8 Things You Didn't Know About London Buses

1.)  Why are the buses red?

Before 1907, buses were painted in different colours to signify their route. Due to fierce competition between bus companies, London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) – which became the biggest bus operator in the capital – painted their fleet of buses red in order to stand out from the competition. After encouragement from the Metropolitan Police they also introduced numbers on the buses to signify different routes

2) The Knight Bus was commissioned in 1865

Well, at least that's what J.K. Rowling would have you believe. The bus seen in the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was constructed using three RT-Class AEC Regent III buses. It is summoned by sticking your wand in the air, as a muggle might hail a taxi. The service is generally used by wizards who are underage or infirm. Hot chocolate is available for the sum of thirteen sickles and there are many beds on which to rest a wizard's head.

3.) How long does a bus driver train for?

Bus drivers must obtain a Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC). This involves completing three tests: a theory and hazard perception, a case study and demonstration, and a practical driving. It takes around 55 hours of practical training for a bus driver to pass.

4.) It is possible to track every bus in London

TfL currently uses GPS tracking to provide customers with real-time information of the next bus arrival. This information has been put into an accessible map which allows users to track every single bus in London. Before buses were equipped with GPS, Transport for London used a system called Bus Electronic Scanning Indicator (BESI). BESI scanned barcodes on buses, which let operators know where each bus was, giving an overall view of the route.

5.) A competition found the new London bus design

In his 2008 election campaign, Boris Johnson vowed to bring the Routemaster back to London. The design of the bus was subject to a competition, with international design companies submitting entries. The winning designs were chosen, altered slightly, and in 2010 the final design was unveiled

6) London is haunted by a phantom double-decker

Last spotted in 1990, the phantom number seven bus appears in Cambridge Gardens (W10) at 1.15 am. People have reported the bus driving towards them in the middle of the road, with no lights and no one at the wheel. Convinced they are about to collide with the bus, drivers often swerve out of the way, only to look back and find the bus has vanished without a trace. The phantom bus has even claimed the lives of some, most notably in 1934 when a car burst into flames at the exact spot the bus is regularly sighted.

7.) Two iconic Routemasters are still in use

The Routemaster bus is symbolic of London but this couldn’t save them from being withdrawn from service on 9th December 2005. They were replaced with easy access low-floor buses. However two Routemasters are still in use today on heritage routes. These are Route 9 from Kensington High Street to Aldwych and Route 15 from Trafalgar Square to Tower Hill.

8.)The Roundel logo

In 1912 LGOC became part of the Underground Group, uniting bus services and the underground railway. A roundel symbol which combined the LGOC’s ‘winged wheel’ and the Underground’s ‘bar and circle’ was introduced on maps and used as the company logo. This symbol was designed to help passengers distinguish travel information from commercial advertising.

Moorgate, also known as London Moorgate, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station on Moorgate in the City of London. Weekday mainline railway services for Hertford, Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth are operated by Great Northern, while the Underground station is served by the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Northern lines.

The station was opened in 1865 by the Metropolitan Railway. In 1900 the City & South London Railway added the station to its network, under the name Moorgate Street, and the Great Northern & City Railway began serving the station in 1904. In 1975 it was the site of the Moorgate tube crash in which 43 people were killed—the worst accident in the history of the London Underground

Sub surface platforms

The Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines of the Underground system all use platforms 1 and 2, which are through platforms. For turning trains back at busy times, there are platforms 3 and 4 which are west-facing bays. Adjacent to these are platforms 5 and 6 of the former Thameslink trains service from Bedford and Luton. These are disused following the closure of the Moorgate branch from Farringdon junction as part of the Thameslink programme.

Deep level tube platforms

The Northern line of the Underground uses platforms 7 and 8, which are in a deep-level tube section of the station.

Deep level main line platforms

National Rail services on the Northern City Line use platforms 9 and 10, which are terminal platforms. Weekday train services run via the East Coast Main Line to Welwyn Garden City, and to Hertford North, Stevenage, Hitchin or Letchworth.

Moorgate was my first Deep tube station.

Not knowing what it look like at first, I use three colours for the tiles on the computer, white, green and dark green, then  I added signage and logos to finish the foreground.

 

 

 

 

 

The street level was based on one photo. By cropping, editing and add new street signage.  It ended up looking better than the real station photo.
 

Printing and gluing to the base board I cut out the window and left them as a signal  printed sheet. Once lit from behind it gave a great night time look.

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Russell Square is a London Underground station on Bernard Street, Bloomsbury in the London Borough of Camden. The station is on the Piccadilly line, between Holborn and King's Cross St Pancras and is in Travel card Zone 1. It is a small but busy station, often used by office workers and by tourists who are staying in Bloomsbury's numerous hotels or visiting the British Museum.

Russell Square Station is not far from the British Museum, the University of London's main campus, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Russell Square Gardens. Its location is adjacent to the Brunswick Centre

 

Russell Square station has three lifts and are all fifty-passenger lifts built by Wadsworth. However, there are no escalators but the platforms can still be reached using a spiral staircase with 171 steps. It is said that the signs at the station indicate an incorrect number of steps, which is 175 steps

 



















The 1973 Tube Stock is a class of deep-level train that operates on the Piccadilly line of the London Underground. It was introduced into service in 1975 coinciding with the extension of the line to Hatton Cross in 1975, followed by Heathrow Central in 1977

The London Bus  is one of London's principal icons, the archetypal red rear-entrance Routemaster being recognized worldwide.

The New Routemaster, originally referred to as the New Bus for London, and colloquially as the Borisbus or Borismaster (a portmanteau of the name of the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson who drove their introduction, and that of the AEC Routemaster that they were designed to replace) is a hybrid diesel-electric bus operated in London. Designed by Heatherwick Studio, it is manufactured by Wrightbus, and is notable for featuring a "hop-on hop-

off" rear open platform similar to the original Routemaster bus design, but updated to meet requirements for modern buses to be fully accessible. The first bus entered service on 27 February 2012.

The original AEC Routemaster was a standard London bus type with a rear open platform and crewed by both a driver and conductor. It was withdrawn from service (except for two heritage routes) at the end of 2005 by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, in favour of a
fully accessible one-person-operated modern fleet, none of which featured a rear open platform. The withdrawal of the Routemaster became an issue of the 2008 London mayoral election, and Boris Johnson was subsequently elected mayor, with one of his campaign pledges being to
introduce a new Routemaster. Following an open design competition in 2008, Wrightbus was awarded the contract to build the bus at the end of 2009, and the final design was announced in May 2010.

The design for the new bus features three doors and

two staircases to allow accessible boarding. Unlike the original Routemaster, the new bus has a conventional full front end and a rear platform that can be closed when not needed, rather than the protruding, bonneted 'half cab' design and permanently open platform. The layout of the new bus allows it to be operated by one person at off-peak times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

The High Street   is a metonym for the concept (and frequently the street name) of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. To distinguish it from "centre" of nearby places it is frequently preceded unofficially by the name of its settlement. In a town it implies the focal point for business, especially shops and street stalls (if any) in town and city centre.

As a generic shorthand presupposed upon linear settlements it may be used to denote more precise concepts such as the urban retail sector, town centre sectors of employment, all small shops and services outlets and even wider concepts taking in social concepts. The smallest High Street in Britain is located in a small market town in Devon called Holsworthy. The street itself is no more than 100 yards long and there are only three shops located on Holsworthy's High Street.

High Street is the most common street name in the UK, which according to a 2009 statistical compilation has 5,410 High Streets, 3,811 Station Roads and 2,702 Main Streets.