Buses U-turning

[ETMbloke]

From 5th September 2026, London bus route 279 is due to be withdrawn between Seven Sisters and Manor House, and rerouted to Stamford Hill.
This route has an unusual feature at Manor House, it terminates and stands on one side of the Seven Sisters Road. To turn round and pick up passengers on the other side of the road, buses has to do a an u-turn across several lanes of traffic, without the use of traffic lights.
In London, I believe routes 63 and 139 does u-turns, but they use dedicated bus lanes and traffic lights. Route 4 sometimes does a u-turn at Blackfriars, outside where I work, possibly due to traffic conditions.
Does any bus routes in the UK or worldwide do u-turns either in service or at the terminus?

 

[ACBest]

TransportConnect’s RZ1 does a U-turn in front of the entrance gates of the Kendrew Barracks in Cottesmore. (Previously, when the service was the R2/RF2 operated by Centrebus, it also used to have a U-turn at Greetham.)

Centrebus’ LC3 does a U-turn once a day at Buckminster on the 1355 from Grantham which terminates there.

I think I’m right in saying that Reading Buses 17 does a U-turn at The Three Tuns too.

 

[RJ]

Unofficial but the 171 often does all kinds of strange things at the Catford end.

 

[joieman]

This anecdote didn't happen on a bus's normal route, but on one occasion I was on an Arriva 127 bus which was on diversion via the Mountsorrel Bypass because the normal route was closed (a rather frequent occurrence last year).

On this occasion, the driver took a wrong turn and exited the bypass at the first junction after the one where the bus entered the bypass instead of the second. The bottom of the slip road was at a T-junction with a road that led back into Mountsorrel but is subject to a weight restriction due to a low bridge. So the driver proceeded to execute a perfect U-turn back onto the slip road to rejoin the bypass and leave it at the following junction.

 

[Vexed]

The various routes (both directions!) at Highfield Interchange (Southampton) all serve one stop roughly 4 buses long, so as they come and go at different times there's often shuffling in forward and reverse to get in and out. With early running there can often be 5 minute dwells and the U1 is up to every 6 minutes, that's before even considering the U2 and U6. During term time there are often 5 buses at the stop that can only fit 4.

The drivers do try to shuffle forward when the one on front leaves but that's not possible if they're boarding 50 students, there's a driver swap, or the driver's gone to the toilet.

 

[Pit_buzzer]

One from Poland, the 159 bus from Poznan Glowny station to the airport goes up the access ramp from the station, turns right onto the dual carriageway and then after about 200 metres does a u turn onto the opposite carriageway. It's all the more impressive for being an 18 metre articulated bus

 

[D6130]

In West Yorkshire, the TLC 596 does a sort of U turn - by means of a turning (semi-) circle on the A646, King Street, in Mytholm, Hebden Bridge. This is to provide access to/from the very steep and acute-angled turning into/out of Heptonstall Road en route to/from Blackshaw Head.

 

[Simon75]

In Staffordshire the 109 Leek to Macclesfield does a u turn in the village of Rudyard

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

From 5th September 2026, London bus route 279 is due to be withdrawn between Seven Sisters and Manor House, and rerouted to Stamford Hill.
This route has an unusual feature at Manor House, it terminates and stands on one side of the Seven Sisters Road. To turn round and pick up passengers on the other side of the road, buses has to do a an u-turn across several lanes of traffic, without the use of traffic lights.
In London, I believe routes 63 and 139 does u-turns, but they use dedicated bus lanes and traffic lights. Route 4 sometimes does a u-turn at Blackfriars, outside where I work, possibly due to traffic conditions.
Does any bus routes in the UK or worldwide do u-turns either in service or at the terminus?

341 uses the same U turn facility as 139 at Waterloo.

 

[Mark L]

Reading Buses 17 performs a U-turn in Wokingham Road. At the Tilehurst end of the route it circumnavigates a mini-roundabout to turn round.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There were some in Milton Keynes (mostly but not exclusively at roundabouts) most notably on route 7 when it served Shenley Wood, but I don't think there are at the moment.

 

[kkong]

First Aberdeen's 18 at Redmoss Road terminus doesn't do a u-turn as such.

But it has to cross a busy dual carriageway (without traffic lights) right next to a roundabout, then round the roundabout to get back to Redmoss Road to start its return journey to Dyce.

The image below shows the route.