London Buses Route 188 - History

History

Route 188 was introduced in 1951. For many years the route was operated by Camberwell garage, latterly using then-new Leyland Titans. Around 1982, a New Cross allocation was introduced, initially using a mixture of Titans and DMS-class Fleetlines.

In the mid-1980s the 188 was designated as a 'tourist' route, because it connected central London with Tower Bridge and Greenwich. By the time of the first tendering of the 188, New Cross had the route to itself, using just Titans.

The first tender for the 188 was in 1988, and the contract was awarded to Boro'line, the Maidstone borough operator which was starting up a London operation, from November that year. Initially Leyland Atlanteans hired from Ipswich Buses and Daimler Fleetlines from Nottingham City Transport were used, until new Alexander-bodied Volvo Citybuses were delivered in 1989. Boro'line operated from Crayford, the base used for its other LT routes.

In November 1990, Boro'line surrendered the route, which consequently passed to Selkent, part of London Buses at that time. L-class Leyland Olympians from Plumstead were used.

In November 1993, the route was tendered again, and awarded this time to London & Country, which used second hand Titans from Walworth garage. Soon after, London & Country was purchased by British Bus, which also owned Kentish Bus, which in turn had in 1992 purchased the remaining London operations of Boro'line.

In 1995 British Bus re-organised its operations in London and the surrounding area. The London operations of London & Country were transferred to a new unit called Londonlinks which was controlled by Kentish Bus. The elderly Titans on the 188 were disposed of to Clydeside 2000 and were replaced by Volvo Citybuses transferred from Kentish Bus.

British Bus was itself purchased by the Cowie Group, which in 1997 rationalised the London operations, leading to the run-down of the Londonlinks operation. The 188 transferred to Cowie South London at Norwood garage that August. Reshuffling in June 1998 took the Monday-Saturday 188 allocation to Arriva London North. The Sunday allocation soon followed suit, and the route was converted to DLA (DAF DB250/Alexander ALX400) operation to meet TfL's requirement for low-floor vehicles to be used on services to the Dome, to which the 188 had been extended. Later, Stamford Hill garage was closed, with its routes, including the 188, and vehicles passing to Arriva London North at the expanded Tottenham garage from March 2000.

The route was re-tendered again in 2000, and the award went to London Central that December. However, lack of space at its garages has resulted in sister company London General taking responsibility for the route from the outset, from Stockwell garage, where it conveniently took the place of route 295 which had just been lost. The allocation was moved around a few times in order to suit staffing requirements, which is quite common with this operator, and London Central did indeed get it back with a Camberwell allocation appearing later in the contract, although it reverted to all Stockwell operation from October 2004.

Re-tendering in 2005 resulted in the route being lost to National Express Group's Travel London operation. Travel London ran this route from the ex-London Transport Walworth garage (the same place LondonLinks ran the route from). This company became part of Abellio in 2009.

From Saturday, 28 July 2007, the 188 route between central London and North Greenwich was scheduled to run for 24 hours a day with a half-hourly service running throughout the night, seven days a week, passing through Bermondsey, Canada Water and Greenwich before terminating next to the O2 arena. The timetabling had been amended in order to meet the needs of visitors to the 02 where concerts continued until after the tube had closed.

John Barry, head of network development for London buses, said: "The new 24-hour service on route 188 is another accessible transport connection for late-night travellers in the capital. London's night bus network has expanded dramatically in recent years with passenger numbers more than doubling since 2000." Despite this improvement, the route received 55 compaints from passengers in 2009, the fourth highest number on any route in London.

In 2011, it was announced that hybrid buses were to be introduced to the route.

In January 2012, route 188 gained brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro400H Hybrids.

On 1 July 2012, due to the Olympics route 188 was temporarily extended to Euston Bus Station.