London Buses route 468

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**468**

Management
Operated by	London Central
Garage	Camberwell
Vehicle	Volvo B7TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini
Route
Start	Elephant & Castle
Via	Camberwell Herne Hill Norwood Thornton Heath
End	South Croydon
Length	12 miles (19 km)
Service
Level	Daily (5:00am until midnight)
Frequency	About every 6-8 minutes
Journey time	46-75 minutes
Night	Night Bus N68
Adult single fares
Cash	£1.50
Oyster	80p (£1 Mon-Fri 7-9.30am)
Transport for London

London Buses route 468 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to London Central.

1 History
2 Current Route
- 2.1 Route departing Elephant & Castle
- 2.2 Route departing South Croydon
3 Gallery
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

The 468 is one of London's longer routes, operating between Elephant & Castle and South Croydon. The number reflects the fact that it parallels the 68 for a substantial part of its length, and it was once the southern section of that route. When the 68 was split in 1994, the number chosen for the southern section was 68A, but London Transport's systematic elimination of suffix letters saw this altered when a new contract started in April 1999. Several routes in the Croydon area are numbered in the 4XX series, a legacy from the Country Bus numbering policy, and this therefore fits in neatly enough.

As an aside, the 468 number had previously been used for a route in the Chessington area, which was quietly renumbered to 568 as a Surrey County Council route. Later, the 568 was withdrawn, but the 468 number being unavailable, the replacement has had to be numbered 467.

Following a completely uneventful 7 year contract that did not even see any timetable changes, the 468 was put out to tender, along with routes 68, N68 and X68. It came as quite a shock to Arriva to lose the whole lot to London Central, representing over 50 buses' worth of work. London Central has surprisingly been able to accommodate all the routes at its Camberwell garage with minimal effect on other routes, and a large batch of new Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TLs was obtained. Until recently all the WVL class buses were London General based, but a few moved into Camberwell at the start of 2006 to give drivers there plenty of time for type training prior to their mass introduction on the 68 group.