please empty your brain below
I think the little 359 has to be a contender here for joint 10th - Selsdon to Addington Village through some side roads round the top of Forestdale, 9 trips each way MS.

*Technically* the Muswell Hill - Swiss Cottage 603 is actually a regular service bus. It has run on all weekdays including school hols from the outset to try and tap some regular passenger traffic, and the buses run in service back 'against' the schools flow afterwards. The 20 buses each way per week would give that route the crown..

Nico | Homepage | 04.05.11 - 8:39 a.m. | #

The 775 is "scheduled" to run twice a day on Sundays only from Kingston to Brighton and Worthing (May to October)! uses a Go-Ahead double red double decker.

dg writes: 775 - not a TfL bus.

Nicks | 04.05.11 - 8:55 a.m. | #

The W10 is a fun route - not at all like a "normal" London route as passengers know the regular drivers and there is a friendly atmosphere. It's a shame it no longer reaches the garden centres as I have used it in the past for that reason.

Have a photo link of the 385 and also the N28.

The other low frequency TfL routes are, of course, the Mobility bus services such as the 941, 953, 958 and 965.

Have a photo of the 965.

The N381 only provides 9 departures per night and the N343 provides 10.

PC | 04.05.11 - 9:19 a.m. | #

When it started the K5 would have been a contender, but as it now runs hourly, and up to 7pm, it has a total of 84 buses a week.

PC has already pointed out the Mobility buses - the 969 for example is the only one to brave any of the level crossings between Richmond and Barnes, but there's little danger of the delays caused by the level crossing causing bunching on Sheen Lane as it only runs twice a week.

Timbo | 04.05.11 - 9:43 a.m. | #

The 267 extends 36 services a week to Hampton Court - all on Sundays.

Similarly, Chartwell is served by eight buses a week, all on Sundays, on an extension of route 246.

As these extensions only run during the summer months, the average over the year is less than half this figure.

Timbo | 04.05.11 - 10:00 a.m. | #

Rare buses is what got me liking the tube. In 1983, my cousin took me all the way through Epping to Ongar to catch the once-every-four-hours 247/247B bus... and we missed it.

It did however make me think "why is there an UNDERGROUND train all the way out here in Ongar?", and thus an obsession was born.

geofftech | Homepage | 04.05.11 - 10:08 a.m. | #

I win! The 969. Whitton to Roehampton Asda. One return journey on each of two days a week (Tuesday and Friday). Check it out on the TfL site.

Why? No idea.

David | 04.05.11 - 10:12 a.m. | #

The 958 from Kings Avenue Woodford Green to Ilford runs once a week in each direction. 1000 on Tuesdays only from Kings Avenue, returning at 1210 on Tuesdays from Ilford.

Nigel White | 04.05.11 - 10:14 a.m. | #

Ah, I remember the 247b. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays only for a time (Romford Market days). Remember making a trip on it out to Ongar as a kid.

There was another one of those, very rare (and LT/TfL), routes in the area more recently too (in the late 1990s), another Weds/Fri/Sat only one, the 511 between Romford and Grange Hill (I think). But not any more.

Another vote for the 603 too. Despite its number, it's not a school bus.

Dominic | 04.05.11 - 10:28 a.m. | #

Don't forget one of LBTH's more bonkers initiatives (and there are quite a few contenders for that award).
The IoD1 and IoD2 buses. Six services per weekday around the Isle of Dogs, only available to residents who fill in an astonishingly complicated application form. And it runs along routes served by multiple other tfl buses, on average every four to five minutes....

http://www.busmap.co.uk/tt4/IoD.pdf

At least the routes you identified attempt to provide a service in areas that don't have an alternative. But the IoD1 / IoD2. Whoever thought this was a sensible use of funds?

IslandDweller | 04.05.11 - 10:34 a.m. | #

DG, isn't there a website where someone is attempting to ride every London Bus service ... Can't find them on google, do you have? Wondering if they've done any of these 'rare' services yet.

It's jsut a shame you won't live to be nine hundred and sixty nine or you'd have blogged about it ...

(The 969 is clearly to take old grannies shopping in Asda. But the 958? Seems pointless... must be a reason though)

geofftech | Homepage | 04.05.11 - 10:45 a.m. | #

Wow. That R5 is puny. Who knew London has such a tiny bus?

Andrew Bowden | 04.05.11 - 10:57 a.m. | #

geofftech - yes it's "one bus at a time" http://londonbusesonebusatatime.blogspot.com

So far they've covered 165 routes in 26 months

Timbo | 04.05.11 - 11:05 a.m. | #

pffft. We had a bus up here that ran every other Thursday. And the bus timetable just told you what week it started on (three years ago) so if you wanted to catch it and hadn't before you'd have to count back the number of weeks to see if it was this Thursday or next it was coming.

They've stopped it now.

disgruntled | Homepage | 04.05.11 - 11:13 a.m. | #

"I've got to go to work somewhere on the 347 route today, for the first time ever, but alas the first bus doesn't run until 9am so it's worse than useless for me"

WORSE than useless. Why?

david | 04.05.11 - 12:04 p.m. | #

@ Andrew Bowden - those Sprinter minibuses on the R5 have been replaced by something a bit larger - 8.8m Dennis Darts. I suspect Nico's photo was something of a rarity. The nearest equivalent to such a tiny bus is the extra short and narrow Optare Solo which runs on the R8. It's only hourly or so but runs from early until mid evening so has too many journeys to fit in DG's criteria. More info and photo here.

PC | 04.05.11 - 1:16 p.m. | #

We get the Optare Solo's round our way on the 470 - two buses an hour though so way too big.

Andrew Bowden | 04.05.11 - 1:43 p.m. | #

The smallest ever must have been the FS class Transits originally used on the B1, C11, H2, P4, PB1 and W9

http://images.ookaboo.com/photo/s/H2_Bus_at_Golders_Green_s.jpg

http://www.countrybus.org/FS/FS.htm

Victims of their own success, larger buses are now used on all these routes

Timbo | 04.05.11 - 1:48 p.m. | #

Having read above about the 969 bus Whitton to Roehammton Asda, that seems a silly service as there is a large Asda supermarket in Hounslow which is just up the road from Whitton and is served by the regular every 10-12 minute 281 bus. (or you could walk it). So why go all the way to Roehampton?.

John | 04.05.11 - 3:40 p.m. | #

Well spotted on the nine-hundred-and-something mobility buses. The 917, 931, 941 and 958 run there and back once a week, for the benefit of the infirm, which would easily put them in joint first place on my list. So I've rewritten my terms and conditions to outlaw mobility buses, sorry.

I'm also not allowing the 603. It may not technically be a school bus, but it was introduced as a school bus and runs at school bus times.

But I do need to add the 359, thanks - currently in joint 10th place.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.05.11 - 3:56 p.m. | #

No one in Whitton would use the 969 to get to Asda of course - any mpore than anyone would use the 46 (as expored by DG on his birthday) to get from Lancaster Gate to Chancery Lane. But people in the middle might find it useful.

Are you also excluding Sunday extensions like the 246 and 267?

Timbo | 04.05.11 - 4:06 p.m. | #

Although I realise it doesn't count I'd like to point out that between Hayes By-Pass and Uxbridge the N207 is only hourly. This is a colossal pain in the backside when you're waiting at 3am for a nightbus and the one that turns up only takes you three quarters of the way home.

Still, I live in Norfolk now where buses that run once a week aren't a rare novelty they're a way of life.

Adam S | Homepage | 04.05.11 - 6:18 p.m. | #

Not London but the BBC news site did a video report on 2 April this year about a bus (W13 from Milton Keynes) that only runs on the "fifth" Tuesday of every month!

Nicks | 04.05.11 - 8:15 p.m. | #

Here in South Shropshire we have plenty of routes with timetables like 'Runs first Wednesday of the month (April to September only)'. Wonder where the nearest postbus route to London is?

Chris p | 04.05.11 - 11:10 p.m. | #

It appears to be in Leicestershire

I got a nil return for any region nearer London

Timbo | 05.05.11 - 12:10 a.m. | #

What about similar 'Parliamentary train' services as a rail equivalent?

In the county I live in '5 services in each direction Mon-Sat' is a frequent service definition - and it borders London! Many similar pointless buses around as well :)

Dane | 05.05.11 - 3:00 a.m. | #

The Roehampton Asda has been there for many years being one of the first to open in the London Area.
The Hounslow store is only a few years old, so maybe the bus route to Whitton to Asda Roehampton started when people did want to travel to get to that store, it being the only one.
I lived in Twickenham when the Roehampton store opened I should think 20 years ago and I would occasionally drive to the Roehampton Asda, - a nice drive you could in those days go through Richmond Park and use the Roehampton Gate.
There is also an Asda in Feltham which is not too far from Whitton and Hounslow, and a new Asda has just opened at Ivy Bridge near Twickenham Stadium. All very near Whitton.

John | 05.05.11 - 8:58 a.m. | #

Two late contender are the 481 and the U10 - 13 journeys each way M-S. This might just be too many to fit DG's criteria but I offer them anyway.

Other routes that are hourly but run for a fairly long service day are the 404, 467 and 549.

PC | 05.05.11 - 9:08 a.m. | #

Years ago when I lived on the 37 route they must have been timetabled for three of them to come every hour.

Brian Stapleton | 05.05.11 - 9:25 a.m. | #

R21 Uxbridge ---> Mount Vernon Hospital
8 per day M-S = 48

msars | 05.05.11 - 12:54 p.m. | #

Sorry - R21 is not a TfL service. Natch!

msars | 05.05.11 - 1:19 p.m. | #











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