London Buses route 113

London Buses route 113 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Edgware and Marble Arch stations, it is operated by Metroline.

History

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 World War II^[1] until 6 November 2009.

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 continued 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 In July 1969, the Sunday service was withdrawn between Swiss Cottage and Oxford Circus, only for it to be reinstated in January 1975.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 bus station; 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.

The route was converted to one man operation in October 1986 using MCW 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 to Metrobuses in 1997, followed by a return to Edgware garage in December 1998. The route became low floor in 2001, using Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs.

After 70 years of operation between Edgware and Oxford Circus, the route was withdrawn between Oxford Circus and Orchard Street, and diverted to Marble Arch (returning from Portman Street) on 7 November 2009 as part of the Mayor of London's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, 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 have returned 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 were postponed until the next contract commenced in March 2012. Transport for London published their proposals 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] The N113 was eventually introduced on 30 June 2012.

Upon being re-tendered, the route was retained by Metroline with a new contract commencing on 31 March 2012.^[6]

Current route

• Edgware bus station for Edgware station
• Mill Hill Circus
• Hendon Central station
• Brent Cross
• Finchley Road & Frognal station
• Finchley Road station
• Swiss Cottage station
• St. John's Wood station
• Lord's Cricket Ground
• Baker Street station
• Marble Arch station

This route will be rextended to Oxford Circus due to finchley road changes.

References

External links

• Media related to London Buses route 113 at Wikimedia Commons
• London Bus Routes gallery
• Timetable