London Buses route 176

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176
Overview
Operator Arriva London
Garage Norwood (N)
Vehicle Volvo B7TL 10.6m / Alexander ALX400
Peak vehicle requirement 26
Night-time 24-hour service
Route
Start Penge
Via Forest Hill
East Dulwich
Camberwell
Waterloo
End Tottenham Court Road
Length 11 miles (17 km)
Service
Level 24-hour service
Frequency About every 8 minutes
Journey time 50-96 minutes
Operates 24-hour service
Portal icon London Transport portal

London Buses route 176 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Arriva London.

Contents

History [edit]

The 176 route itself was one of the tram replacement routes, initially running from Catford, joining the existing route at Forest Hill as far as Elephant & Castle. There were then two routes, 176 and 176A, the 176 continuing via Westminster Bridge to the Victoria Embankment, one of the major termini for south east London tram routes. However the trams only stopped there because that was as far as they were allowed to go, and it was soon realised that extending the buses further into central London would benefit passengers. Incidentally, the 176 is the only one of the original Victoria Embankment routes still to serve central London under its original number! Meanwhile the 176A went via Southwark Bridge to Mansion House Station (along with the 95 which came up from Tooting Broadway), again not a terribly clever terminus, the route being abandoned in the September 1982 bus cuts.

The 176 was then diverted via Waterloo, Trafalgar Square, Tottenham Court Road, Marylebone and Edgware Road to Willesden, being extended into Lewisham for some years, albeit losing its Saturday service (it never had a Sunday service). The eastern terminus later settled down as Forest Hill.

By the 1970s it had settled into being a Monday to Friday route between Willesden Garage and Forest Hill. In March 1976 the route gained Routemasters, firstly from Willesden Garage then from Walworth, one of the last central London routes to lose RTs in favour of the RMs. In October 1978 the Willesden Garage allocation was withdrawn in favour of Walworth garage, and the route was withdrawn in the evenings between East Dulwich and Forest Hill.

Leyland Titans, initially in crew mode, were introduced from Walworth garage in June 1984, together with a Saturday only 185A (Lewisham - Elephant & Castle) which replaced the short 185 buses that at the time had run between Camberwell and Lewisham during Saturday shopping hours and that provided some compensation for the lack of a Saturday service on the 176. The 176 route was converted to one person operation on 27th April 1985, the same day that routes 118 & 119 were converted.

The 176 was re-structured on 6th June 1987, and was by this time operating from Camberwell garage. The service north of Tottenham Court Road Station was withdrawn, buses running instead to Oxford Circus. (The section to Willesden transferred to new route 172 running from Baker Street Station, but the route only lasted until 1990). A Saturday service between East Dulwich and Oxford Circus (Waterloo evenings), and a Sunday service between East Dulwich and Waterloo, were also introduced at this time. The Sunday allocation was from New Cross garage.

The south end was altered to run to Penge on a daily basis from 13/08/88, replacing the most heavily used section of route 12 south of Dulwich Plough. The end of the route at Penge Pawleyne Arms had previously been an intermediate turning point for buses on the 12, 75 and 194 routes. This had ceased when the roads used for a convenient turnaround were closed. (194 buses turning in Penge now carry the destination Penge High Street and turn at the Crooked Billet). Despite the road closures it was decided to make the Pawlene Arms the terminus for the route. Most drivers travel the considerable distance to the Robin Hood to turn their buses safely.

London & Country won the 176 from 10 November 1990, and obtained a batch of East Lancs bodied Volvo Citybuses. Under Cowie Group ownership, these operations passed to the new Kentish Bus-controlled LondonLinks unit. The 176 was split between Beddington Farm and Walworth garages, the latter also operating the 78 and 188. However, expiry of the lease at Walworth prompted a shuffling of routes in which the 176 and 188 moved to fellow Cowie subsidiary South London Transport's Norwood garage, together with the 36 East Lancs bodied Citybuses. These were then replaced with Northern Counties-bodied Leyland Olympians acquired from Kentish Bus, who had used them on routes 22A and 22B (now 242).

The Sunday service was extended to Aldwych in 1989 and finally reached Oxford Circus in 1994.

The section between Aldwych and Oxford Circus passes through the heart of London's Theatreland close to most of the main theatres and the Cinemas of Leicester Square, making it a particularly useful service for tourists.

The night service N176 was the first to be renumbered when TfL started to re-market them as 24-hour routes where possible, becoming part of route 176.[citation needed]

Transport for London announced on 22 December 2008 that from 3 January 2009 the route would be withdrawn between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road to allow Andrew Borde Street to be closed and used as a work site for the upgrade of Tottenham Court Road tube station and the construction of the Crossrail station.[1] In January 2010, Transport for London claimed this shortening of route 176 as part of its implementation of the Mayor's request to reduce the bus flow in Oxford Street by 10% in each of 2009 and 2010.[2]

Current route [edit]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Bus diversions to facilitate Crossrail and rebuilding of Tottenham Court Road station". Transport for London. 22 December 2008. Retrieved 2010-05-18. 
  2. ^ "Streets ahead: Relieving congestion on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street". London Assembly Transport Committee. 4 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-09.  See Appendix 1.

External links [edit]
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