London buses one bus at a time: the return: The Number 416 Route (Not)

Sunday, 28 October 2012

The Number 416 Route (Not)

There have been some 416s – in the Sixtes they were green and ran round between Esher to Boxhill (according to E-plates) and then again London Bus Routes has an archived time-table for a route closer to London, and which would certainly fit in with our recent trips, in that it went (up till 31/7/2006) from Kingston to Stanwell Moor, which is close to both the M25 and Heathrow. Stanwell Moor is only just outside the Zone 6/TFL limit and certainly not as far away as Dorking, where we were only this week, but ‘ours not to reason why’ and doubtless some better informed follower or traveller will let us know…

In the meantime there follows a small selection of European buses. Overseas bus travel has the added thrill of not quite knowing where you are and not always understanding the announcements when you hear them. The Caen route had a destination indicator which also gave estimated times of arrival at each stop, which I thought pretty neat. The Berlin bus had upstairs windscreen wipers, which is very considerate for the passengers. Those of you (any of you?) nostalgic for the Bendy or articulated bus, last seen in London just over a year ago, will be pleased to see they live on in Mainz. Good on the straight routes (in which case you might as well have a tram) a menace round corners; they do accommodate many passengers and with various doors are quick to empty and fill. All of them have far slower and more arcane ways of paying than the Oyster or other passes and you really appreciate how these speed things along.

Nothing, of course, is quite as cheery as a bright red bus.