History
The 130 commenced operation a few weeks before the outbreak of World War II on 5 July 1939, as a daily service between Croydon and New Addington (Central Parade). It replaced a temporary route which had been operated privately by the developers of the New Addington estate. This was the second time the route number 130 had been used on a motor bus route in London.
The 130 soon became a very stable operation, with the next change occurring 12 years later on 21 February 1951 when the route was extended in New Addington from Central Parade to terminate at Salcot Crescent. Nearly a year later, another short extension came into service on 6 January 1952 when the 130 was again extended in New Addington to Homestead Way. Later that year on 22 October 1952, a much longer extension was put in place, this time at the other end of the route, replacing the 166 on Mondays to Saturdays between Croydon and Streatham Common (Greyhound) via Thornton Heath and Streatham Vale. On 6 May 1953, the 130 was also extended on Sundays to Streatham making the route a daily Streatham Common to New Addington via Croydon operation.
As from 6 October 1954, the 130 group of routes began to become a complicated set of routes, when a new supplementary 130A was introduced. The new route ran from daily from New Addington (Salcot Crescent) to Croydon (Park Lane) with a Monday to Saturday extension to Thornton Heath (High Street).
A major development occurred on 10 June 1955, when a supplementary Monday to Saturday peak hour 130 EXPRESS SERVICE was introduced between East Croydon Station and New Addington. The Saturday service on this supplementary route only lasted one year, being withdrawn as from 31 July 1956. At Streatham a slight change in the terminal arrangements meant that the 130 terminated at Streatham Garage as from 7 August 1957. Another small change happened on 31 July 1963, when the 130 EXPRESS SERVICE was extended from East Croydon station to West Croydon Station. The RT type vehicle era on the 130 ended on 1 September 1964, when the RT's which had worked the route since 1948 were replaced by Routemaster type vehicles.
On 4 September 1982, the 130 was converted to one-person operation.
The current routing doesn't date back that far, it was introduced in 2003. It used to be assigned to Arriva London from West Croydon to New Addington. It also used to be a double-decker route. A Sunday service was only added in 2003 the same time the route was diverted to Norwood Junction at Shirley Park instead of West Croydon.
In 2007, it was revealed that there were plans for an extension of the route from Norwood Junction to Thornton Heath Clocktower via Selhurst Road and Park Road. But as of May 2010, there had not been any route changes.
Read more about this topic: London Buses Route 130
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