London Buses route 28

28
Overview
Operator Tower Transit
Garage Atlas Road (AS)
Vehicle Volvo B7TL 10.1m & 10.6m / Wright Eclipse Gemini
Peak vehicle requirement 23
Night-time Night Bus N28 and N31
Route
Start Southside Wandsworth
Via Kensington
Notting Hill
Westbourne
End Kensal Rise station
Length 7 miles (11 km)
Service
Level Daily
Frequency 7-10 minutes
Journey time 42-81 minutes
Operates 05:00 until 01:29

London Buses route 28 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Southside Wandsworth and Kensal Rise station, it is operated by Tower Transit.

History

First London Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TL at Kensal Rise station in June 2007
Tower Transit Alexander Dennis Enviro400 at Kensington High Street in August 2013

The history of route 28 goes back to 2 August 1911, when a daily motor-bus was introduced between Wandsworth Bridge and West Hampstead (West End Green) replacing horse bus routes 48 (Fulham Road - West Hampstead) and 49 (Brondesbury - Walham Green). By 1950, route 28 was operating between Golders Green tube station and Kingston Vale via Wandsworth Plain.

In 1988, Gold Arrow routes 28 and 31 were introduced,[1] operated by CentreWest.[2] On 4 March 1989, route 28 was converted to minibus operation with AEC Routemasters replaced by 28-seat Alexander bodied Mercedes-Benz midibuses leading to severe overcrowding and poor reliability.[3] Dennis Darts introduced in 1991 were more comfortable but did little to improve space for passengers, and the 1999 two-exit Darts, with seating capacity as low as 22, fared no better despite being larger on the outside. An additional route 328 was set up to relieve the overlapping sections of routes 28 and 31 between Kensington and Kilburn. Finally in May 2004 the route returned to double-decker operation with Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TLs, with some additional Dennis Trident 2s spare from other routes.[4]

On 11 February 2006, route 28 was extended from Harrow Road to Kensal Rise station. In June 2013, route 28 was included in the sale of First London's Atlas Road garage to Tower Transit.[5][6]

Current route

Route 28 operates via these primary locations:[7]

References

  1. ↑ Public transport planning and operations. PTRC Education and Research Services Ltd. 1990. p. 109. Intensive inner London Gold Arrow services 28 and 31, introduced in 1988, have given encouraging results. Individual operating subsidiaries of London Buses Ltd. are making further minibus conversions, such as those of CentreWest in Ealing.
  2. ↑ "Untitled". Transport 15: 85. 1994. It also helps to avoid the instability and wasteful duplication found in deregulated areas. However, local opportunities for service development may also be envisaged, in addition to those devised centrally. Examples include the 'Gold Arrow' midibus services 28 and 31 of the Centrewest company
  3. ↑ Blacker, Ken (2007). Routemaster: 1970–2005 2 (2nd ed.). Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. pp. 96, 97. ISBN 978-1-85414-303-7.
  4. ↑ Double-Deckers for The 28 Group at Last London Bus Page 11 June 2004
  5. ↑ First quits London bus business Bus & Coach Professional 9 April 2013
  6. ↑ Date set for Aussie takeover of London bus routes Australasian Bus & Coach 14 June 2013
  7. ↑ Route 28 Map Transport for London

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, December 13, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.