3 Oct 65 to 13 Jun 69

(total 3 years 8 months, all OMO)

 

LOUGHTON STATION and EPPING TOWN (Mon-Fri, Sun, also RT-operated on Sats from 31 Dec 66)

LOUGHTON STATION and EPPING St Margaret’s Hospital (Mon-Fri afternoons and evenings, Sun afternoons)

BUCKHURST HILL STATION and EPPING TOWN (Mon-Fri peaks)

 

RF Garages

The Epping to Loughton route has a long history.  According to the Essex Countryside magazine (January 1967) 'three famous old Epping horses with just one eye between them proudly drew the coach driven by Joe Wilks of Tidy's Lane from the Cock Hotel to meet the trains at Loughton station when the railway first reached there in 1867'.  The General covered the road periodically from 1915, when the 10^B between Epping and Elephant & Castle started operation on Sundays in July.  In October 1921, the route became daily as 10^A - renumbered (under the Bassom system) 100 and 100^A between 1924 and 1934 - all a variation of the famous 10 to Abridge.  In November 1939, the route was shortened to run between Epping and Leytonstone.  It was double-deck operated throughout, with K, S, NS, ST, LT and finally STD-types.  On 30 Jun 48, the 10^A was renumbered 20, and in March 1955, Loughton's STDs were replaced with RTs. 

 

 

When one-man operation was finally introduced in the Central Area in 1964, following the Phelps Brown report, it was permitted only on single-deck buses.  Whereas ten years before, it had been London Transport policy to double-deck all Central Area routes where physically possible, it became inevitable that the reverse would happen on lightly-used routes.  The 20 was the first.

 

The busy Saturday service (Epping and Leytonstone) was left untouched initially, but other days of the week were replaced on 3 October 1965 by new OMO route 20^B over the Loughton to Epping section of the 20, with the southern part covered by the RT-operated 20^A (Leytonstone to Debden).  The creation of the 20^B broke the rule of over 40 years that all single-deck routes were numbered in the 200-series, and occured simultaneously with the OMO-conversion of Loughton's existing RF route, the 254, and the creation the next day of the 291 out of part of Barking's RT-operated 129.

 

The remaining Saturday operation on the 20 ended on 24 Dec 66, being shortened and renumbered 20^B on the following Saturday, still with RTs.  This led to the situation where the 20^A and 20^B were variants of a route that no longer existed, and the OMO 20^B was crew operated on Saturdays. 

 

A new RT route 20 from Loughton was introduced on 7 Sep 68 as part of the huge revisions resulting from the opening of the first stage of the Victoria Line and the Bus Reshaping Plan. It took a different routing south of Woodford to Leyton and Walthamstow from the old 20, and replaced much of the 38^A.  Six months later this was converted to OMO MB operation and extended to Epping to absorb the 20^B.  Meanwhile the 20^A continued with RTs until 1976, when it swapped the Loughton to Epping section with the 20 and became DMS operated over the original 20 route, lasting until 1982.  Falling entirely outside Greater London, the 20^B roads are no longer served by TfL.

 

RF route in detail, with timing points

 

Terminal working at Epping Town: clockwise from High Street to Hemnall Street, Grove Lane to stand, exit to High Street.

 

PVR Oct 1965: Mon-Fri 4+, Sat -, Sun 4

PVR Dec 1966: Mon-Fri 4, Sat [3 RT], Sun 3

PVR Feb 1969: Mon-Fri 4+, Sat [3 RT], Sun 2

+ plus 1RF ex 254