London Banter - View Single Post - Why Green Line routes numbers start with 700

[email protected] · January 26th 16, 09:18 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , ine (Bryan
Morris) wrote:

On numbering BTW , with trams the notation was even-numbered
services south of the Thames and odd-numbered ones north of the River
.When trolley buses replaced trams the numbers were preceded by 5 or 6

Up to a point Lord Copper! Those route numbering rules were for the LCC
network. And South London had a few odd-numbered routes which traversed the
Kingsway Tram Tunnel linking the two sides of the system. There were some
even-numbered routes which crossed Putney Bridge to the north side of the
Thames. An odd-numbered route 89 that was jointly operated with LUT also
crossed Putney Bridge.

The combine (LUT, MET & SMET) and other municipal operator routes didn't
follow those numbering rules and after the establishment of the LPTB in 1933
there was quite a bit of duplication. The Uxbridge Road LUT route 7 had
three duplicates in East London only reduced to two after limited
renumbering. That was one reason why trolleybuses had routes in the 5xx and
6xx series. The 655 trolleybus which crossed Putney Bridge was based on an
LUT route 55 tram extended to replace the 89. The 555 was in East London
replacing a 55 tram route run jointly by the LCC and Leyton UDC. In general
6xx routes were in West London and 5xx routes in the east. The main
exception were some route pairs going opposite ways round terminating loops
north of central London (where no tram or trolleybuses ever penetrated). An
example was the 521 & 621 pair from North Finchley to the Holborn loop via
Farringdon Road and Gray's Inn Road. There was several other such pairs
using the Holborn loop. This was because a tramway could come to an end as a
terminus with trams using a crossover to reverse on the same route while
trolleybuses had to run round loops so the ends of tram routes were
connected up with new wiring to form loops in the conversion programme.

--
Colin Rosenstiel