We haven’t featured a London route for quite a while on #AYearOfBuses, so for day 65, we’re checking out another of the city’s long-established routes.
London’s route 65 has been around for a while – since 1934, in fact. It’s changed very little in that time, taking people from Surrey and the outskirts of London into the heart of West London, Ealing Broadway. These days, it’s a 24hr route in the hands of London United, which randomly, runs further at nighttime – to Chessington, including to Chessington Zoo, if you fancy a midnight wander amongst the wildlife!
The 65 was one of the first routes in London to trial ‘pay as you enter’ boarding in 1946, when the route ran between Ealing Broadway and Leatherhead, in Surrey. It’s bounced around being run from several South London garages, including Kingston, Norbiton and Twickenham, amongst others, and for a while was a stronghold of Armchair’s much-missed orangey-red double deckers.