Going to London next month...

Hello C-Hing in London,

I'm planning a 4.5-day visit to the city next month, and it's my very first time, so I want to ask a few questions...
first of all, my hotel is situated at Belgrave Rd, and I have founded that route#24 is operating 24/7 and should be an ideal route for my daily journeys to places such as Parliament square, trafalgar square, oxford rd.. Does this route often experience traffic jam? and is the bus frequency reliable?
and since I'm planning to purchase a 7-day pass, are there more reliable routes nearby so I can easily travel to other attractions(historic architectures)? I prefer taking bus over the underground for sightseeing purpose.

Also, are routes #9 and #15 operated only by RMs? if so i suppose there are at least 10 RMs still in operation in the city?
are Leyland Titan, MCW and ex-HK buses in LDN only operated by Big bus?  I want to see more old buses but i suppose the city of LDN is not really the place?

Since I have 4.5 days in the city, do you guys think it is worthy to leave LDN for a day to visit other cities nearby?  especially to see old buses?
last but not least... March snow in LDN?

Thanks a lot!

原帖由 S~1627 於 2009-2-5 23:01 發表
my hotel is situated at Belgrave Rd, and I have founded that route#24is operating 24/7 and should be an ideal route for my daily journeys toplaces such as Parliament square, trafalgar square, oxford rd.. Doesthis route often experience traffic jam? and is the bus frequencyreliable?

Yes it does suffer quite a lot of traffic en route, but the 24 is a very busy service, so you should be fine. The only thing to watch out is service curtailment at rush hours (mostly - actually it can happen at any time), whcih means some of the buses will be turned around before reaching the last stop - For where you stay, Pimlico is the last stop of southbound 24, so just make sure you look at the destination blinds before you get on the bus.

Alternatively, get yourself to Vauxhall Bridge Road (the main road next to Belgrave Road), and you have more choice of buses to catch - the 2, 36 and 436 gets you to Victoria, Hyde Park and Marble Arch (the 2 also goes, briefly, onto Oxford Street as well)

原帖由 S~1627 於 2009-2-5 23:01 發表
and since I'm planning to purchase a 7-day pass, are there morereliable routes nearby so I can easily travel to otherattractions(historic architectures)? I prefer taking bus over theunderground for sightseeing purpose.

See above. Actually, if you take a walk to Victoria Station, which is not far away from where you stay actually, you have much more choices of bus service to go with. The most useful service for sightseeing is the 11, as it goes past Sloane Square, Westminster, Whitehall, Trafalgar Sq, Aldwych, St. Paul's Cathedral and the City. Alternative, get a bus to Victoria and change there.

原帖由 S~1627 於 2009-2-5 23:01 發表
Also, are routes #9 and #15 operated only by RMs? if so i suppose there are at least 10 RMs still in operation in the city?

No, those Dartmasters only operates every 15 mins between 0930 - 1830 daily. The 9 and 15 are normally operated with B7TLs and Tridents respectively.

原帖由 S~1627 於 2009-2-5 23:01 發表
are Leyland Titan, MCW and ex-HK buses in LDN only operated by Bigbus?  I want to see more old buses but i suppose the city of LDN is notreally the place?

The former HK buses are operated by both Big Bus and Arriva The Original Tour. Big Bus should still have a few Leyland Titan left, but the ex-London Metrobus should have long gone, as Arriva has withdrawn them a few years back, whilst Big Bus never have them.

If you want to look out the former HK buses, Central London is actually the place the stay. If you try to look for a Titan or Metrobus, it's getting very difficult these days as not a lot are left in normal service (Rail replacement might be a good bet though).

原帖由 S~1627 於 2009-2-5 23:01 發表
Since I have 4.5 days in the city, do you guys think it is worthy toleave LDN for a day to visit other cities nearby?  especially to seeold buses?

Yes - Cambridge is a fine place for sightseeing for instance, and it's doable for a day trip. If you just want to find a place for old buses, those places are not easily get to, esp. for a day trip.

If you just fancy bus-spotting, Oxford and Reading are good places to be for a day trip.

原帖由 S~1627 於 2009-2-5 23:01 發表
last but not least... March snow in LDN?

Highly unlikely, although anything can happen here.

thanks so much for the detailed info! deeply appreciated.

we decided to take a day trip to oxford by the oxford tube in early morning, and i might go to the oxford bus museum right away if the bus stop nearby the oxford rail station. Anyone got an idea on where the oxford tube stops in oxford? I have difficulty finding info abou this.

thanks in advance.

Reading is not much good for bus spotting in my opinion. All the old fleet has recently been replaced with the new SLFs, whcih aren't unique or interesting at all!

原帖由 S~1627 於 2009-2-7 09:06 發表
thanks so much for the detailed info! deeply appreciated.

we decided to take a day trip to oxford by the oxford tube in early morning, and i might go to the oxford bus museum right away i ...

Oxford Tube only go as far as the bus station - do a google and you should find the info. To get the the train station, you either catch another bus or walk.

http://www.oxfordtube.com/oxfordtube.php

Reading is fine, well, on my prespective I'm more interested with the variety of route brandings and livery. If you want more types of vehicles, Birmingham will be my choice. However, considering the short daytime in March, and the time it takes to get there in the first place, I don't think there is enough time to get up there and take enough pictures to make the trip worthwhile.

Actually, Reading and Oxford are fairly small town; and you can see ' everything' [buses!] in 90 minutes.
Reading is served by Reading Transport; every group of routes have different livery/colour, and route 17 has methanol fueled Scania d/ds. Lots of d/ds too- and a very modern fleet.
In Oxford, you can see Go Ahead operation- again very modern,with low floor single deck buses & d/d buses.
Stagecoach operate route 27 with E400 Scanias. There are other small operators in town, and signtseeing buses too.
In both towns, Thames Travel buses can be seen.

You can do the whole thing in a day if you wish: instead of taking the Oxford Tube, or the competing service- the stagecoach d/ds [Neoplans] you can take the train from Paddington. if you depart after 10am, you can buy a cheap day return on the train to Oxford, which allows a stopover in Reading.
The train serving to Reading is very frequent and takes 30 minutes to go [non stop service]. you can show your Oxford ticket at the gate, and then, outside the station is the bus station. after a while, proceed ahead to the city centre where you can see the methanol buses on route 17.
The train service to Oxford has 3-4 trains an hour- again about 30 minutes, and the 'bus action' starts at the rail station. You should follow the directions to the city centre, where you will see some of the famous colleges [Unitversity] and the buses...

In London, get the central area bus map; if you look at the Tfl website, you can download the relevant maps, which show you all the routes in central london.
Route 9 & 15 do have some routemaster operation, however:
Route 9 runs from Aldwych to Hammersmith and is operated by Transdev. The routemasters run daily between 10-17:30, every 15 minutes - between aldwych and Royal Albert Hall- service operates by First.
Route 15 runs from Paddington to Blackwall, but the routemasters run only between traflagar square and Tower Hill. Watch out for RML2760, which a real routemaster, in the sense that it retains it's original engine and has not been referbuished. RML2760 appears on the 15 fairly often,
and the other special bus is RM1933 in choclate and silver livery.
on route 9, the silver routemaster sometimes appear as well.

The ex HK buses do operate by Bigbus and Arriva on sightseeing tours. however, during the winter time, reduced service in in force, so the titans from Bigbus do not normally operate.
nowadays, both operators bought brand new low floor buses , and they now appear every day.

Central London can be very congested, so the bus service is not always so good. Route 24 runs every few minutes, and there are 29 E400 tridents allocated to the service.
On Saturdays, on many occasions, there are demonstrations etc in central London, causing major road diversions.

Watch out for the Hybid d/d buses: 5 E400 hybrid tridents opeate on route 16 [out of 22 buses], and route 24 will get 5 of them next week. I have posted photos of those buses.

Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any other specific questons, I live in central London, so I can answer most questions!

regards from London

Yoram