London Buses route 33: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 19:24, 25 January 2009
London Buses route 33 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to NCP-Challenger.
History
A surprise tender result early in 2005 was the award of two routes from London United to National Car Parks. 27 Dart SLF/Pointer 2s have been obtained to work the routes, and a new base has been established in Twickenham Trading Estate, large enough to double the fleet size. Many of the managers are ex-London United employees.
The buses are very similar to those used by London United but are painted in allover red.
The route now terminates at the Fulwell end of Stanley Road Teddington. previously it ran on round the corner to terminate in London United's Fulwell Garage forecourt, from where it was operated, but the new operator required a different terminus, and closure of a former staff club located at the front of Travel London's premises on land owned by TfL provided the opportunity. It was hoped that the shortened route would also help the reliability of a route that has been performing quite badly for some time.
Low route numbers in London usually mean that a route has at least its origins in central London. The 33 is no exception, having been a Richmond - Aldwych service, operated by Mortlake and Twickenham garages, except on Sundays when the route was extended to Old Ford and operation shared between Clay Hall (Old Ford) and Middle Row (Kensington). There were also extensions at Summer weekends to Hampton Court. However, the section east of Hammersmith largely duplicated routes 73 and 9, and therefore from March 1937 the route was cut back to terminate at Brook Green, Hammersmith. By way of consolation, the 33 was extended from Richmond to Hounslow via Twickenham and Whitton, replacing route 27, and Hounslow garage became the main operator. Route 27 was reduced to run on Sundays only, and indeed on that day of the week the 33 was withdrawn.
From September 1982, the section between Twickenham and Hounslow was taken off, being left to the 281. Just as, forty years previously, the 27 had been withdrawn from this section and diverted to run to Teddington (albeit in stages), now the 33 was diverted at Twickenham to run via Strawberry Hill to Teddington, with a projection to its new home garage at Fulwell. Thus, for the second time, the 33 replaced the 27.
In the last ten years, there has been much messing about with the frequency. The closure of Hammersmith Bridge forced the conversion to little Dennis Darts, and a 10 minute service was run, suitably enhanced at peak hours. More recently, the service was enhanced between Richmond and Hammersmith, but the section out to Fulwell dropped to every 15 minutes. Then the full 7-8 minute service was extended to operate throughout, a considerable improvement, albeit at the expense of part of route 290 into Richmond.
Current route
Route departing Fulwell
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Route departing Hammersmith
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See also
External links
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