please empty your brain below
I’ve taken this route a few times when I was living in the area. There never really were any school kids around, at least in the evening anyway.

One time I did it, the bus was on diversion via billionaire’s Row! Nice to see all those huge unoccupied mansions from the top deck.

GreenKitten | 06.04.18 - 7:48 a.m. | #

603? Surely the Geezer can't be that old?

ian | 06.04.18 - 7:49 a.m. | #

How the other 0.1& live.

Still Anon | 06.04.18 - 7:52 a.m. | #

I start to wonder whether they've been waiting specially, or just hopped on whichever of the three routes turned up first.
No - I've used one of these - it WAS wedged with teenagers, but it got me where I wanted to go - route 675

E17 | 06.04.18 - 7:53 a.m. | #

I spent much of the early 80s in and around Muswell Hill, visiting The Odeon and The Phoenix several times a week as young folk did back then.

I harboured ambitions of living thereabouts one day, in the then mysterious future. I never have, but re-visit frequently always accompanied by that dread feeling of what could have been.

Frank F | 06.04.18 - 7:56 a.m. | #

My suggested explanation would be that a very influential TFL executive has a cossetted child who uses this route during term time .......

Brian | 06.04.18 - 8:05 a.m. | #

Was it a heron or an egret?

dg writes: It was a heron.

Half a physicist | 06.04.18 - 8:22 a.m. | #

Quite a few schools in and around Fitzjohn's Avenue too. The school run traffic is unrivalled throughout North London. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/28/toxic-school-run-is-poisoning-children

Lorenzo | 06.04.18 - 8:36 a.m. | #

oddly enough I did exactly that route yesterday, but in my car

Caz | 06.04.18 - 8:50 a.m. | #

These days, passengers could have had the route suggested to them by a Citymapper-type app rather than actually chosen the route themselves. This means frequency and knowledge of obscure routes isn't so important; if you happen to be travelling in that direction at that time, then you be directed to take that particular bus.

None | 06.04.18 - 8:56 a.m. | #

What a curious service.

I have to say when I used to live near the 655 route in Colliers Wood, you would sometimes see adults on board. The 655 mirrored much of the 152 and those hardy enough would jump on the 655 rather than wait.

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 06.04.18 - 9:05 a.m. | #

"Every schoolday TfL run dozens of school buses, each numbered in the six hundreds"

but not all 600s are bus routes ... such as the 607 - an express version of the 207

ADS | Homepage | 06.04.18 - 9:30 a.m. | #

I put my hand out for a timetabled school bus to stop but the driver couldn't be bothered so had to wait for a normal one.

The wait was long enough for me to complain to Tfl. They replied that drivers at that particular garage were being reminded school buses aren't just for kids.

ap | 06.04.18 - 9:35 a.m. | #

The 603doesn't quite run all year. There's no service between Christmas and New Year.

3078260061 | 06.04.18 - 11:19 a.m. | #

Come on. These school children, a sort of ghostly presence throughout this interesting article and its comments, are real people. Excessive fear of sharing a bus with them is simply prejudice.

Anyway, if riding with school children is such purgatory, what about the drivers, escorts, and indeed teachers, who do it daily?

Malcolm | 06.04.18 - 11:28 a.m. | #

Malcolm - Excessive fear of sharing a bus with teenage schoolchildren is a justifiable and common condition, not prejudice.

As for the drivers, well successful sociological studies have investigated and pointed out the reduced life expectancy of the Urban bus driver.

Perhaps the two may be linked.

MO | 06.04.18 - 12:28 p.m. | #

Hmm. Which other group of our fellow-citizens is it legal to demonise like this?

malcolm | 06.04.18 - 12:42 p.m. | #

"Hmm. Which other group of our fellow-citizens is it legal to demonise like this?"

Anyone called Malcolm?

JohnC | 06.04.18 - 12:55 p.m. | #

Gentlemen, please.
You're worse than schoolchildren ;)

anthony | 06.04.18 - 1:09 p.m. | #

A bus run mainly for private school children ... If TFL are ever looking for routes to cull with lessened fuss, might this be one?

Tom | 06.04.18 - 5:15 p.m. | #

The cost of the contract awarded by TfL for route 603 works out at £18 per mile.
For comparison, the contract for route 60 works out at £4 per mile.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 06.04.18 - 6:45 p.m. | #

No mention as you went up North Hill of on your right the 1930's Highgate Primary School. This bus route could have saved me a lot of walking growing up in the 1950's.

BRIAN BERKE | Homepage | 06.04.18 - 6:50 p.m. | #

"600"x on a bus route USED to mean a nice, pollution free, large, comfortable silent TROLLEYBUS

E17 | 06.04.18 - 6:53 p.m. | #

http://www.trolleybus.net/fullsize/jane/300.jpg

timbo again | Homepage | 06.04.18 - 8:55 p.m. | #

This post made me wonder about you modus operandi in detailing the overheard dialogue and random happenings during the course of these journeys.

Do we see an apparently disinterested figure feverishly scribbling into a notebook, frantically keying his mobile or mentally filing away these choice snippets for later re-telling?

dg writes: For a bus route post, I always take notes.

drD | Homepage | 06.04.18 - 9:07 p.m. | #

Somehow I can't imagine dg doing anything "feverishly" or "frantically".

Great Aunt Annie | 07.04.18 - 12:04 a.m. | #

From memory the 603 was the result of much lobbying from Highgate and Hampstead parents. They are very powerful and influential and the timing of the 603's introduction in 2003 fitted in with Ken's "pro bus" policies and trying to reduce the car impact of the school run. I suspect TfL would love to get rid of the 603 now given the marginal patronage and high cost per mile. However it is politically impossible to remove it. Highgate locals have managed to tie TfL in knots for well over a year over a plan to move the 271's stand in Highgate Village. Heaven knows what they'd manage in opposing the (hypothetical) loss of the 603.

I'm of the view that if TfL ran it half hourly from 0700 - 1900 daily it'd do decently well and not need too much resource. I can see it being particularly popular on Sundays because of the leisure links it gives. As you say it provides useful direct links and avoids difficult / awkward changes. However such expansive thoughts are not the vogue these days as bus cuts are the main agenda for TfL not improvements.

PC | 07.04.18 - 8:45 p.m. | #

Even on a schoolday the against-the-flow trips on the 603 can be pleasantly quiet. I often use one of the afternoon buses from Muswell Hill. They only really pick up a handful of schoolchildren at most, except for the last stretch past Hampstead where they'll often take on a few primary-age children with accompanying nannies / au pairs. It's the return trips towards Muswell Hill that fill up with schoolkids.

Leo | 09.04.18 - 1:07 a.m. | #

Well it seems that the 603 is safe after all!

Tender results confirm it'll continue for the near future, albeit with an operator based in South Mimms this time...

LBOTG | Homepage | 17.04.18 - 4:39 p.m. | #

Hello Londonist readers.

"The 603 outbound service from Princes Avenue to Swiss Cottage Station is the Most Reliable of all London Bus Routes. 85% of services are spaced correctly according to the official TFL timetable."

Well of course it is, given how few buses there are, and how over-padded the timetable is, and the way drivers wilfully stop and wait at bus stop after bus stop to stay on schedule.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 19.04.18 - 11:19 a.m. | #

Status alert for route 603
"Changes to Route 603 from Monday 14 January: The route will no longer operate during school holidays. There will be a new timetable on schooldays with no changed to stops served or how often buses run. The route will now be operated by Sullivan Buses."

Oh no!

A | 28.12.18 - 6:52 p.m. | #











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