Decker Trial

The 235's recent escapade inspired me...

A trial for single deck routes to use 2 or 3 double decker buses and monitor if usage has increased.

I would argue this has very much happened with route 355, its usage did increase by a notable margin. The 355 was allocated 4 double deckers due to the fire at Orpington (MB) which killed four of 358's buses.

95 is FULLY allocated hybrid double deckers temporarily... watching its usage next year would be interesting.

Would then be horrible to watch it return to fully single deck operation... again (yes this happened under First).

This would surely make a great experiment.
Route 308 used to be single deck. Had a double decker allocated. Before you know it, it became a fully double decker route.

All single deck routes to have 2-3 DDs allocated

List of busiest single decker bus routes in 2024/25. Copied from this thread on The Bus Forum.

1. Route 235 - 4.99 million (=)

2. Route C10 - 4.85 million (=)

3. Route 195 - 4.83 million (=)

4. Route 170 - 4.34 million (+2)

5. Route 316 - 4.20 million (=)

6. Route W15 - 4.13 million (-2)

7. Route 214 - 4.08 million (+1)

8. Route 366 - 3.96 million (-1)

9. Route 112 - 3.84 million (=)

10. Route 33 - 3.56 million (+4)

11. Route 358 - 3.56 million (-1)

12. Route C11 - 3.55 million (+1)

13. Route 450 - 3.51 million (-2)

14. Route 46 - 3.49 million (+1)

15. Route 493 - 3.44 million (+1)

16. Route 276 - 3.36 million (-4)

17. Route 490 - 3.30 million (+1)

18. Route 108 - 3.23 million (-1)

19. Route H37 - 3.19 million (+2)

20. Route 70 - 3.13 million (=)

21. Route D6 - 3.11 million (+1)

22. Route 410 - 3.07 million (+2)

23. Route 364 - 3.03 million (+9)

24. Route 236 - 3.02 million (-5)

25. Route 39 - 2.99 million (+5)

26. Route E6 - 2.99 million (-3)

27. Route 226 - 2.96 million (+1)

28. Route 164 - 2.96 million (+5)

29. Route 184 - 2.96 million (-4)

30. Route 227 - 2.93 million (-1)

Of those 30, 12 can readily use double deckers without cutting trees.

Recently route 244 was converted to double decker precisely by cutting trees on private property, so let's revise our earlier number.

Madeley Road on the 112 had its trees cut in preparation for its Superloop parallel, SL13.

Our new number is 15 routes.

235 195 316 214 366 112 33 493 490 70 D6 236 39 164 184

Low trees on routes 39/493 and 214.

Attempting the latter may prove to be a much costlier exercise than with residents on route 244, as Highgate up there are wealthier. Perhaps it could go easier.

Caveat with 184 is it already had a school working allocated, sometimes a double decker bus would do the normal 184 if a single decker broke down, for example.

Short post. Just wanted to get it out of my system.

Stay safe and take care.

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