London Bus Route Series: The three

This is one of the few major routes that enter Central London. Let me start with it's routeing. It starts from the green torched palace, yes Crystal Palace, to Oxford Circus via Croxted Road, Herne Hill, Brixton, Kennington, Lambeth Bridge, Parliament Square (for Westminster), Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. Running via the quiet ends of the South to the busy zone of London. And it has a night service too. Which runs from Bromley North to Oxford Circus, running via Bromley South, The Glades Shopping Centre, Beckenham, Penge, Anerley then via 3 to Oxford Circus from Crystal Palace.

This is also one of my favourite Abellio routes. Operated by Abellio London from Queenstown Battersea (QB) with E40H 10.2m Alexander Dennis Enviro400 hybrid buses (allocated 2414-2437 with 2438-2444 from 211 as ultra common workings). 

The hybrids look like this:

A 2437 (SN61CYX) on 3 towards Crystal Palace, sorry for the poor picture

A packed one this time, on a school PM peak, the 3 doesn't cope well in the South at peaks, merely at all. 2421 (SN61CYA) tries to let off a few schoolkids at the 'Aleyn Road' bus stop. There was a few people too. Who weren't allowed to board due to the bus being packed to the brim.

It has a PVR of 22 and frequency of 7-8 minutes Monday to Fridays, with Saturday frequency being 10-12 minutes and Sunday with 12-14. And evenings being 12-15 minutes. I do know the 3 very well so I do know the timetable a bit better.

Timetable link is here: http://londonbusroutes.net/times/003N003.htm

And the full N3 timetable is here: http://londonbusroutes.net/times/N003.htm 

Now let's go through the history of the route, shall we?

The 3 started running on the 1st of November 1908 running from Brixton Station to South Croydon. 18 days later on the 19th, it was altered on both ends to run Oxford Circus to South Croydon Sugar & Swan. Continuing on from April 1909, it was extended on Sundays to Purley from South Croydon Sugar & Swan, then to Whyteleaf by August the same year.

The following month saw the route being cut from Streatham to Whyteleaf and extended from Oxford Circus to Camden Town. This route did seem much of a today's 109 route running Streatham to Camden Town.

By Easter 1910, the route was then extended to Hampstead Heath (from Camden Town, plausibly via today's 24). Following March the same year, the route then saw a major reconstruction. Being amended to run Brixton George Canning to Hampstead Heath thus not serving parts of the original route (south of Brixton).

Two years later on 16th of June, the 3 was then converted to a Monday to Saturday only service, with an introduced 59 partly compensating.

Then on the 11th May 1913, a new daily route 3A was introduced running from Crystal Palace to Camden Town via today's 3 and C2 (or original 3). This happened to be the same until 17th of July 1913 when both routes swapped numbers and became daily services.

Following the start of the World War I in August 1914, the 3A was withdrawn due to an economy measure, but was reintroduced in October the same year. The 3 was extended from Crystal Palace to Upper Norwood the following month (after 3A's reintroduction in October). By the end of the World War I, the 3A was completely withdrawn. But not for good as there was another 3A introduced, but let's stay on history slowly and not jump into the later years that quickly. Also, 3 ran from Camden Town to Crystal Palace as a further note.

On the 1st of December 1924, there was a new system of route numbering on London buses came into force under The London Traffic Act of 1924. And as a result to that, the short workings on 3 running Camden Town to Brixton, were renumbered 3A. This occurred until 3 October 1934 when all 3A journeys were renumbered 3 again.

Just before the outbreak of the second World War, route 3 was replaced on Sundays by a new 3A which ran from Edgware to Crystal Palace via Mill Hill, Hendon, Swiss Cottage, Baker Street, Oxford Circus then via 3 to Crystal Palace. This 3A was withdrawn on the 15th of October 1939 as a wartime economy. The origin and main route 3, was returned to daily 7-day operation service remaining unchanged (in terms of routeing) for the next 40 years.

Then in the early 1980s, the residents of Parliament Hill successfully campained for a route to the West End, of which the 3 was extended to Parliament Hill Fields on Monday to Saturdays only from Camden Town from 26 April 1981. But from 27 October 1984, the 3 was cut back to Oxford Circus with route 53 being extended over to replace. Of which then C2 was made to replace that section of 53 then.

On 2 January 1993 it became one man operated with the AEC Routemasters replaced by 24 Optare Spectra bodied DAF DB250s until 1999, when upon being tendered, the contract to operate the route passed from London Central to Connex, who introduced Alexander ALX400 bodied Dennis Trident 2 low-floor vehicles.

Route 3 was included in the sale of Connex to Travel London in February 2004 which in turn was sold to Abellio London in May 2009.

After that, upon contract retain in February 2012, the route received E40H 10.2m Alexander Dennis Enviro400 hybrid buses with a new timetable. With the 51reg Tridents it had, being displaced onto 350 for it's double decker conversion.

Soon after when C3's buses were ordered upon it's contract retain, a few of those 14reg strayed on the 3. I do apologise for the low quality photos, but as they say. Better than nothing.

Abellio London 2455 (SL14DDO) driver changing at St. Mark's Church

The same bus arriving at the Church Approach bus stop.

I hope you enjoyed my long post, and this is the first of a few London Bus Routes posts. Expect some more! And also a Dodrecht bus post, which will be tiringly long I guess. But do check the blog often for more good posts!

Abellio London 2421 (SN61CYA) approaching Church Approach with the wrong blind display, the bus is heading for Oxford Circus, not Crystal Palace.

The finishing touch now! A ride on the 3, 2416 (SN61DGZ): https://www.flickr.com/photos/122132542@N02/14180943540/in/set-72157646704601848/ I cannot bother to upload it on Blogger as it will take time. There was this long post. I hope you enjoyed it! Keep your eyes open for some more good posts!