National Express question to Ponder.

[Mr Manager]

Having had the cause to drive to Stansted today to collect my daughter i pondered my route from Dover the usual A2/M25/M11 route will do i thought.

Halfway up the M2 it came on the radio of a vehicle fire between Junc 28 and 27 right on my route and all traffic stopped. tailbacks to Junction 30. No problem straight through the Blackwall and away we go i thought.

Then the thought hit me. Do national express run any scheduled services through either of these tunnels ? . I know Kings ferry use the Blackwall and when the A13 is bad divert via the Dartford. Apart from Ensign's X80 service i cannot think of anything else scheduled to use either of these routes. Does the Blackwall have a LT service ??.

 

[A0wen]

Having had the cause to drive to Stansted today to collect my daughter i pondered my route from Dover the usual A2/M25/M11 route will do i thought.

Halfway up the M2 it came on the radio of a vehicle fire between Junc 28 and 27 right on my route and all traffic stopped. tailbacks to Junction 30. No problem straight through the Blackwall and away we go i thought.

Then the thought hit me. Do national express run any scheduled services through either of these tunnels ? . I know Kings ferry use the Blackwall and when the A13 is bad divert via the Dartford. Apart from Ensign's X80 service i cannot think of anything else scheduled to use either of these routes. Does the Blackwall have a LT service ??.

To answer the LT one - the TFL website shows the 108 Lewisham - Stratford as using the Blackwall tunnel.

 

[duncombec]

As far as I know, NatEx do not run anything through the Blackwall Tunnel - all services from Kent run through SE London.

Kings Ferry do divert via the A13/Dartford when the *A2* is bad, but very rarely. Diverting via that route causes a headache in collecting those passengers who get on/off at the Black Prince, and so it is very much a 'nuclear' option. You are more likely to see commuter coaches of all operators take a variety of routes through SE London than use the A13.

 

[Busaholic]

To answer the LT one - the TFL website shows the 108 Lewisham - Stratford as using the Blackwall tunnel.

As it has for over a century It had specially-constructed double deckers with sloping roofs prior to World War Two, and the last solid-tyred buses in London ran on it too. Interestingly, for a route connecting both sides of the Thames and therefore unusually prone to traffic chaos I don't believe it has ever been operated by garages from both sides at the same time, certainly not in the last sixty years.

 

[deltic]

As it has for over a century It had specially-constructed double deckers with sloping roofs prior to World War Two, and the last solid-tyred buses in London ran on it too. Interestingly, for a route connecting both sides of the Thames and therefore unusually prone to traffic chaos I don't believe it has ever been operated by garages from both sides at the same time, certainly not in the last sixty years.

According to the London Buses website it operated from Cambridge Heath and Dartford depots for 2 months in 1994!!