Red Arrow: April 1966 - April 2023.
As you'd have known, the last two died on 29 April 2023; routes 507 and 521.
Red Arrow, an experiment; flat fare limited stop feeder services; that started in the 1960s with only route 500 (Victoria - Marble Arch - Oxford Circus [off-peak]).
With it's success, more services sprawled from 1968. Routes had frequencies of every 2-3 minutes during the peaks, though were mostly quiet during the off-peak, effectively wasted resources.
Attempts tried in the 1980s to address this problem, by giving routes weekend services and the like, to some success one could optimistically say (looking at 507).
Which partly explains how most died off before the end of the 20th century, with only three surviving in the 21st.
As the British economy changed, some workplaces moving elsewhere, we found ourselves in the mid 90s with only the 501 505 507 521.
The 507 and 521 were still very strong, right until 2020.
Covid.
More now than ever, a complete change of balance with working. Work from home is commonplace, though not an end-all-be-all. It has heavily impacted many. For our relevance, this resulted in heavy drops in frequency on our remaining 507 and 521.
All in all:
Routes 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 513 521 existed.
Now: none.
Their sections live on under daily routes.
Who killed them...?
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