bus route numbers

[tali122]

what methodology (if any) do bus companies use in selecting bus route numbers or is it, as it seems ,somewhat random?

[iwbus]

Depends where they are, in London routes like the 207 were the bus versions of the trolleybus route (607 in this case). Don't ask me where the 607 number came from though. Where I live the bus company I work for has just redone the entire route network and has used different numbers (which weren't previously used) to indicate an important change in the route

[gary baldy]

Dont know about other cities but you can trace Manchester's numbers back to the trams and trolleybuses.
The numbers usually signified which depot the individual routes worked out. For example those working out of one depot would start in a 4 and the different routes would be the second number eg 42.
As routes expanded it was easier to add another number at the front than trying to use just the 99 available. So for example when the 42 route was extended it became the 142.

[David H]

London buses began 1-6, and were simply allocated in order of existence. Then when they reached 298 they replaced older numbers when they stopped with new routes.

Once the routes were split in two (two tickets paid for instead of one) they had to reach the magic 300 plus and now extend indefinitely, some prefixes used for specific uses such as disabled routes.

[Buenchico]

Until recently, buses in Ipswich didn't have numbered routes. Instead, they had numbered destinations. This meant, for example, that a bus from Castle Hill to Maidenhall would be numbered 1B but the return bus, from Maidenhall to Castle Hill would be numbered 9A.

Having numbered destinations, rather than routes, could lead to confusion. Since, for example, Maidenhall was allocated the number 1B, any bus going there would have this number. This would include special works or school services which never went anywhere near the route followed by other buses with this number!

Before the advent of digital destination boards, there was no easy way to change the system. Buses in Ipswich didn't have separate displays, at the front of the bus, showing the number and the destination. Instead, there was a single window. If a driver wound up the indicator blind to show, say, Maidenhall, the number had to show 1B because this was printed next to the destination on the same blind!

Chris

[Dingoeater]

In most of the country this can happen two ways: firstly, if a bus service is operated on behalf of the County Council then the number is given to them by the council. The council usually numbers these by district and then an ID number. E.g. the 206 would be district 2 route 6. Most bus companies give their own routes numbers based on a convenient numbering system, usually so it's easy to track passengers figures, vehicle allocation etc. The numbers I used to come up with when I was a transport manager were fairly arbitrary and existed solely for my benefit and I never had the guts to register a route 66 or a service 1337.

[JudgeJ]

In London it used to be easy. �Central� Area� (which extended from St.Albans in the north to Leatherhead in the south, Slough in the west and Upminster in the east) operated red buses and had route numbers in the range 1 to 299. Country buses (which were operated by London Transport but extended to places as far afield as Crawley, Harlow, Gravesend and Maidenhead) were painted green and had numbers in the 3xx, 4xx and 8xx ranges. Trolleybuses (those wonderful electric buses which, it is said, could be making a comeback) were numbered in the ranges 5xx and 6xx. Green Line coaches, which operated long distance routes, were numbered 7xx. The longest Green Line route was the 65 mile 714 from Dorking to Luton via Marble Arch.

When the Trolleybuses were replaced in the early 1960s their route numbers were replaced, as far as possible, by similar numbers in the Central range (677 became 277, for instance). This was not always possible. Route 609 (Moorgate, Finsbury Square to High Barnet) was replaced by the 104 because routes 109 and 209 already existed.

Now things are not so straightforward. As well as the numbering ranges being mixed up, there are many local bus routes with geographical prefixes (the �B� routes run around Bexleyheath, the �P� routes around Peckham, for example).

It seems very likely that the routes were numbered by the early bus companies simply from number 1 onwards. All of the first nineteen routes ran (and mostly still do run) through central London. Route 20 is the first one which operated in the suburbs only. For bus anoraks there is a superb website which gives lots of detail of Central Area bus route history:

http://www.busesatwork.co.uk/index.htm />