London Buses route 20

20
20
	Blue Triangle Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TL at Debden station in April 2012
Overview
Operator	London General
Garage	Northumberland Park (NP)
Vehicle	Volvo B9TL 10.4m / Wright Eclipse Gemini 2
Peak vehicle requirement	10
Night-time	No night service
Route
Start	Walthamstow Central station
Via	Leyton; Woodford Green; Buckhurst Hill; Loughton
End	Debden station
Length	10 miles (16 km)
Service
Level	Daily
Frequency	15-30 minutes
Journey time	34-53 minutes
Operates	05:30 until 01:00

London Buses route 20 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Walthamstow Central and Debden stations, it is operated by London General.

History

Route 20 commenced operating on 7 September 1968 as a replacement for route 38A from Loughton to Leyton with an extension to the newly opened Walthamstow Central station on the Victoria line. At the time of its introduction, there were already two other routes in the Loughton area with 20 numbers, the 20A and 20B. As the new route ran parallel with the 20A for many miles, the new route was numbered 20.

In 1986, the route was tendered out to Eastern National after Loughton garage closed, with their CityBus subsidiary operating the route from a base in Walthamstow. Upon being re-tendered on 7 March 1992 the route passed to Grey-Green's Barking garage. Between 1 June 1998 and 9 March 2002, Capital Citybus (later First London) operated the school journeys from Northumberland Park and later Hackney garages.

On 26 April 2003, the route was converted to low-floor operation. When the contract was renewed on 24 March 2007, the route was moved to Edmonton.^[1]^[2]

Upon being re-tendered, on route 20 passed to Blue Triangle. On 22 June 2013, the route was transferred to fellow Go-Ahead London subsidiary London General's Northumberland Park garage.^[3]

Vehicles

The route first started using AEC Regent III RT. These were replaced with Daimler Fleetlines until about the early 1980s, when the route started using Leyland Nationals and Leyland Titans. When Eastern National took over after the closure of Loughton garage in 1985, they used Leyland Nationals and Bristol VRs. Cowie Group then took over using new Alexander ALX200s and Volvo Olympians.

In 2003, new Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B7TLs were introduced to the route. These were replaced with older Alexander ALX400 bodied DAF DB250LFs in March 2007.^[1] On 24 March 2012, new Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TLs were introduced.

Current route

References

^ ^a ^b Aldridge, John (June 2007). "Changed types raise hackles down Debden way". Buses (627). Ian Allan Publishing: 21.
^ Bus tender results Route 20 Transport for London 6 July 2006
^ http://www.londonbusroutes.net/changes.htm#5579

External links

Media related to London Buses route 20 at Wikimedia Commons
London Bus Routes gallery
Timetable

[Buses-1] Aldridge, John (June 2007). "Changed types raise hackles down Debden way". Buses (627). Ian Allan Publishing: 21.

[2] Bus tender results Route 20 Transport for London 6 July 2006

[3] ttp://www.londonbusroutes.net/changes.htm#5579

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