London Buses route 19 Information & London Buses route 19 Links at HealthHaven.com

	19
Service
Start	Finsbury Park
End	Battersea Bridge
Via	Islington; Holborn; Piccadilly Circus; Chelsea
Frequency	About every 7-8 minutes
Length	8 miles (13 km)
Operation
Operator(s)	Arriva London
Garage	Brixton
Vehicle(s)	VDL DB250/Wright Pulsar Gemini
PVR †	28
	† peak vehicle requirement
	Transport for London • Performance; London Transport Portal

London Buses route 19 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Arriva London.

[edit] History

The route starts at Finsbury Park station and terminates at Battersea Bus Garage, however the night version of the 19, the N19 travels further south and terminates at Clapham. This route was made famous by The Clash song, Rudie Can't Fail which mentions this bus number.

This route used to run as far south as Tooting Bec, with a Sunday extension to Streatham Common. By 17 October 1956 the Sunday extension had been withdrawn between Streatham and Tooting, although it was reintroduced the following year on 1 May 1957 for a short period until its withdrawal on 16 October 1957.

On 23 January 1966 the route was one again given a Sunday extension, this time to Streatham Bus Garage and by 15 February 1969 the Sunday route was renumbered 19A, which was reverted to 19 by March 1971. The Sunday extension was finally withdrawn on 8 January 1972, the route now running between Finsbury Park and Tooting Bec Station. Later that year, on 15 July, the Sunday service was cut back to Clapham Junction. This was to provide work for the OPO drivers from route 39 at Battersea Garage on a new route 19A (running between Battersea and Tooting Bec).

During August 1972, the route received Routemaster buses, replacing RTs which had worked the route previously. It was not until 5 October 1974 that the Sunday service reverted back to Tooting Bec, following the withdrawal of route 19A.

During 1975 garage journeys were extended to Tufnell Park, with the whole route being extended further to Archway by 1984. The following year, on 3 August 1985, the route was withdrawn between Finsbury Park and Archway (except for garage journeys terminating at Tufnell Park). Battersea Garage (B - Hester Road) closed in November 1985, and the allocation was transferred to Victoria Garage (GM). The Sunday service was converted to One Person Operation on 14 June 1987.

The service was withdrawn between Tooting Bec and Clapham Junction (Monday to Saturday) following the introduction of a new route 219 on 21 November 1987. The route was withdrawn between Tufnell Park and Finsbury Park on 15 April 1989, following the Holloway Garage allocation being withdrawn. Following the introduction of a Sunday allocation from Merton Garage during February 1990, some garage journeys were extended from Tooting Bec to Merton Garage. The route was standardised on 25 May 1991 running at all times between Finsbury Park and Battersea Bridge South Side, with all buses running from Victoria Garage (GM). Repair works to Battersea Bridge during 1992/1993 saw buses being diverted to Chelsea Worlds End between 21 April 1992 and 7 February 1993.

On 24 April 1993 Route 19 became the first Routemaster operated service to be awarded to a company that was not a subsidiary of London Buses Limited - Kentish Bus. Kentish Bus painted their RMLs in a cream and maroon livery with route branding. Following nearly 5 years with Kentish Bus, operation transferred to Arriva London South during February 1998, with the Sunday service contracted to Grey Green, at their Stamford Hill base. The a departure from the striking cream and maroon livery saw a return to the traditional London Bus red following a decision that buses operating within Central London has to be at least 80% red, apart from the Sunday allocation which was operated using Alexander-bodied Volvo Citybus (VAs) in Grey Green's grey, green and orange livery. On 25 March 2000 Stamford Hill Garage closed, and Tottenham Garage took the Sunday allocation of route 19. A month later, on 29 April, the Sunday allocation moved south to Brixton, using Metrobuses.

A little over a year later, and after a period of 14 years, the Sunday allocation reverted to crew operation using RMLs from Battersea. The Brixton allocation was retained for some early and late journeys run off the N19.

Later in 2002, in preparation for the Congestion Charing Zone, the service was increased from 18 RMLs to 26 RMLs. The extra buses were released from route 13 which gained Marshall-refurbished RMs.

On 2 April 2005, the route lost its Routemasters, and gained 28 new VDL DB250/Wright Pulsar Geminis. Although Battersea was able to house all of the Routemasters needed to run the route, the newer and longer buses presented capacity problems, forcing 7 buses being outstationed at Norwood Garage.

On 28 November 2009, Battersea (BN) was shut down and the 19 was transferred to Brixton.

[edit] Culture

Route 19 is referenced in the song Rudie Can't Fail by The Clash, when the first line begins: "On the route of the 19 Bus..."
The route was featured in Vogue in November 2007 as "one of the 14 most stylish locations in Britain" ^[1]

[edit] Current route

[edit] Route departing Finsbury Park

[edit] Route departing Battersea Bridge

[edit] Gallery

The 19 bus at its Finsbury Park terminus.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ This Is London, No19: London's glamour bus

[edit] External links

[0] This Is London, No19: London's glamour bus

[1]

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