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248
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| Overview | |
| Operator | Stagecoach London |
| Garage | Rainham (RM) |
| Vehicle | Scania OmniCity 10.6m |
| Peak vehicle requirement | 14 |
| Nighttime | No night service |
| Route | |
| Start | Romford Market |
| Via | Roneo Corner Hornchurch Upminster |
| End | Cranham |
| Length | 7 miles (11 km) |
| Service | |
| Level | Daily |
| Frequency | About every 8 minutes |
| Journey time | 27-43 minutes |
| Operates | 6:00am until 1:00am |
| Transport for London • Performance |
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London Buses route 248 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Stagecoach London.
Contents |
Blue Triangle built quite a reputation for operating special services in London,whilst obatining more mainstream TfL bus route contracts. The third route to be added to its portfolio was the 248, which commenced with the company on 29 September 2001. This is a short but frequent route linking Upminster and Hornchurch with Romford.
Vehicles purchased have all been on Dennis chassis. Bodywork has been split between two of the smaller body builders though, with Caetano taking the Darts and East Lancs Tridents so far. At the time of the new contract, Blue Triangle had not received the new buses ordered for the 248, and had to use their Titans, Metrobuses and Tridents from the earlier batch for route 474.
Today's's route 248 commenced operation on 3 October 1934, when the newly constituted London Passenger Transport Board instituted its own numbering system. In this scheme, all single-deck bus operated routes were numbered in the 200+ series. Route G3, which had operated daily between Upminster Station and Cranham was allocated the 248 route number and its "sister" route, the G4, then operating between Upminster and Corbets Tey on Mondays to Saturdays became the 248A.
The 248 started as a local route running just from Cranham to Upminster station via St. Mary's Lane. Buses, or rather the one bus, ran every 17 minutes, which was presumably the most frequent it could run, given the 7 minutes end-to-end journey time. On Saturdays the frequency was boosted to every 8½ minutes, using the bus off the 249 (Corbets Tey to Upminster, every 16 minutes) which did not run on Saturday afternoons (or Sundays). The 248 and 249 were one-man-operated using Dennis Darts of an earlier generation, and, later, T-class AEC Regals with a crew of two.
As further development took place in the area, in 1951 the 248 was extended north from Upminster Station along Hall Lane, as far as River Drive. The 248A soon joined in and did even better by running on along the new Avon Road. In 1959 things were re-arranged, with the 86 (often stating as far away as Bow) replacing the 86A and continuing to Avon Road, and the 249 renumbered 248A and reduced again to Corbets Tey - Upminster Station running during peak hours only, London Country route 370 maintaining a service to Corbets Tey at other times. Route 193 would replace the 86 on Sundays, when neither the 248 nor 248A ran.
In 1964 the 193 replaced the 86 as the service to Avon Road and Upminster Park, but during 1970 there was a more major re-structure making the 248 a much more prominent service. The 86 was curtailed to Romford railway station - the first route to terminate there, in a far cry from today - and the 193 to Hornchurch, with the 248 extended from Cranham to Romford. The first leg from Cranham completed the rectangle by running along the middle section of Front Lane to Upminster Park, where a new loop via Waycross Road was introduced, before running via Avon Road and Hall Lane back to Upminster and then on to Hornchurch and Romford to terminate at Parkside Hotel in North Street. A Sunday service was re-introduced, but only on the new section to begin with.
The route had to be single deck operated due to the low bridge in Cranham, but a further re-structuring in November 1981 allowed Titans to replace Leyland Nationals on Mondays to Saturdays when the service was curtailed to Cranham - now approaching from the opposite direction from before. The 246 replaced this section, which is now covered by the 346. About 1984, the Sunday extension back to Upminster was removed in favour of a Sunday service on the 246, but in addition the 248 was split with a new 244 running from Upminster Park via Cranham to Romford, as opposed to the 248 which ran from Cranham via Upminster Park. The Romford terminus was also revised to the Market at this time.