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26
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| Overview | |
| Operator | First Capital |
| Garage | Lea Interchange (LI) |
| Vehicle | Alexander Dennis Enviro400 |
| Peak vehicle requirement | 17 |
| Nighttime | Night Bus N26 |
| Route | |
| Start | Waterloo |
| Via | Aldwych St Paul's Liverpool Street Cambridge Heath |
| End | Hackney Wick |
| Length | 7 miles (11 km) |
| Service | |
| Level | Daily |
| Frequency | Peak - 7-8 minutes Off-peak 10 minutes Evenings - 12 minutes Early mornings - 20 minutes Saturdays - 10 minutes Sundays - 12 minutes |
| Journey time | 30-58 minutes |
| Operates | 5:00am until midnight |
| Transport for London • Performance |
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London Buses route 26 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to First Capital.
Contents |
The current route 26 dates back to 18 July 1992, and was introduced to replace the withdrawn section of route 6 between Aldwych and Hackney Wick, running between Hackney Wick Eastway and Waterloo, from Bow Bus Garage using Leyland Titans. The route was converted to low floor during 1999. The allocation was transferred to Stratford Garage in April 2001, and transferred again in February 2008 to a new garage in West Ham, on the closure of Stratford Garage as part of the Olympic construction. The route has stayed the same since it began, apart from minor reroutings in Shoreditch in 2002 and in Hackney in 2008.
On 25 June 2011, First Capital successfully gained the contract for route 26 and are operating it from Lea Interchange (LI), using Alexander Dennis Enviro400.
On 21 July 2005, would-be bomber Muktar Said Ibrahim attempted to explode a device contained in his rucksack on a number 26 bus on Hackney Road near Shoreditch. A small explosion on the top deck caused the vehicle's windows to explode, but the device did not detonate as intended and there was no significant damage. The vehicle, at the time operated by Stagecoach East London, was stopped and a 200 yard safety cordon established while the bomb was defused.[1][2]
Ibrahim left the bus following the failed attack, but was later caught. He and five other men were taken to court in January 2007, and his DNA was found on a battery used in the bomb.[3] He was convicted in July 2007 and sentenced to life imprisonment.[4]