London Buses route 185

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185

Management
Operated by	East Thames Buses
Garage	Belvedere and Mandela Way
Vehicle	Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President
Peak vehicle requirement	13 from Belvedere 6 from Mandela Way
Route
Start	Lewisham
Via	Catford Forest Hill Dulwich Camberwell Green Vauxhall
End	Victoria
Length	10 miles (15 km)
Service
Level	Daily (4:30 until 12:30)
Frequency	About every 10 minutes
Journey time	42-90 minutes
Night	No night service
Transport for London • Performance (PDF)

London Buses route 185 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to East Thames Buses, based at Mandela Way (near Bricklayers Arms) and Belvedere, both quite a distance from the terminals. The 185 is allocated Plaxton President low floor double deck buses but also uses the Wright Eclipse Gemini shared with the 1 at Mandela Way and the 132, 180 and night bus N1 at Belvedere.

Contents 1 History 2 Current route 2.1 Route departing Lewisham 2.2 Route departing Victoria 3 Gallery 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] History

The 185 has had a couple of rocky years. The original route was Victoria to Blackwall Tunnel south side, via the current route and Greenwich. This bus acted as a tram replacement route, at the time in which the government was trying to phase out the olden trams.

In 1982 the Lewisham to Blackwall Tunnel stretch was withdrawn, with the exception of peak services to Greenwich Church. In 1987 the part between Lewisham and Greenwich was completely scrapped, in favour of a shorter route. The route only had minor modifications between then and 2001, such as garage changes and the buses changing from RTL's to Titans.

In January 2001 Stagecoach London (Stagecoach Selkent at the time) operation was termanated in favour of London Easylink. However due to Easylink not holding a licence at the time to operate in London a temporary service was operated by Stagecoach, London General and Blue Triangle for a few weeks. The operation of the 185 then ran smoothly for just over a year until in August 2002 London Easylink went into liquidation and at short notice Blue Triangle was given the task of organising emergency cover. Quite a large number of operators were used such as the following:

• London Central
• London General
• First London (even though they had no double-decker operations in the Lewisham area at the time)
• Blue Triangle and also
• The Original tour

This was hassle to people who haven't travelled on the 185 before. Especially with the Original Tour central London buses that Blue Triangle had brang in as some were roofless!

Finally after a long time of this operation, in 2003 East Thames Buses - a direct subsidiary of TfL - was awarded the contract, although it was a wonder why TfL took so long to make this happen. East Thames Buses initially started operating with low floor Dennis Dart SLF/Caetano Compass buses, but these were soon replaced.

[edit] Current route

[edit] Route departing Lewisham Lewisham station Bus station Lewisham High street Lewisham Shopping centre Ladywell Leisure Centre University Hospital Lewisham Catford Rushey Green Catford Lewisham Town Centre Catford and Catford Bridge Stations Catford St. Dunstan's College Stanstead Road Catford Hill Stanstead Road Brockley Rise Forest Hill railway station Forest Hill London Road Horniman Museum Lordship Lane Dulwich Library East Dulwich Goose East Dulwich railway station Dog-Kennel-Hill Denmark Hill railway station King's College Hospital Camberwell Town Centre Camberwell New Road Camberwell Green Oval Underground station The Oval Cricket Ground Kennington Vauxhall stations Vauxhall Bus station Pimlico Underground station Vauxhall Bridge Road Victoria station Bus station

[edit] Route departing Victoria Victoria station Bus station Vauxhall Bridge Road Vauxhall Bus station Vauxhall station Kennington The Oval Cricket Ground Oval Underground station Camberwell Green Camberwell New Road Camberwell Town Centre King's College Hospital Denmark Hill railway station Dog Kennel Hill East Dulwich railway station East Dulwich The Green Dulwich Library Lordship Lane Horniman Museum London Road Forest Hill railway station Stanstead Road Brockley Rise Stanstead Road Ravensbourne Road Catford St. Dunstan's College Catford and Catford Bridge stations Catford Lewisham Town Hall Catford Rushey Green University Hospital Lewisham Ladywell Leisure Centre Lewisham Shopping Centre Lewisham High Street Lewisham station Bus station

[edit] Gallery

RTW operation of route 185	RTL operation of route 185	DMS operation of the 185	Leyland Titan operation of 185
185 operated by Stagecoach Selkent	185 during operation with London Easylink	185 during the emergency operation, pictured here with a First London East Lancs Pyoneer.	Another 185 during the emergency, seen here with a MCW Metrobus from a tour company
London General MCW Metrobus during the emergency replacement	Blue Triangle Leyland Titan version of 185 during the replacement service	East Thames Buses single-deck operation of route 185	East Thames Buses Volvo Olympian operation of route 185
Volvo B7TL operation of the 185	185 in operation with a Wright Eclipse Gemini

[edit] See also

• List of bus routes in London
• East Thames Buses

[edit] External links

• Transport for London
• London Bus Routes
• Full Timetable (PDF)

List of bus routes in London
1-99 | 100-199 | 200-299 | 300-399 | 400-499 | 500-599 | 600-699 | Letter prefix | Night only