London Buses route 157

157
Overview
Operator	Abellio London
Garage	Beddington Cross (BC)
Vehicle	Volvo B7TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini
Peak vehicle requirement	16
Nighttime	No night service
Route
Start	Crystal Palace
Via	Anerley Norwood Junction Selhurst West Croydon Wallington Carshalton
End	Morden
Length	12 miles (19 km)
Service
Level	Daily
Frequency	About every 12 minutes
Journey time	46-83 minutes
Operates	5:00am until 1:30am
Transport for London • Performance

London Buses route 157 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Abellio London.

History

Today's 157 commenced operation on 13 September 1926 as a daily service between Morden Station and Wallington (Melbourne Hotel) via Morden Road, Bishopsford Road, Sutton and Carshalton. It was one of five new "Underground feeder" routes (155, 156, 157, 164 & 165) that were introduced to connect to the new Northern Line station at Morden, which also opened on 13 September 1926. Three single-deck AEC K-type buses were needed to provide the service. This was the third time that the route number 157 had been used on a motor-bus route in London. Just twelve days later on 25 September 1926, the 157 was re-routed to serve St Helier Avenue. The route must have been well patronised as from 18 March 1927 it was double-decked with 3 AEC NS-type buses being allocated.

As from 1 April 1931 the 157 was again re-routed between Morden and Sutton, this time via the Sutton-by-Pass (today's Reigate Avenue) and Collingwood Road. This routing was changed again as from 28 February 1934 when the 157 was diverted to serve Angel Hill. Less than a month later, as from 25 March 1934, the 157 became a Monday to Saturday only route when the Sunday service was withdrawn. On 16 January 1935, the routing was again changed, this time the 157 was diverted at Rose Hill via Wrythe Lane and North Street to Carshalton, with the route becoming a daily service again, as well as being extended from Morden Station to Raynes Park via South Merton as from 27 February 1935.

In 1954 the RT buses replaced the D Type vehicles that had been allocated to the route since 1945. On 4 March 1959 in the first stage of London Transport's trolleybus replacement scheme the service was extended to Crystal Palace, replacing trolleybus route 654. In 1964 Carshalton garage closed, and a new Saturday service was introduced. In 1970 a Sunday service was added to the route, but this didn't last long as later in the year the Sunday service between Morden and Raynes Park was terminated, as only Monday-Saturday and early Sunday morning services were still keeping the 'Original route'. The service was enhanced due to the withdrawal of the 154 between West Croydon and Crystal Palace in 1981.

In 1987, Leyland ECW Olympians were introduced to the route. In November 1988,Sutton Bus was awarded the contract to run the 157 and used used re-engined DMS types,with Iveco engines, until 1992 when [[London General] witdrew them,and replaced them with spare M types.In 1997,London General won the tender to operate all the Sutton routes,including the 157.The routes were originally going to be operated by refurbished M types.M812 underwent a trial refurbishment,but after London General was taken over by Go-Ahead,the refurbishmnet project was dropped,and 60 new Volvo Olympians were added on to an order for London Central. This carried on until 2001 when they lost the contract to Connex Bus, and as explained before they lost out to Travel London in 2004 although there are still signs of Connex on the buses as the logo used still is inside of the buses.

Current route

• Crystal Palace Parade
• Crystal Palace Station
• Anerley Hill
• Anerley Madeline Road
• Anerley Station
• Anerley Road
• Anerley Oak Grove Road
• Croydon Road
• Anerley Mitre
• Penge Road Goat House
• South Norwood High Street
• Norwood Junction Station Clocktower
• South Norwood Tennison Road
• Selhurst Station
• Selhurst Road
• Northcote Road (for BRIT School)
• Whitehorse Road Windmill Road
• Wellesley Road St. Mary's High School
• West Croydon Station Bus station
• Croydon Tamworth Road (for Centrale)
• Reeves Corner tram stop (for Church Street)
• Waddon New Road
• Epsom Road
• Waddon Station Stafford Road
• Purley Way Fiveways Corner
• Stafford Road
• South Beddington
• Wallington Mellows Park
• Wallington Station
• Manor Road
• Carshalton High street
• Carshalton Station West Street
• Carshalton Wrythe Green
• Wrythe Lane
• St. Helier Hospital
• St. Helier Rose Hill
• St. Helier Avenue
• Morden Hall Road
• Morden Town Centre
• Morden Station

Previous route 157s in London

The route number 157 had been used twice prior to its current use.

• Between March 1914 and October 1914 for a Camden Town <to> Epping Forest (High Beach) Sundays only route via Finsbury Park, Clapton and Leyton.
• Between April 1915 and October 1915 for a Finsbury Park <to> Epping Forest (High Beach) Sundays only route via Clapton and Leyton.

See also

• List of bus routes in London
• Abellio London

External links

• Transport for London
• London Bus Routes Zenfolio
• London Bus Routes
• Full Timetable (PDF)