X68 Bus Route (London)

[D_Sims97]

Can anyone explain to me how and why there is only one return journey and 1 one-way journey to and from Russell Square, Southampton Row, Waterloo West Croydon and West Norwood?

For comparison it's more complicated than the 969 is.

 

[JonathanH]

There are 12 journeys in each direction, operating in the peak flow direction.

https://bustimes.org/services/x68-west-croydon-west-norwood-russell-square-limit

The point of the bus is to provide a fast peak flow service to London (beyond Elephant & Castle) from Upper Norwood following the split of the former 68 route into overlapping 68 / 468 routes, from an area which is further away from the rail network than typically the case.

The buses interwork with other routes, in particular the 188, but also others.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

I'm slightly confused - bustimes.org says there are in fact 12 departures on the X68 in each direction.

If you're asking why there are only northbound departures in the morning and southbound departures in the evening, I expect it's something to do with commuter flows from South London into Central London.

Edit: Beaten to it by a split second (with a much better explanation!)

 

[Busaholic]

It is the only London bus route that doesn't run to a strict routeing. Between Upper Norwood and the Elephant buses may take one of two routeings, though in practice even they can be varied. I hasten to add the alternative routeings are over the non-stop section, but you could get the situation where bus b gets to its terminus before bus a without physically passing it.

 

[Statto]

X68 started in 1986, when the 68 used to operate through to South Croydon.

The original idea behind the X68 was to take the pressure from the 68 loadings for those commuting to Central London with a faster express version of the 68, as most of the section of the route from West Norwood to Selhurst via Beulah Hill is a long way from the nearest rail station, buses on X68 are often full.

As said the non stop is such so it can go on a couple of different routes, i think the Brixton route is quicker than going via Camberwell & Walworth Road, the Brixton route the X68 follows is, the 2 from West Norwood to Brixton, then the 59 all the way to Russell Square

 

[Roger1973]

yes, there were a few express routes aimed at commuters started in the 80s (I think the 177 Express from Thamesmead was the first* and the X15 from Beckton probably the most noticed by enthusiasts as it returned RMCs to passenger service.)

Combination of traffic congestion, other transport modes becoming available, and the economics of having buses that are only earning for 2 or 3 hours a day killed most of them off... Think the X68 is the last of that generation of routes.

(* of course there was a previous generation of 'express' versions of some LT bus routes, think the last of them ended in the 1970s, but that's maybe a tangent)