Reduced, Flying Borismasters

In the early hours of the 26th January 2019, the LT class of buses have been made the allocation of yet another route. One of the longest night bus routes in London, the N9, has been moved from its allocation at Hounslow (AV) to its new home at Stamford Brook (V).


LT159 starts its journey at Heathrow Terminal 5, on the first LT operated journey from Heathrow.
(© Alisha Juszczyk)

This scheduling change fixes a oddity which has existed since 2012, and definitely prior to the LT conversion of Route 9. The night and day versions of the route did not have a schedule which had crosslinks as per normal protocol with other routes.

Prior to the conversion of Route 9 to OPO, the evening service was run by Hounslow (AV), and even in the 2007 schedule, there were some early morning/late evening journeys run by Hounslow. However, those journeys were turned into N9 journeys, as the buses ran not in service to Hounslow along the same route in any case.


LT87 midway through an eastbound journey towards Aldwych.
(© Aubrey Morandarte)

However, since the loss of various routes at Hounslow, as well as the recent night tube introduction causing a decrease in PVR for the N9, it has become more lucrative to run the N9 from Stamford Brook (V), along with the 9. This would allow the night/day transitions to be easier, as well as saving money by not running the late evening and early morning journeys.

It also removes the oddity of a night bus finishing at 0815hrs on weekend mornings, and 0730hrs on weekday mornings. However, this does mean that buses do run dead to Heathrow Terminal 5 and Hounslow to start work, as early westbound journeys at 0025 and 0045 run from Hounslow every night still. The eastbound service now starts with the 2355 departure from Heathrow Terminal 5, rather than the notably early starts from Hounslow that the route used to have (2223 on Sunday nights, for example).


LT168 on the now earlier last journey from Aldwych towards Heathrow Terminal 5.
(© Aubrey Morandarte)

The earlier finish of the service means that the last bus leaves Aldwych a full 90 minutes earlier (and 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the latest journey pre-Night Tube timetable reduction) on weekend nights. This does mean no more post-0700 finishes for the route. On weekday nights, the final westbound journey is ten minutes earlier than in the previous timetable, and cuts out the later Hounslow short journeys. The last eastbound journey on weekends is now at 0455, rather than 0525. The route has also been retimed for reliability, thus buses being late should be less of an issue.


LT74 speeds through Turnham Green in the early hours of the morning.
(© Aubrey Morandarte)

The section of the route shown in the photograph above is currently shared with another LT route from Stamford Brook, the 27(N). However, the 27 has been mooted a retreat to Hammersmith Grove by TfL, reducing this area's night services by 30%. Overall, the changes to the N9 should save London United and TfL a few pounds, and a few miles.


The reduction of the N9 also means the oddity of catching a night bus at 8am since 2005 is no longer possible. SP188 is seen on a last weekend westbound N9 journey back in 2016. The last journey to Heathrow would still be en-route to Terminal 5.
(© Aubrey Morandarte)

Post by Aubrey Morandarte
Photos by Aubrey Morandarte and Alisha Juszczyk

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