Quirky or quaint practices on buses in the past

[Mark L]

Another (unique?) quirk regarding service number suffixes was Manchester City Transport, in pre-PTE days.

It's always been quite usual for bus operators to add letters A, B, C ... to their service numbers to show route variations, short workings and the like.

In MCT days, the only letter available on Manchester bus blinds was a "X" suffix.

Anywhere else in Britain, an X would most likely indicate some sort of limited stop or express service. But in Manchester, "X" meant anything a bit different to the normal route. It might mean Limited Stops.

Whilst “X” used to signify a limited stop service a number of operators now use it to denote a “cross country” route although I’m not sure the average passenger realises the rationale (or cares!). Examples include Go South Coast and Thames Travel.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Dec 2025 ==

Avon CC did with Bristol 5**, Greater Bristol 6**, Bath 7** and Weston 8** - remnants of this persist with Bath tendered routes like the 701 or 768. Cleveland did the same with 5** Hartlepool, 6** Middlesbrough and 7** East Cleveland - again, evidence lasted a long time after CCC disappeared but now all gone.

Surrey County Council initially numbered its contracted services in the 500s.

 

[nw1]

Back to the North Western company: my North Western Bristol was new at Wilmslow garage, and I was fortunate to procure a Wilmslow garage blind. I was puzzled to find the destination ‘Kerridge’ on it, which is a small suburb of Macclesfield, many miles from Wilmslow. I later found out from a former employee that the service from Wilmslow to Macclesfield involved a long layover at Macc, so management - ever keen to squeeze what they could out of its assets - decided that instead of enjoying leisurely cups of tea in Macclesfield’s canteen, the buses (and their drivers) could fill in the time with a trip to Kerridge and back. This was quite unpopular! There are other similar quirky ‘fill in turns’ from around the country, but they wouldn’t be obvious to a passenger. Perhaps the best known are the express routes between England and Scotland, particularly the overnights where the coach would go northbound one night and return south the next, and buses from Trent, Ribble, North Western et al would be spotted ‘borrowed’ doing a local Glasgow service during the day on behalf of Central or Western SMT…

Another example of this was the "Manor Way" option on the blinds on Alder Valley's Hindhead vehicles.

Manor Way is an area of Guildford and at the time was served by the hourly 230 Bellfields-Manor Way cross town service, operated by Guildford depot.

However there was one peak extra short working from the bus station to Manor Way and back, which was operated by a Hindhead VR in between turns (if I remember right between a 271 ex-Chiddingfold and a 268 towards Haslemere, possibly v.v.) which would otherwise have had a 40-min layover at the Friary Bus Station. It was in late 1984, early 1985 (though may have started years earlier - no idea). Like the 229 case above, it ended with the April 1985 recast.

In fact it may not even have been a peak extra, it may have been to allow the normal 230 vehicle to come off the 230 and operate a peak extra on some other Guildford route - not totally sure.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Dec 2025 ==

Surrey County Council initially numbered its contracted services in the 500s.

Indeed, the 502 Haslemere town service being a local example. Use of minibuses on this service from deregulation (other than one or two VR-operated school journeys) allowed this to penetrate into all kinds of weird and wonderful places not formerly served by its predecessors, the 211 and 212 - including the tiny Sicklemill estate and the deeply-rural village of Lynchmere.

The 502 had all manner of permutations and combinations during the day - the core service was High Lane to Woolmer Hill but there were many variations and it wasn't clockface.

 

[WestAnglian]

On LT buses it was common practice for conductors, if they we near the front of the upper deck, to give the away signal by sticking the blind box with their locker T key.

I was once on a bus where this occurred and the bus was immediately brought to a hallt by an emergency stop signal. A furious inspector then came up the stairs and read the riot act to the poor conductor in front of the passengers.

Or some would stamp their foot.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Dec 2025 ==

One thing that's disappeared is the practise of propping a seat cushion against the back of the vehicle to indicate that it's broken down. Was that just London?

 

[MikeFromLFE]

Route numbering in London was at one time logical as many on here will know.
From the depths of my memory :
1-200 central London (red) bus routes;
200-299 a mixture of central london (red) bus routes and previous trolleybus routes (eg 629 became 269);
300-399 north of London country services;
400-499 south of London country services;
500 -599 these were mostly central London Red Arrow services but there may have been others;
600-699 trolleybus routes (often the numbering followed the bus route, so 629 followed the 29 route);
700-799 Green Line Coaches;
800-899 I seem to recall these were country area express services? These may fall into the definition of quirky.
I don't remember any 9xx routes;
Night buses were prefixed by N (eg N29) but they didn't always have the same route as the daytime numbered route.

 

[AB93]

Indeed, the 502 Haslemere town service being a local example. Use of minibuses on this service from deregulation (other than one or two VR-operated school journeys) allowed this to penetrate into all kinds of weird and wonderful places not formerly served by its predecessors, the 211 and 212 - including the tiny Sicklemill estate and the deeply-rural village of Lynchmere.

The 502 had all manner of permutations and combinations during the day - the core service was High Lane to Woolmer Hill but there were many variations and it wasn't clockface.

Arrangements which survived (as route 59) for a remarkably long time until 2012 until the end was nigh for the Mercedes minibuses and low floor buses took over.

 

[Tester]

Route numbering in London was at one time logical as many on here will know.
From the depths of my memory :
1-200 central London (red) bus routes;
200-299 a mixture of central london (red) bus routes and previous trolleybus routes (eg 629 became 269);
300-399 north of London country services;
400-499 south of London country services;
500 -599 these were mostly central London Red Arrow services but there may have been others;
600-699 trolleybus routes (often the numbering followed the bus route, so 629 followed the 29 route);
700-799 Green Line Coaches;
800-899 I seem to recall these were country area express services? These may fall into the definition of quirky.
I don't remember any 9xx routes;
Night buses were prefixed by N (eg N29) but they didn't always have the same route as the daytime numbered route.

I recall factory etc. services in the 8xx series.

 

[RT4038]

Route numbering in London was at one time logical as many on here will know.
From the depths of my memory :
1-200 central London (red) bus routes;
200-299 a mixture of central london (red) bus routes and previous trolleybus routes (eg 629 became 269);
300-399 north of London country services;
400-499 south of London country services;
500 -599 these were mostly central London Red Arrow services but there may have been others;
600-699 trolleybus routes (often the numbering followed the bus route, so 629 followed the 29 route);
700-799 Green Line Coaches;
800-899 I seem to recall these were country area express services? These may fall into the definition of quirky.
I don't remember any 9xx routes;
Night buses were prefixed by N (eg N29) but they didn't always have the same route as the daytime numbered route.

The 800 numbers were an overflow when the 300-499 ran out. Mainly 'new town' services (plus one express route).

Provincial bus companies often numbered their services in geographical blocks, for administrative convenience or often for historical reasons when companies were bought or merged and one of the companies' route numbers had one hundred (or two hundred etc) added to avoid duplication.

 

[Statto]

There are still remnants of Merseytravel tendered numbers in the 100 - 250 series still left, but they're stand alone routes, not accompanied by a commercial service.

The Merseytravel tendered services of the commercial service now show the commercial service number, one of the last of having different numbers for tendered services was 2017 when the 203 was renumbered to 423.

 

[PeterC]

Route numbering in London was at one time logical as many on here will know.
From the depths of my memory :
1-200 central London (red) bus routes;
200-299 a mixture of central london (red) bus routes and previous trolleybus routes (eg 629 became 269);
300-399 north of London country services;
400-499 south of London country services;
500 -599 these were mostly central London Red Arrow services but there may have been others;
600-699 trolleybus routes (often the numbering followed the bus route, so 629 followed the 29 route);
700-799 Green Line Coaches;
800-899 I seem to recall these were country area express services? These may fall into the definition of quirky.
I don't remember any 9xx routes;
Night buses were prefixed by N (eg N29) but they didn't always have the same route as the daytime numbered route.

Trolleybuses were originally the 500 to 699 range. The 500s were later reused for Red Arrows.

1 to 199 were originally reserved for double deck operated routes and 200 to 299 for single deck. In the immediate pre-war period routes were renumbered if they switched vehicle type but this was abandoned in wartime and not resumed

800 to 899 were used for town services in the new towns

 

[MikeFromLFE]

Trolleybuses were originally the 500 to 699 range. The 500s were later reused for Red Arrows.

1 to 199 were originally reserved for double deck operated routes and 200 to 299 for single deck. In the immediate pre-war period routes were renumbered if they switched vehicle type but this was abandoned in wartime and not resumed

800 to 899 were used for town services in the new towns

Thanks for the corrections - it was a flippin' long time ago and my memory isn't always what I'd like it to be!

 

[nw1]

300-399 north of London country services;
400-499 south of London country services;

I learnt of this only relatively recently.

I was familiar with all the Guildford area London Country services being 4xx (408 Croydon, 436 Heathrow amongst others) but assumed that London Country had its own numbering system independent of LT and that numbers might have ranged from 1-499 just for London Country services.

It seems surprising that just 200 available route numbers were sufficient for the entire London Country area, but as stated above the 8xx were later used, and they possibly used suffixes quite a lot, which helped - in Guildford for example the Bushy Hill town service was the 408A prior to April 1985, when it became the G8.

Interestingly the local independent Tillingbourne seemed to use spare numbers from the London Country numbering system prior to April 1985 (e.g the 448 Guildford to Cranleigh via Peaslake) but later on adopted its own two-figure scheme.

 

[Pinus contorta]

Another (unique?) quirk regarding service number suffixes was Manchester City Transport, in pre-PTE days.

It's always been quite usual for bus operators to add letters A, B, C ... to their service numbers to show route variations, short workings and the like.

In MCT days, the only letter available on Manchester bus blinds was a "X" suffix.

Anywhere else in Britain, an X would most likely indicate some sort of limited stop or express service. But in Manchester, "X" meant anything a bit different to the normal route. It might mean Limited Stops. Or it might mean a short working, or a works service, or football special. Or a Night Service, which sometimes followed slightly different routes to the daytime equivalent and charged double fares.

When the Selnec / GMT 'Standard' vehicles were first developed, these followed historic Manchester practice and the number blinds had a X suffix, but no other letters available. Even though some of the municipal services absorbed into Selnec still used A, B etc at the time. Presumably the new Standard vehicles were not allocated to these routes.

I don't think the X suffixes were used in anger following a county-wide re-numbering of services into a consistent series in the 1970s, although GMT Standard buses seemed to be delivered with X on the blinds long after this was necessary.

Still remember the X being used right up till deregulation on school services and buses running dead from A to B

 

[nw1]

Though this sort of scenario is often where bridges get whacked when the driver taking the initiative forgets they're in a double decker.

I'd hope that's the kind of thing someone wouldn't forget!

 

[RT4038]

Interestingly the local independent Tillingbourne seemed to use spare numbers from the London Country numbering system prior to April 1985 (e.g the 448 Guildford to Cranleigh via Peaslake) but later on adopted its own two-figure scheme.

The 448 was originally a jointly operated route (London Transport and Tillingbourne) that ran Guildford-Peaslake-Ewhurst. There was also a 448A that ran Guildford-Pewley Way. In the mid 60s [Tuesday 11th August 1964 last day] LT withdrew their part of the joint operation (and the 448A) and handed the roads over to Tillingbourne. Later [end of November 1965] Tillingbourne withdrew the 448A and the Peaslake-Ewhurst section of the 448. So it wasn't a random selection of a vacant number as such.

 

[nw1]

The 448 was originally a jointly operated route (London Transport and Tillingbourne) that ran Guildford-Peaslake-Ewhurst. There was also a 448A that ran Guildford-Pewley Way. In the mid 60s LT withdrew their part of the joint operation (and the 448A) and handed the roads over to Tillingbourne. Later, Tillingbourne withdrew the 448A and the Peaslake-Ewhurst section of the 448. So it wasn't a random selection of a vacant number as such.

Ah ok, fair enough - I will state that I only started noticing Guildford bus routes from around 1983/84 or so and had never even set foot in Guildford until 1979 !

My assumption is that Tillingbourne had chosen its numbers to provide a unified and consistent numbering system in the area but thanks for the actual explanation.
I'm fairly sure the 448 extended from Peaslake to Cranleigh, or at least Ewhurst, around 1984 but might be wrong.

 

[RT4038]

Ah ok, fair enough - I will state that I only started noticing Guildford bus routes from around 1983/84 or so and had never even set foot in Guildford until 1979 !

My assumption is that Tillingbourne had chosen its numbers to provide a unified and consistent numbering system in the area but thanks for the actual explanation.
I'm fairly sure the 448 extended from Peaslake to Cranleigh, or at least Ewhurst, around 1984 but might be wrong.

LT withdrew from the 448 and 448A after operation on Tuesday 11th August 1964. At the End of November 1965, Tillingbourne withdrew the 448A and the Peaslake-Ewhurst section of 448 (by which time they had discovered LT had bequeathed them a financial lemon!). I don't know about later developments, but of course Cranleigh got bigger and there was all sorts of route changes and retrenchments by the big operators in the late 70s and early 80s.

 

[py_megapixel]

1 to 199 were originally reserved for double deck operated routes and 200 to 299 for single deck. In the immediate pre-war period routes were renumbered if they switched vehicle type but this was abandoned in wartime and not resumed

The firm divide between double-deck and single-deck routes is a curious one in that some places adhere to it very strictly and some don't bother at all.

Some garages seem to like allocating specific batches of buses to specific routes. Sometimes this is for contractual reasons (e.g. London), sometimes because those routes have specific branding (perhaps the most extreme example of that is Trent Barton) and there are probably other reasons I haven't thought of. In that case it's uncommon, although not completely unheard of, for routes to end up with a mixture of single- and double-deckers.

Others seem to run their fleets as one big pool. Most Stagecoach operations seem to work like this. In this case there will obviously still be various considerations re. which particular bus gets put on which particular board (and possibly a few buses which they do still try to keep to specific routes) which will lead to certain patterns emerging, but it is broadly possible for anything in the garage to turn up on any route. In that case, the lines between a "double-deck route" and a "single-deck route" can be blurred quite a lot.

 

[nw1]

LT withdrew from the 448 and 448A after operation on Tuesday 11th August 1964. At the End of November 1965, Tillingbourne withdrew the 448A and the Peaslake-Ewhurst section of 448 (by which time they had discovered LT had bequeathed them a financial lemon!). I don't know about later developments, but of course Cranleigh got bigger and there was all sorts of route changes and retrenchments by the big operators in the late 70s and early 80s.

The 448 was definitely hourly as late as 1984 (in fact it left Guildford on the hour, I remember that) so presumably it attracted enough people to support an hourly service 20-odd years after the initial cutbacks. It served Shere which probably helped, though I think the London Country 425 also did.

I don't think it survived deregulation in its original form (it certainly wasn't the 448) though I have a feeling it was re-routed through Chilworth and Albury (rather than along the A246 through Merrow).

 

[Statto]

The firm divide between double-deck and single-deck routes is a curious one in that some places adhere to it very strictly and some don't bother at all.

Some garages seem to like allocating specific batches of buses to specific routes. Sometimes this is for contractual reasons (e.g. London), sometimes because those routes have specific branding (perhaps the most extreme example of that is Trent Barton) and there are probably other reasons I haven't thought of. In that case it's uncommon, although not completely unheard of, for routes to end up with a mixture of single- and double-deckers.

Others seem to run their fleets as one big pool. Most Stagecoach operations seem to work like this. In this case there will obviously still be various considerations re. which particular bus gets put on which particular board (and possibly a few buses which they do still try to keep to specific routes) which will lead to certain patterns emerging, but it is broadly possible for anything in the garage to turn up on any route. In that case, the lines between a "double-deck route" and a "single-deck route" can be blurred quite a lot.

Speaking of mixed fleet on a route, since the frequency increase, the Stagecoach 1/X1 Liverpool - Chester is now operated by a mix of double & single deck vehicles, Birkenhead allocate deckers whilst Chester allocation is single decks.

 

[nw1]

The firm divide between double-deck and single-deck routes is a curious one in that some places adhere to it very strictly and some don't bother at all.

Some garages seem to like allocating specific batches of buses to specific routes. Sometimes this is for contractual reasons (e.g. London), sometimes because those routes have specific branding (perhaps the most extreme example of that is Trent Barton) and there are probably other reasons I haven't thought of. In that case it's uncommon, although not completely unheard of, for routes to end up with a mixture of single- and double-deckers.

Others seem to run their fleets as one big pool. Most Stagecoach operations seem to work like this. In this case there will obviously still be various considerations re. which particular bus gets put on which particular board (and possibly a few buses which they do still try to keep to specific routes) which will lead to certain patterns emerging, but it is broadly possible for anything in the garage to turn up on any route. In that case, the lines between a "double-deck route" and a "single-deck route" can be blurred quite a lot.

In my experience there are not "double deck routes" and "single deck routes", though some routes are mostly double-deck and others mostly single-deck. Still others are a complete mix.

So for example the Bluestar 1 and 2 are almost completely double-deck, the 15 is almost completely single-deck, the 13 and 14 are mostly single-deck with occasional double-deck journeys, and the 4 is a complete mix.

However, specific workings are, IMX, strictly allocated either a single-decker or a double-decker. So for example, on the Bluestar 14 Southampton-Hedge End, most journeys are single-deck but the 0855, 1155 and 1600 services are currently double-deck (schoolday schedule autumn term 2025). On the 4 to Romsey, which has a complete mix of the two, you'll almost always get a given journey consistently allocated to one of the two. This is consistent, with only occasional exceptions, as can be seen on bustimes.org.

This currently happens with Bluestar and always used to happen with other bus companies whose workings I was familiar with in detail in the past e.g. Alder Valley pre- and post-deregulation, and Badgerline circa 1993/1994.

 

[AWWisher]

@Roger1973. I have no idea about London but now that you mention it, I have seen compulsory bus stops with a notice telling bus drivers to engage low gear. Unfortunately I cannot think of an example at present. Was there one at the north end of Sandsend near Whitby before ascending the bank?

I can't remember the exact locations either but they were quite common on United's routes in North Yorkshire, at the top of the "banks" - Blue Bank, Lythe Bank, Saltburn are some. Not a flag but a wooden board with something like "United. Compulsory Bus Stop. Engage low gear". In my experience, West Yorkshire RCC observed them on joint routes.

 

[IanH440]

I don't whether it was unique to the Isle of Wight but I can remember travelling on a bus from Ryde to St Helens and the bus stopping to pick up and drop off parcels.

I used Ribble in the Lake district in the mid 70's and i can remember parcels being exchanged between routes at Newby Bridge....

 

[RT4038]

The 448 was definitely hourly as late as 1984 (in fact it left Guildford on the hour, I remember that) so presumably it attracted enough people to support an hourly service 20-odd years after the initial cutbacks. It served Shere which probably helped, though I think the London Country 425 also did.

I don't think it survived deregulation in its original form (it certainly wasn't the 448) though I have a feeling it was re-routed through Chilworth and Albury (rather than along the A246 through Merrow).

The joint service was basically two per hour (with peak extras and 'duplicates') with LT and Tillingbourne taking alternate departures, but not exactly half hourly because certain trips were extended to Ewhurst (13 minutes beyond Peaslake). A couple of mid morning departures had been reduced to Saturdays only, so for two hours there was only one departure per hour. In the Nov 65 alterations the Guildford-Peaslake service was reduced to every 45 minutes.

 

[gg1]

Route numbering in London was at one time logical as many on here will know.
From the depths of my memory :
1-200 central London (red) bus routes;
200-299 a mixture of central london (red) bus routes and previous trolleybus routes (eg 629 became 269);
300-399 north of London country services;
400-499 south of London country services;
500 -599 these were mostly central London Red Arrow services but there may have been others;
600-699 trolleybus routes (often the numbering followed the bus route, so 629 followed the 29 route);
700-799 Green Line Coaches;
800-899 I seem to recall these were country area express services? These may fall into the definition of quirky.
I don't remember any 9xx routes;
Night buses were prefixed by N (eg N29) but they didn't always have the same route as the daytime numbered route.

Similarly with West Midlands (excluding Coventry which had it's own numbering system) buses
1-199 - Birmingham & Solihull
200-299 - Dudley
300-399 - Walsall
400-499 - Sandwell
500-599 - Wolverhampton
600-699 - Minibus served routes across the whole area
700-799 - Schools services/specials
800-899 - Not sure, I don't recall ever seeing any so may not have been used at all
900-999 - limited stop services

In their wisdom National Express West Midlands decided to drop this system 10-15 years ago by dropping the first number from the Dudley, Walsall, Sandwell and Wolverhampton services, so the 404 became 4. The problem of course is many routes crossed boundaries (like the aforementioned 404 which passed through Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley) so you ended up with the situation of multiple buses in the same area sharing the same number but covering totally different routes. IIRC some numbers had to be changed where there were two buses with the same number serving different but overlapping routes.

 

[nw1]

Similarly with West Midlands (excluding Coventry which had it's own numbering system) buses
1-199 - Birmingham & Solihull
200-299 - Dudley
300-399 - Walsall
400-499 - Sandwell
500-599 - Wolverhampton
600-699 - Minibus served routes across the whole area
700-799 - Schools services/specials
800-899 - Not sure, I don't recall ever seeing any so may not have been used at all
900-999 - limited stop services

In their wisdom National Express West Midlands decided to drop this system 10-15 years ago by dropping the first number from the Dudley, Walsall, Sandwell and Wolverhampton services, so the 404 became 4. The problem of course is many routes crossed boundaries (like the aforementioned 404 which passed through Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley) so you ended up with the situation of multiple buses in the same area sharing the same number but covering totally different routes. IIRC some numbers had to be changed where there were two buses with the same number serving different but overlapping routes.

There do seem to be two schools of thought about clashing route numbers from the same bus company.

Clashes could of course produce genuine confusion if e.g. two route 4s operate in the same area, but also to my mind there's something awfully messy about the same bus brand operating duplicate numbers (I say brand, not company - I obviously have no problem with Bluestar and More operating the same numbered services, for example, because as well as being in different areas they are entirely different brands).

Probably just a personal idiosyncrasy of mine - but it does appear that NBC and early privatisation adopted the "no clashes" philosophy within a given brand so there must have been something in it!

 

[Mark L]

Route numbering in London was at one time logical as many on here will know.
From the depths of my memory :
1-200 central London (red) bus routes;
200-299 a mixture of central london (red) bus routes and previous trolleybus routes (eg 629 became 269);
300-399 north of London country services;
400-499 south of London country services;
500 -599 these were mostly central London Red Arrow services but there may have been others;
600-699 trolleybus routes (often the numbering followed the bus route, so 629 followed the 29 route);
700-799 Green Line Coaches;
800-899 I seem to recall these were country area express services? These may fall into the definition of quirky.
I don't remember any 9xx routes;
Night buses were prefixed by N (eg N29) but they didn't always have the same route as the daytime numbered route.

The numbering of London's bus routes probably deserves a thread of its own (if it's not already been covered).

The list above broadly sums up the post 1934 system when the newly created LPTB renumbered most of its bus routes. It replaced the Bassom scheme that had been introduced in 1924. A few caveats though (and I'm only scratching the surface)...I'll beg forgiveness for wandering slightly from quirkyness.

Single deck routes were initially numbered from 200 up to 252 in the central area - at the time single deck buses were generally only used on routes where it was not physically possible to opererate a double decker. Night only services were numbered down from 299. Green Line services were lettered and trolleybus routes numbered in the 500 and 600 blocks - any similarity to parallel bus routes was coincidence. Most tram routes were not touched - this meant that several numbers were duplicated (there were three tram route 7s for example) and there were cases where bus and tram routes had the same number. Some, for example, the 54 and 68 ran along the same stretches of road for short distances. Some of the tram operations acquired had not used route numbers so LT gave then numbers but even here they duplicated bus route numbers! The Dartford to Woolwich tram route became the 96, for example, a number used by a bus linking Putney Common and Wanstead. As tram routes were converetd to trolleybus they were renumbered - the 96 became trolleybus route 696. For those interested in the 1934 renumbering there is a lot of detail in LOTS SUP20 which can be found online here - https://www.ltsv.com/lots/pdfs/SUP20.pdf

Green Line services were withdrawn durign the war. although they made a brief reappearence (and used numbers). When they resumed in 1946 they took numbers upwards from 701. As the remaining trams were withdrawn after the war they used gaps in the central area sequence of 1 - 199 although two tram routes (the 48 and 70) were able to adopt gaps that already existed. Post war new towns led to a need for additional services in the country area - as the 300/400 series was largely exhausted numbers in the 800s were used, mostly for town services. North of the Thames these were 800 upwards and south of the river from 851. Route 803 was an express service between Welwyn Garden City and Uxbridge. This partly followed the route that would have been taken by Green Line 719 (Windsor - Luton via Watford), an orbital service that never saw the light of day. There was also a Sunday only limited stop 804 that linked Hemel Hempstead and Harefield Hospital but thjis didn't last long.

The once rigid split between double and single deck route numbering in the central area had begun to break down during the war but it gained pace afterwards. After the bus strike of 1958 there were major service cuts and a number of withdrawals took place. Some of the vacant numbers were used for trolleybus replacement routes (eg the 696 became the 96 - thus reverting to the number given to the former tram route - and the 685 was partly replaced by new route 58). Other numbers had been freed up by a renumbering of night bus services in 1960 into the now familar N series. The bus reshaping plan of the mid-1960s ushered in prefixed routes and saw a return to numbers in the 500s but that, and the more recent use of the 300 and 400 series for red buses, is for another day!

A few recent recent numbering schemes are worth noting though. TfL applies numbers in the 800s for a number of special services that run under London Service Permits. Some schoolday services are in the 600s and short term routes have taken numbers in the 500s (and sometimes in the 700s). The 900s were used for mobility bus routes from the 1980s onwards. Ony one remains - the 969 which provides a single return journey on Tuesdays and Fridays between Whitton and Roehampton - hopefully that gets me back on topic with a quirky route!

 

[Statto]

Merseyside was quite weird for number system, MPTE kept most of the old Municipal system, but did make a couple of major changes on the Wirral, firstly, late 70s they renumbered the Crosville routes from the F series into a series between 72 & 89, as MPTE streamlined the Wirral network,, then in 1985 renumbered some services (those going through Moreton) into a series between 33 & 45, but until deregulation the system was

1 to 99 local services, in Liverpool the routes were 1 to 49 tram, 50 & above motorbus routes
1xx & above (including C & L series) Ribble services
4xx Rapidride services, these were routes had stops at ether end but had a non stop express section, like the SL6 in London
Cxx, Fxx, Hxx, Jxx, Crosville services
Xxx express services

Crosville had there own numbers in an alpha system which they introduced in 1959.

After deregulation the number system was kept, but the Crosville series gradually renumbered away from the alpha system as the successors renumbered services.

After they bought MTL Arriva changed the number system to the one they operate today, as Arriva computers at the time couldn't handle duplicate numbers, so you had the confusing scenario at first with the old 75 renumbered to 15, & 35 to 75, at first it doesn't make any sense but the logic was 15 being grouped with 12/13/18 along West Derby Road, & new 75 grouped with 76 & 78 to Halewood.

 

[Acathater]

One curiosity of the several historic independent companies serving the South Somerset / Yeovil area was that not one used route numbers.
Buses showed just destination only
Companies affected included
Safeway
Hutchings & Cornelius
Pearce, Darch & Wilcox
Wakes
Brutonian
Bere Regis
Yeovilian (Kingston Coaches)

 

[D6130]

One curiosity of the several historic independent companies serving the South Somerset / Yeovil area was that not one used route numbers.
Buses showed just destination only
Companies affected included
Safeway
Hutchings & Cornelius
Pearce, Darch & Wilcox
Wakes
Brutonian
Bere Regis
Yeovilian (Kingston Coaches)

Likewise Garelochhead Coach Services, of fond memory. They had four or five different stage carriage routes, but no route numbers....only a single line destination display.

 

[Mark L]

Merseyside was quite weird for number system, MPTE kept most of the old Municipal system, but did make a couple of major changes on the Wirral, firstly, late 70s they renumbered the Crosville routes from the F series into a series between 72 & 89, as MPTE streamlined the Wirral network,, then in 1985 renumbered some services (those going through Moreton) into a series between 33 & 45, but until deregulation the system was

1 to 99 local services, in Liverpool the routes were 1 to 49 tram, 50 & above motorbus routes
1xx & above (including C & L series) Ribble services
4xx Rapidride services, these were routes had stops at ether end but had a non stop express section, like the SL6 in London
Cxx, Fxx, Hxx, Jxx, Crosville services
Xxx express services

Crosville had there own numbers in an alpha system which they introduced in 1959.

After deregulation the number system was kept, but the Crosville series gradually renumbered away from the alpha system as the successors renumbered services.

After they bought MTL Arriva changed the number system to the one they operate today, as Arriva computers at the time couldn't handle duplicate numbers, so you had the confusing scenario at first with the old 75 renumbered to 15, & 35 to 75, at first it doesn't make any sense but the logic was 15 being grouped with 12/13/18 along West Derby Road, & new 75 grouped with 76 & 78 to Halewood.

There is a good summary of Crosville's route numbering systems here - https://www.crosville.org/Route-Numbering - it notes that there were 13 variants of some service numbers prior to the 1959 renumbering.