240A

Much more famous for being the last route to operate the last TDs, London's last half-cab single deckers, the 240^A became RF operated for a few years before the road was lowered under the bridge at Mill Hill.

RFs 410 and (right) 473 at Edgware in November 1962. The RFs show a mix of old and new - they still carry the route plates over the entrance, but have painted garage codes.

Photo © MA Sutcliffe, Peter Gomm collection

Reason for single-deck operation

The low railway bridge at Mill Hill Broadway, before it was reconstructed along with the building of the M1, meant the double-deck 240 terminated east of the bridge and the 140 to the west. Earlier, the low bridge at Mill Hill East station (then Mill Hill LNER station) restricted double-deck workings on the 240 to the section between Holders Circus and Golders Green, until the road was lowered during the war.

The low bridge at Mill Hill which caused single-deck operation of the 240^A. TD104 heads into Mill Hill Broadway from Hale Lane. See also here for a picture of the reconstruction in progress. Another picture of the bridge is in John Hambley's 1962 book, showing TD101 coming the other way.

On the same day in April 1922 as the 110 (later 210) was introduced to Golders Green, the General introduced new route 104 linking Golders Green with Mill Hill, both rapidly developing areas. The route was extended in July alongside the new LCC Watling Estate via Deans Lane and Deansbrook Road to Edgware and on to South Harrow. The route was operated by Hendon garage (AE), this being some three years before Edgware (EW) opened. The route was single-deck operated due to the low railway bridge at Mill Hill, but a supplementary double-deck service operated by Cricklewood (W) ran between South Harrow and Harrow Weald, all buses being B types.

In 1924, the double-deck section was extended, first to Stanmore and then to Edgware, being renumbered 114 in December that year. This replaced this section of the 104, which then terminated at Edgware Station, with both routes now being operated by W.

In October 1926, LGOC registered a route which extended the 104 beyond Golders Green along the 110 (now 210) as far as Highgate Village. Although the full route (which ran north to Elstree) never operated, the route ran between Edgware and Highgate Village in summer 1927 only. Under the Bassom system, the previous 104 was renumbered 104^E and the Highgate route was numbered 104^C. Perhaps in lieu of 104^C, summer 1928 saw short workings on the 110 between Golders Green and Highgate Village. Various other permutations of the 104 were registered, ensuring confusion to historians and no doubt also to passengers.

The present routing along Hale Lane to Edgware was introduced in February 1929, when the route was extended in an S-shape to Burnt Oak. The section of Hale Lane between the station and the Green Man had been first used only in 1927 (by an extension to the 114), before which the road had a watersplash at Deans Brook and was unsuitable for buses.

Two years later, and a year after Edgware garage (EW) started working on the route, the 104 was the first to operate the new single-deck LT Scooter, in January 1931. LT1001 was delivered to EW (the parent garage was AE, so this was the official allocation), enabling comparison with the Ts from EW and W as well as the experimental single-deck London Six LS6 at W. LT1001 moved to Muswell Hill for the 111 (later the 212) in March, but six and seven Scooters respectively were delivered to EW and W for the route in June 1931, replacing the Ts. By that time, the route again featured a double-deck section, this time between Mill Hill East (south of the station) and Golders Green, operated on Saturdays by Chalk Farm (CF).

As primarily a single-deck route, the 104 was renumbered 240 in October 1934, when it operated a fascinating mix of buses – as well as 3 Scooters from EW and 2 from W (and a Sunday allocation of 3 from Holloway (J)), Cricklewood allocated one T and the LS, with NSs for the double-deck section. These ran alongside STs from Edgware but were replaced on Saturdays by STLs from Chalk Farm (CF).

The outbreak of war saw the allocation simplified, with just W providing LT Scooters and STLs. A diversion via Sanders Way in Mill Hill East was introduced in 1940, meaning the route no longer served the LNER station, which had closed in 1939.

Mill Hill East station opened in 1867, on the GNR line from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate. This line became part of the pre-war Northern Heights project, under which the Northern Line would be extended beyond Highgate (the station now known as Archway) over existing steam-operated rail lines. The line from Finsbury Park had branches to High Barnet and Alexandra Palace, and the plans also envisaged an extension north of Edgware to Bushey Heath. Steam services ceased in 1939 and were replaced (in part) by rail-replacement buses from Finchley Central to Edgware.

The war meant that the Northern Heights project was never completed. The extension from Archway to High Barnet opened in 1940, and to serve the Mill Hill Barracks the branch to Mill Hill East was electrified and opened, still as a single track, in 1941 – the last element in today’s Northern Line. The Alexandra Park branch, which passed under Muswell Hill by a weak bridge that forced London Transport to work the busy 212 with single-deckers, continued to operate a shuttle from Finsbury Park until 1954, but the section between Mill Hill East and Edgware was freight only and never reopened to passenger traffic; it closed completely in 1964. Despite considerable work, including the building of the depot (which later became LT’s Aldenham Works), the extension north of Edgware was never built.

Returning to the 240, later in 1940 the single-deck section was shortened to run only to Mill Hill Hendon Way, and the allocation for this section moved back to EW; the double-deck section was extended to run to Mill Hill (the Sanders Way diversion avoiding the low bridge at Mill Hill East station). When Mill Hill East station reopened in May 1941, the single-deck section was extended to terminate there and the rail replacement service from Finchley was withdrawn. By 1944, the road had been lowered under the railway and the double-deck service resumed the former through route. From 1945, the single-deck extension became peak-hours only.

Being effectively a rail replacement service, Underground tickets were available for travel on this service. At the time, most Underground tickets were of the "station of origin" type, which showed only the issuing station and the fare paid (for example "Edgware to any LT station at a single fare of 6d"). Underground tickets that could be used on the 240^A bus had the name of the issuing station underlined, to identify them to the 240^A conductors as tickets valid for travel on the bus (whilst remaining obscure to passengers!). Tickets were available to and from all Northern Line stations on the Barnet branch north of Highgate. So for example an Underground ticket could be purchased at East Finchley, for a journey to Edgware which would be valid by Northern Line to Mill Hill East and then by bus.

This arrangement continued long after the proposed extension from Mill Hill East to Edgware had been abandoned. Acceptance of Underground tickets was not withdrawn until about the early 1960s, after which the facility remained only for existing season ticket holders. It died out a few years later when the last regular season ticket holder ceased travelling, apparently before the 221 took over. [Thanks to David Carpenter for these details. The only other instance we know where rail tickets were accepted on buses was after the wartime closure of the West London Line, when tickets were accepted on trolleybus routes 626/628/630 between Clapham Junction and Willesden Junction. Again, the facilitiy was reduced to season-ticket holders and later died out. Further contributions welcome - please e-mail us.]

From being largely open country in 1930, the area around Mill Hill was now becoming built up and new roads required new services. In consequence, part of the 240’s single-deck service was extended (using the same Scooters from EW) on 12 Nov 47 to Page Street, at the end of Bunns Lane, as new weekday route 240^A.

In May and June 1949, Edgware's Scooters on the two routes were replaced by nine new TDs, a year after Cricklewood's STLs on the 240 had been replaced by new RTs. The following year, the LMR station at Mill Hill was renamed Mill Hill Broadway, but still only offered the north-south service that is now Thameslink (officially 'First Capital Connect').

RT4772 (which in 2010 returned to the UK from Canada) on the 240^A and RM516 on the 240 share the stand at Edgware Station.

In July 1951, the 240’s single-deck section was withdrawn completely and the 240^A was extended (and made daily) over the new Bittacy Rise and Pursley Road to Mill Hill East Station. The new TDs were highly prized and thinly spread, so when the service was increased on the 240^A in November 1951, a pair of former Green Line 10T10s were required until a couple more TDs could be found after the winter. Apart from this period, the TDs settled into a routine throughout the 1950s.

The introduction of the RFs and in particular the service reductions after the 1958 strike saw the TD fleet diminish so that by late 1959 they were working only at EW and at Kingston, where the 215^A was deemed too tight for RFs. These latter finally gave way in February 1962, leaving the 240^A to run London's last half-cab single-deckers on 9 October 1962.

Throughout this period, the route had run a more frequent service between Edgware and Mill Hill Broadway than further east, with the short-workings described in the timetable as Mill Hill Watford Way and on the blinds as Mill Hill Broadway. The RFs continued this arrangement, running for just over three years until more changes came to the 240 and 240^A in 1966.

The road under the railway was lowered, permitting through operation by double-deckers. This was introduced by the extension daily of the 240 over its 'natural' routing through to Edgware, using a mixture of RMs from Hendon, RTs from Edgware and RTLs from Cricklewood. In addition, trolleybus-replacement route 221 was extended on Mondays to Saturdays from North Finchley to Edgware over the full route of the 240^A, replacing it on those days. The 240^A remained as a Sunday-only route, now RT-operated. The RFs last ran on 22 Jan 66.

This rather fragile arrangement lasted a further nine years, with the RTs giving way to OMO SMSs in January 1971 and the route finally being replaced by Sunday operation of the 221. The last day of operation was 25 Mar 79.

EDGWARE LT Station, Station Road, Hale Lane, Mill Hill Green Man, Hale Lane, Mill Hill Broadway, Mill Hill Broadway Flower Lane, Flower Lane, Bunns Lane, Page Street Bunns Lane, Page Street, Pursley Road, Sanders Lane, Bittacy Rise, Engell Park, Bittacy Hill, MILL HILL EAST STATION

Red RF routes

Route 240^A

Red RF routes

Route 240A

Route 240^A