a fuss – perhaps they were just getting their bid for South Norwood in early).
If I was looking for a brand name for this route (not something that TfL goes in for), it would probably have to be “the Half-Speed Express”. I don’t think we get above 15mph anywhere on the non-stop section. Apart from the succession of traffic lights and queues to contend with, there are significant numbers of cyclists affecting the progress of the bus (although the speed limit is 20mph in any case). They are spread across the road and there is zero prospect that we will be able to pass any of them.
It is an interesting drive, bypassing Elephant & Castle and heading through Kennington, Brixton and Tulse Hill before finally reaching a stop again in West Norwood. I believe that drivers have discretion to use alternative routes if there is a problem on the main route – surely unique on a TfL-contracted service.
It takes just over half an hour to get through the non-stop section – exactly as timetabled. There’s a good load for this trip but many of them leave at West Norwood. We drop one or two more off at virtually every stop subsequent to that, the whole way to West Croydon. We pick up a fair bit of local custom as well.
X140 (Heathrow Central to Harrow Bus Station)
ABOVE: RATP London Sovereign BCE 47112 (LG22 ATY), a BYD ADL Enviro 400EV, in Hayes Town on route X140 on Tuesday 29th March 2022, at which point it would have been in service for a maximum of four weeks.
I always thought an Express 140 would be a good idea, but, when it came to fruition, I was less sure about replacing the Heathrow end of the high-frequency 140 (now Harrow Weald to Hayes & Harlington) with the low-frequency 278 (Ruislip to Heathrow) and the fairly-low frequency X140 (I discussed this change in the earlier article on this subject).
But it seems to be working. The X140 has carved out a niche for itself in West and North West London. It has two sections of route where it cuts out significant chunks of the equivalent stoppers. The first is in the Heathrow area (northbound only), where a few minutes are saved by heading towards the M4 Spur from Tunnel Road West, turning sharp right to take the short cut to the Bath Road, avoiding the West Ramp and a further stretch of the Bath Road. And at the other end, the X140 takes the direct route between South Harrow and Harrow Bus Station, while the 140 goes round three sides of a square.
For me, the oddity here is that the 140 and the X140 effectively run a route with two overlapping sections; the 140 (Harrow Weald – Harrow – Hayes, all stops) and the X140 (Harrow – Hayes – Heathrow, Express). There’s a night service, N140, covering all stops on the full traditional route from Harrow Weald to Heathrow. The daytime traffic is such that many of the journeys on the daytime Express take longer than the night-time stopper. Having said that, 48 minutes from Harrow to Heathrow in the evening peak sounds pretty good.
More significantly, the X140 is the only one of the quartet to run with electric buses. It is backed up with ‘charging cover’ from the six short Wright SRM hybrid vehicles based on the New Routemaster design; RATP bought these a few years ago but never really found a proper home for them. They are now officially allocated to school services (oh, the indignity).
ABOVE: RATP London Sovereign’s VHR 45208 (LJ66 EZU) is a Volvo B5LH Wright SRM, one of six used for ‘charging cover’ on route X140, although bustimes.org suggests that it spent the whole of this day, Tuesday 26th July 2022, on the route. Location is the Bath Road, Heathrow North.
You can ride them all…
One curiosity of the current crop of expresses is that each of them meets up with one (or more) of the others, making it possible to ride all four in succession. Take the X68 down to West Croydon and jump to the X26 to Heathrow. There you can catch the X140, which crosses the path of the 607 at Hayes Grapes.
You would have to be pretty smart about it, though, as the X68 only runs in rush hours – towards Russell Square in the morning peak and back to Croydon in the evening peak. By my reckoning, using the timetables on the excellent London Bus Routes website, catching the first X68 from Russell Square at 1550, and following the route described above, could get you to Uxbridge by 2021 or White City by 2046.
It isn’t possible to do this trip in the other direction; the last X68 leaves Croydon at 0830. The last X26 that will reach Croydon in time for that leaves Heathrow (just) before the first X140 gets there. It is possible to get the 607 from Uxbridge (dep 0540) in time for the first X140, but not from White City.
Conclusions
All four of the TfL Express routes have built up a following. At least two (607 & X26) could probably contribute to some modal shift with doubled frequencies. And it is telling that all four are what I would term low-frequency services (for London) – the best of the four, the 607, still only runs every 10 minutes, and is often very crowded.
But TfL is not currently in the market for improving services, so these four routes will probably be the limit of the Express bus network for now. I think all four are strong enough to survive the current TfL obsession with chopping frequencies and routes to save a few bob. And I think they will remain an oddity in London, where passengers in so many in other cities take express services for granted.
But TfL is not currently in the market for improving services, so these four routes will probably be the limit of the Express bus network for now. I think all four are strong enough to survive the current TfL obsession with chopping frequencies and routes to save a few bob. And I think they will remain an oddity in London, where passengers in so many in other cities take express services for granted.