London Buses route 15 (Heritage)

15H
Overview
Operator Stagecoach London
Garage West Ham (WH)
Vehicle Routemaster
Peak vehicle requirement 5
Nighttime Night Bus N15
Route
Start Tower Hill
Via Cannon Street
Aldwych
End Trafalgar Square
Length 3 miles (5km)
Service
Level Daily
Frequency About every 15 minutes
Journey time 24-25 minutes
Operates 9:30am until 7:00pm
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Transport for London • Performance
London Transport portal

London Buses route 15 (Heritage) is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Stagecoach London[1] and is a short working of the standard route 15.[2][3]

Contents

History

This route and route 9 (Heritage) were announced initially as 'A' and 'B' as short workings on existing routes to avoid any potential complications in the future: from 2017 all services have to be operated by Disability Discrimination Act compliant vehicles or an alternative must exist to make the same journey by exactly the same means. The Mayor of London and Transport for London decided to have a deadline of 2006 for their own services with a few exceptions.

One of the two routes, awarded to Stagecoach London, was for services between Trafalgar Square and Tower Hill, covering the most touristy section of route 15 taking in the Tower of London, Monument, St Paul's Cathedral and Trafalgar Square.[4] An extension to the Oxford Street area was excluded due to severe congestion there. The number of the parallel route 15 was adopted for the Routemasters, despite potential for confusion with the main 15.

Ten buses were allocated to the operator; 5 for the daily turnout, 3 operational spares and 2 as a "strategic reserve". Despite having only a couple of weeks to prepare the vehicles after they left normal service, Stagecoach turned out 5 immaculately presented RMs for the first day launch, 14 November 2005. The first journey was driven by Peter Hendy, managing director of TfL surface transport.

In April 2008 one of the buses was painted in a special Indian Red and Silver livery, to promote Bow Garage's Centenary. It was first revealed at the LBPT's Cobham bus rally, and soon after entered regular service.

Current route

See also

References

  1. ^ "Bus tender results". Transport for London. 14 May 2010. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/businessandpartners/buses/tenderresults/route.aspx?btID=744. Retrieved 5 January 2011. 
  2. ^ "Touring Routemasters hit the road". BBC News. 14 November 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4435332.stm. Retrieved 31 March 2010. 
  3. ^ Webster, Ben (28 June 2005). "Tourist icon stays on the road". London: The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/england/article538210.ece. Retrieved 31 March 2010. 
  4. ^ "Heritage route contracts awarded". Transport for London. 9 September 2005. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/static/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/3914.html. Retrieved 5 January 2011. 

External links
List of bus routes in London
London Transport portal