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113
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| Overview | |
| Operator | Metroline |
| Garage | Edgware |
| Vehicle | Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President |
| Peak vehicle requirement | 18 |
| Nighttime | No night service |
| Route | |
| Start | Edgware |
| Via | Mill Hill Hendon Central Finchley Road Swiss Cottage Baker Street |
| End | Marble Arch |
| Length | 11 miles (18 km) |
| Service | |
| Level | Daily |
| Frequency | About every 10 minutes |
| Journey time | 49-87 minutes |
| Operates | 5:30am until 12:50am |
| Transport for London • Performance |
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London Buses route 113 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. This service is currently contracted to Metroline.
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Route 113 is a particularly notable route as it ran over exactly the same routeing between Edgware and Oxford Circus for over 70 years, from before the Second World War [1] until 6 November 2009, and was thus until that date one of the very longest-running wholly unamended bus routes running anywhere in Greater London. It continues to remain notable today as it is now rare for a London bus daytime route to run between the West End and almost the boundary of Greater London.
Prior to the introduction of the current routeing in the late 1930s, the route ran over some of today's northern end of the route, from Hendon to Canons Park, via the Watford Way to Apex Corner, and then via Selvage Lane and Hale Lane into Edgware. The Hendon Central to Central London section was at that time covered by route 121 (and ran on to Peckham Rye).[2]
Despite its very long and uninterrupted existence, there were some minor changes in service levels. In July 1969, the Sunday service was withdrawn between Oxford Circus and Swiss Cottage, only for it to be reinstated in January 1975. Between January 1976 and November 1985, the route also ran additional short journeys between Edgware Station and Brent Cross shopping centre; these short journeys were subsequently incorporated into an extension of route 186. At the same time in November 1985, the service between Mill Hill Apex Corner and Edgware was restricted, for a brief period, to weekday peaks evenings, Saturday evenings and Sundays only.
Various types of double deck bus have operated over the route throughout its long history, including STDs, RTs, RMs and RMLs. The route was converted to one person operation in October 1986 using Metrobuses. The route was run from Hendon Garage, until its closure on 6 June 1987, when the allocation transferred to Edgware. In March 1993, the route was run from Cricklewood Garage, using single deck Dennis Lances until it reverted back to Metrobuses in 1997, followed by a transfer to Edgware garage in December 1998. The route became low floor in 2001, using Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TL VPLs, and it is now quite common to see Enviro 400s on the route.
After 70 years of operation between Edgware and Oxford Circus, the route was controversially withdrawn between Oxford Circus and Orchard Street, and diverted to Marble Arch (returning from Portman Street) on 7 November 2009 as part of the Mayor for London's pledge to reduce the number of buses using Oxford Street,[3] breaking some 2,100 daily passenger journeys on the route between Oxford Street and Hendon, Mill Hill and Edgware. The route was also planned for simultaneous conversion to 24-hour operation in 2009, along with improvements to evening and Sunday frequencies, and a possible diversion in Mill Hill via The Broadway, Hale Lane and Selvage Lane.[4] Such a diversion would return the route to Selvage Lane after a gap of over 70 years. However, these improvement plans did not come to fruition at the same time as the curtailment to Marble Arch, and appeared to have been postponed until the route was re-tendered for 2012. In the October 2011 re-tendering of the route to start 31st March 2012, the intention was confirmed to finally introduce a night-bus service along the route for the first time. TfL have now published their proposals which are to create an N113 running along the normal daytime route from Edgware to Oxford Street, but additionally serving Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. [5]
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