"Improving" West London: 481 Increase

Abellio London 8141 on Route 481, West Middlesex Hospital (© Aubrey)

The 481 increase is one of the many changes going to be implemented over the next few months to "improve" the bus services across West London. It involves route splits, extensions and changes. A subtle change, but much needed one is the increase of the 481 to every 35 minutes, and a new hourly Sunday service.


Abellio London 8140 on Route 481, Kingston Wood Street (© Aubrey)

Yes, we did just say every 35 minutes. Due to traffic around Teddington, Fulwell and Sixth Cross Road, the 481 does not get a uniform every 30 minute service throughout Monday-Friday peak hours to help with reliability.


Abellio London 8139 on Route 481, Kingston Wood Street (© Aubrey)

Route 481 evolved from Route RH2 operated by London Buslines. This was replaced in 1992 by a Route R62 which ran between West Middlesex Hospital and Teddington via slightly more lengthier route than the current 481. The southern bit via Sandy Lane to Kingston was the 465 section between Fulwell and Kingston introduced in 1997 when it was introduced into the LRT network.


Abellio London 8141 on Route 481, West Middlesex Hospital (© Anthony)

The 481 was introduced to replace the R62 and the 465 between Fulwell and Kingston running as an hourly Monday-Saturday except evening service in May 2006. Since then, patronage has gone up to the point where some departures on the 481 were churning out full and standing buses, and a frequency increase was necessary.


Abellio London 8139 on Route 481, Teddington (© Aubrey)

For its third contract, Abellio London got new Enviro 200MMCs (8.8m) for the route. 8138-8141 are the fleetnumbers of the 4 which is part of a larger spate of recent orders by Abellio of new ADL single deckers, which includes the previously posted 367 and C10, and future orders for the E7 and E9 being gained on the 28th May 2016.


Rear of Abellio London 8139 on Route 481, Teddington (© Aubrey)

The much needed frequency increase of the 481 has spread loadings out, and will increase the attractiveness of the service. The route from the start has been run from Fulwell Garage (TF) by Travel London/Abellio London, and is decently run considering the traffic issues this route does have, including the small issue of Twickenham Stadium events.