Weird TFL route W1

[Mgameing123]

Hi I was just playing around with google maps and i just spotted this weird W1 route: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Railway+Station/@51.5239522,-0.6826632,509m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x487664bad330f7b3:0x414491eca6a2b4d4!2sCrosthwaite+Way,+Slough,+UK!3b1!8m2!3d51.5256941!4d-0.6505731!16s/g/1tcwl1g2!3m5!1s0x4876634627ef1e93:0x5a569b19303fa7f7!8m2!3d51.523602!4d-0.681611!16s/g/11hvmj__q_?entry=ttu

Then I searched it and I find this unofficial site also showing this route: https://transitapp.com/en/region/london/tfl/bus-w1

Does anyone know if this is real or not?

 

[Man of Kent]

Hi I was just playing around with google maps and i just spotted this wierd W1 route: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Railway+Station/@51.5239522,-0.6826632,509m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x487664bad330f7b3:0x414491eca6a2b4d4!2sCrosthwaite+Way,+Slough,+UK!3b1!8m2!3d51.5256941!4d-0.6505731!16s/g/1tcwl1g2!3m5!1s0x4876634627ef1e93:0x5a569b19303fa7f7!8m2!3d51.523602!4d-0.681611!16s/g/11hvmj__q_?entry=ttu

Then I searched it and I find this unofficial site also showing this route: https://transitapp.com/en/region/london/tfl/bus-w1

Does anyone know if this is real or not?

Appears to be an Elizabeth Line rail replacement service.

W1 - Slough - Burnham - Taplow - Maidenhead

Replacement Service

bustimes.org

 

[sonic2009]

Usually associated with engineering work on the slow national rail lines between Reading and London.

 

[Deerfold]

That service seems to have run evenings and weekends pretty much forever - I don't know how much engineering work that line needs, but it seems to be a lot (I lived between Burnham and Taplow stations 2001-2004 and did the trip many times, going past our house to Taplow station and walking 20 minutes back along exactly the same route). There are no platforms on the fast lines at Burnham and, particularly annoyingly, the ones at Taplow have been deemed unsafe to use.

(Quoted service W1 runs Slough - Burnham - Taplow - Maidenhead every 30 minutes from 2053 to 2353 from Slough, 2045 to 2345 from Maidenhead Monday 17 - Wednesday 19 July 2023).

Later services run between Slough and Taplow, but are officially Great Western Rail services, not Elizabeth Line services. They are on realtimetrains.com but not bustimes.org (e.g. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:V36525/2023-07-18/detailed)

 

[JonathanH]

Does the fact that it is a timetabled TfL service mean that Contactless fares are charged (where someone doesn't have a paper ticket)?

 

[Non Multi]

Does the fact that it is a timetabled TfL service mean that Contactless fares are charged (where someone doesn't have a paper ticket)?

Touch in and out at the open station gatelines/platform validators as per usual. Drivers don't ask you to tap in as you board when it's a TfL replacement bus.

Whilst TfL usually hire in buses from TfL bus depots for the W1, those that aren't won't have TfL's ticket machinery.

 

[JonathanH]

Drivers don't ask you to tap in as you board when it's a TfL replacement bus.

While that is generally the case, there have been some cases recently of replacement buses being integrated into the bus network.

See below.

diamond geezer

diamondgeezer.blogspot.com

London has three new bus routes - the 718, the 719 and the 720.
Proper bus routes, if temporary.

718: Queens Park to Harrow & Wealdstone
719: Queens Park to Wembley Park
720: Harrow-on-the-Hill to Watford Junction

<snip>

By making them proper bus routes with proper route numbers TfL can charge fares and so recoup some of their considerable outlay.