London Buses route 89

89
An Alexander Dennis Enviro400 on route 89
Overview
Operator	Go-Ahead London
Garage	Bexleyheath (BX)
Vehicle	Alexander Dennis Enviro400 10.2m
Peak vehicle requirement	15
Night-time	Night Bus N89
Route
Start	Slade Green
Via	Barnehurst Bexleyheath Welling Shooters Hill Blackheath
End	Lewisham
Length	11 miles (17 km)
Service
Level	Daily
Frequency	About every 10-20 minutes
Journey time	45-67 minutes
Operates	5:00am until 0:30am
Transport for London Performance London Transport portal

London Buses route 89 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Go-Ahead London.

History

In 1939, the route from Lewisham Rennell Street, via the existing route through Blackheath and Shooters Hill, and terminated at The Guy Earl Of Warwick, Welling. The route ran out of Catford Garage at this time. In 1963, the route was extended from Welling, to Eltham Well Hall Station via Bexleyheath, Bexley, Blackfen and Eltham High Street (replacing the trolleybus replacement route 195). It was at this time that Bexleyheath Garage began operating some of the routes, sharing them with New Cross Garage. 1978 saw the route changing to the route as run to the present day, from Slade Green (via Colyers Lane and Barnehurst) to Lewisham Bus Station. At this time it was converted to 'Double Deck one person operation' (known in the trade as OPO), and the change-over point that was Market Place Bexleyheath, was changed to outside the bus garage. 1978 also saw New Cross withdrawing their buses from the route, handing over sole operation to Bexleyheath Garage. 1983 saw the introduction of Leyland Titans on the route, and May 1986 to Olympians. In August 1986, the entire route was transferred to New Cross Garage using a mix of Leyland Olympians. and Titans. At the start of 1991, the 89 was shunted around London Transport garages again, with Bexleyheath running a majority of services on a daily basis (shared with New Cross), but running the route solely on Sundays. Until April 1998 tsome journey's ran to New Cross Gate in the mornings until February 2000 saw another few changes. The special school routes (which ran from Lewisham to Bexley Village via Bexleyheath) withdrawn, Bexleyheath once again took over complete operation of the route, and new low-floor double deckers were introduced, namely the existing Volvo B7TL 10m / Plaxton Presidents. 23 February 2002 was the final day of changes for this route, when Bexleyheath took over sole operation of the route, making it what it is today.

The Route overall

The 89 is a useful cross south-east London trunk route linking the two busy town centres of Lewisham and Bexleyheath as well as serving Blackheath, Shooters Hill, Woolwich Common, Welling and the largely residential district of Slade Green which is situated on the borders of London and Kent, for residents in Slade Green, Dartford is their nearest town centre while Bexleyheath and in particular Lewisham are several miles west of the small district, so the 89 provides a good service for locals in that area. other than serving the residential streets of Slade Green, Barnehurst and Northumberland Heath the route mostly runs on the busy A207 Shooters Hill Road, it was specifically designed to do so, the route also passes Queen Elizabeths Hospital on Woolwich Common and Greenwich Park on Blackheath Common.

In 2012, London Central retained the contract for route 89 and brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double deckers were introduced.

Current route

• Slade Green Station Forest Road
• Bexleyheath
• Welling High Street
• Blackheath Station
• Lewisham High Street
• Lewisham Station Bus Station

Gallery

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  A Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President on route 89

See also

• List of bus routes in London

External links

• Transport for London
• Full timetable (PDF)