One of London’s busiest routes is our winner today on #AYearOfBuses – it’s former bendybus route 149.
The 149 began all the way back in 1961, as a replacement for former trolleybus route 649. Over the years, it’s been chopped and changed, rerouted and shortened, and it’s been through a whole raft of vehicle types – Routemasters, Titans, Olympians and Metrobuses to name a few.
In 2004, it was converted to articulated operation, with a fleet of Mercedes-Benz Citaro bendies. Two years later, the 149 was the testbed for London’s iBus audio and visual announcement system, which proved a success and was later rolled out across the capital.
Image credit: Arriva436 on Wikimedia Commons
