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143
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| Overview | |
| Operator | Metroline |
| Garage | Perivale West (PA) Holloway (HT) |
| Vehicle | Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Dart Dennis Trident 2 / Plaxton President |
| Peak vehicle requirement | 12 |
| Nighttime | No night service |
| Route | |
| Start | Brent Cross Shopping Centre |
| Via | Hendon Finchley East Finchley Highgate Village |
| End | Archway |
| Length | 8 miles (13 km) |
| Service | |
| Level | Daily |
| Frequency | About every 12-20 minutes |
| Journey time | 34-58 minutes |
| Operates | 5:17am until 0:12am |
| Transport for London • Performance |
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London Buses route 143 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Metroline.
Contents |
Today's 143 route commenced operation on 5 December 1924 as a Sunday only service between Hendon(Church End) and Addiscombe(Black Horse) via Church Road, Finchley Lane, Hendon Lane, Regents Park Road, East End Road, East Finchley, Great North Road, Archway Road, Holloway Road, Upper Street, Angel, Islington, City Road, Finsbury Pavement, Bank, London Bridge, Borough, Elephant & Castle, Kennington, Brixton Road, Streatham Hill, Streatham, West Croydon and Croydon.
The Monday to Saturday service was provided by a 143A which ran between Hendon (Church End) and London Bridge Station which had commenced operation four days earlier than the 143 on 1 December 1924. There were also two supplementary suffixed operations for shortworking buses: 143B Hendon (Church End) - Streatham Common (Greyhound) and 143C Highgate (Archway Tavern) - Addiscombe. The 143 group of routes was closely connected to the 43 group of routes and was in fact a renumbering of the 43A route.
On 1 February 1961 the route was extended from Archway to Farringdon Street as part of the Trolley Bus Replacement Program. This extension was modified in November of that year to run to Farringdon Street on Monday to Friday and Saturday Mornings, to Kings Cross Saturday afternoons and to Archway Saturday evenings. This arrangement lasted until 31 December 1966 when the Saturday service between Farringdon Street and Kings Cross was withdrawn.
1968 saw the conversion of the route to one person operated single deck, and the route was withdrawn between Farringdon Street and Archway at all times on 30 November. A Sunday service was added at this time to cover the withdrawn section of route 133. The single deck buses were replaced by double deck Daimler Fleetlines (DMSs) during April 1975. The route received an extension from Hendon to Brent Cross Shopping Centre during shopping hours on 31 January 1976.
The route transferred garages on 28 October 1978 from Holloway to Hendon Garage, and the DMSs were replaced by Metrobuses during February 1980. The Sunday service was withdrawn on 4 September 1982 and reintroduced for a brief period between 4 February 1984 and 6 June 1987 but only running between Hendon Central and East Finchley, when it was replaced by route 271. The closure of Hendon Garage saw the route pass to Holloway Garage during June 1987, and to Edgware garage in November.
During February 1991, the route was diverted to serve narrow roads in Finchley and so the Metrobuses were replaced by Optare StarRider minibuses and the Sunday service was also reintroduced. Some Schoolday journeys followed the old routing using the number 143A.
The allocation was transferred to Cricklewood in January 1994, and double deck schoolday journeys using Metroline's Metrobuses were added between Archway and East Finchley on 2 September 1996. The school journeys were transferred in June 1998 to London Traveller, later Metropolitan Omnibus, but returned to Metroline in 2003 (using spare buses from route 134).
The allocation was transferred once again in March 2000 to back to Holloway Garage, and the renwal of the contract with Metroline saw low floor Dennis Dart SLF / Plaxton Pointers being introduced.
A garage reshuffle took place in November 2002, when the 143 was moved back to Cricklewood Garage, along with route C11, making room for the newly gained route 24 from Arriva at Holloway. Route 205 was moved from Cricklewood to the new East Perivale Garage.
The route was extended to Brent Cross at all times on 28 June 2003. Tendering saw the route pass from Metroline to Thorpes on 21 May 2005 to their West Perivale garage. Metroline subsequently bought out Thorpes, and so Metroline once again operate the route.