London Buses route 360

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360
London Buses

Management
Operated by	London Central
Garage	Camberwell
Vehicle	VDL SB120/Wright Electrocity Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer
PVR †	10
Route
Start	Kensington
Via	Sloane Square Pimlico Vauxhall Lambeth
End	Elephant & Castle
Length	6 miles (9 km)
Service
Level	Daily
Frequency	About every 12 minutes
Journey time	38-52 minutes
Day	5:20am until 1:15am
Night	none
Adult single fares
Oyster	90p
Cash	£2.00
† peak vehicle requirement Transport for London • Performance
London Transport Portal

London Buses route 360 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 Kensington
- 2.2 Route departing Elephant & Castle
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Several new routes were introduced in readiness for the commencement of the London congestion charge in February 2003, and of those the 360 is arguably the most unusual. Operations commenced on 25 January 2003 using a batch of cascaded early model Dart SLFs, unusually treated to route branding, although some have subsequently lost it. These buses were also well ahead of their time in having had their roofs painted white when new for route 345 in 1997!

The route is something of a museum route. Starting from the Royal Albert Hall, and also next to Imperial College, it operates via South Kensington (although not along Exhibition Road, where several museums are located), and then serves some previously unserved streets to reach Sloane Square. Then the route operates via Pimlico, taking it past Chelsea Barracks and near Tate Britain, to Vauxhall, passing the MI5 building before passing through the less glamorous environs of Black Prince Road. The last museum on route is the Imperial War Museum, before buses arrive at Elephant & Castle.

However the route is more notable for the use of 6 hybrid diesel-electric buses alongside the Darts. The route was originally awarded with new vehicles rather than cascaded LDPs, and late in 2003 it was announced that the route would act as a testing ground for hybrid vehicles. The principle is that the gearbox is replaced by a large battery and electric circuits; a small diesel engine charges the battery which then drives electric motors, and during braking the motors can regenerate electricity and put it back into the battery. All this results in far lower fuel use, and consequently lower pollution, with the engine normally operating at its optimal speed when not idling. It was intended to order a full complement of such vehicles based on the new Transbus Enviro 200 (the 200H). However, development halted during financial problems at Transbus and its subsequent reconfiguration as Alexander Dennis, so the deal fell through.

Instead an order for 6 vehicles went to Wrightbus, and the vehicles, branded Electrocity, finally arrived and entered service a few months ago. The chassis is a VDL (DAF) SB120, but obviously the mechanical components are re-configured for the hybrid power train. The choice of WHY for the class code is a bit peculiar - it is meant to mean Wright HYbrid, but may well start people asking questions instead, such as why they are there, why they were so late etc...