London Buses route 248

Infobox London Bus
number=248


operator=East London
garage=Rainham
vehicle=Dennis Trident 2/Alexander ALX400
pvr=14
start=Romford Market
via=Roneo Corner
Hornchurch
Upminster
end=Cranham
level=Daily
length=7 miles (11 km)
frequency=About every 8 minutes
time=27-43 minutes
day=6:00am until 1:00am
night=No night service

London Buses route 248 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to East London. It was announced by East London that new Scania OmniCity will be entering service on this route.

History

Blue Triangle built quite a reputation for operating special services in London,whilst obatining more mainstream TfL bus route contracts. The third route to be added to its portfolio was the 248, which commenced with the company on 29 September 2001. This is a short but frequent route linking Upminster and Hornchurch with Romford.

Vehicles purchased have all been on Dennis chassis. Bodywork has been split between two of the smaller body builders though, with Caetano taking the Darts and East Lancs Tridents so far. At the time of the new contract, Blue Triangle had not received the new buses ordered for the 248, and had to use their Titans, Metrobuses and Tridents from the earlier batch for route 474.

Today's's route 248 commenced operation on 3 October 1934, when the newly constituted London Passenger Transport Board instituted its own numbering system. In this scheme, all single-deck bus operated routes were numbered in the 200+ series. Route G3, which had operated daily between Upminster Station and Cranham was allocated the 248 route number and its "sister" route, the G4, then operating between Upminster and Corbets Tey on Mondays to Saturdays became the 249.

Origin

The 248 started as a local route running just from Cranham to Upminster via St. Mary's Lane. Buses, or rather the one bus, ran every 17 minutes, which was presumably the most frequent it could run, given the 7 minutes end-to-end journey time. On Saturdays the frequency was boosted to every 8½ minutes, using the bus off the 249 (Corbets Tey to Upminster, every 16 minutes) which did not run on Saturday afternoons (or Sundays). The 248 and 249 were one-man-operated using Dennis Darts of an earlier generation, and, later, T-class AEC Regals.

The main service to Romford was the 109, which carried on the other side to Collier Row and ran about every 10 minutes (every 7½ minutes Saturday afternoons and every 24 minutes Sundays, extended to Corbets Tey to replace the 249). The 86A provided an alternative from Upminster to Romford, running on to Stratford, and this was boosted when the 109 was withdrawn in November 1940.

As further development took place in the area, in 1951 the 248 was extended north from Upminster Station along Hall Lane, as far as River Drive. The 249 soon joined in and did even better by running on along the new Avon Drive. In 1959 things were re-arranged, with the 86 replacing the 86A and continuing to Avon Drive, and the 249 renumbered 248A and reduced again to Corbets Tey - Upminster Station running during peak hours only, London Country route 370 maintaining a service to Corbets Tey at other times.

1960 onwards

In 1964 the 193 replaced the 86 as the service to Avon Road and Upminster Park, but during 1970 there was a more major re-structure making the 248 a much more prominent service. The 86 was curtailed to Romford railway station - the first route to terminate there, in a far cry from today - and the 193 to Hornchurch, with the 248 extended from Cranham to Romford. The first leg from Cranham completed the rectangle by running along the middle section of Front Lane to Upminster Park, where a new loop via Waycross Road was introduced, before running via Avon Road and Hall Lane back to Upminster and then on to Hornchurch and Romford to terminate at Parkside Hotel in North Street. A Sunday service was re-introduced, but only on the new section to begin with.

The route had to be single deck operated due to the low bridge in Cranham, but a further re-structuring in November 1981 allowed Titans to replace Leyland Nationals on Mondays to Saturdays when the service was curtailed to Cranham - now approaching from the opposite direction from before. The 246 replaced this section, which is now covered by the 346. About 1984, the Sunday extension back to Upminster was removed in favour of a Sunday service on the 246, but in addition the 248 was split with a new 244 running from Upminster Park via Cranham to Romford, as opposed to the 248 which ran from Cranham via Upminster Park. The Romford terminus was also revised to the Market at this time.

Current route

Route departing Romford

* Romford Market
* St Edward's Way
* Mercury Gardens
* Western Road
* Chandlers Way
* Eastern Road
* South Street
* Romford Station
* South Street
* Rom Valley Way
* Rush Green Road
* Roneo Corner
* Hornchurch Road
* Hornchurch "High Street"
* Hornchurch
* Hornchurch "High Street"
* Upminster Road
* Upminster Bridge Station
* Upminster Road
* St Mary's Lane
* Bell Corner
* Station Road
* Upminster Station
* Hall Lane
* Avon Road
* Front Lane
* Roseberry Gardens
* Upminster Park Estate
* Waycross Road
* Brunswick Avenue
* Front Lane
* Cranham "Moor Lane"

Route departing Cranham

* Cranham "Moor Lane"
* Front Lane
* Roseberry Gardens
* Upminster Park Estate
* Waycross Road
* Brunswick Avenue
* Avon Road
* Hall Lane
* Upminster Station
* Station Road
* Bell Corner
* St Mary's Lane
* Upminster Road
* Upminster Bridge Station
* Upminster Road
* Hornchurch "High Street"
* Station Lane
* Hornchurch
* Hornchurch "High Street"
* Hornchurch Road
* Roneo Link
* Upper Rainham Road
* Roneo Corner
* Rush Green Road
* Rom Valley Way
* South Street
* Romford Station
* South Street
* Western Road
* Mercury Gardens
* St Edward's Way
* Romford Market

ee also

* List of bus routes in London
* East London

External links

* [http://www.tfl.gov.uk Transport for London]
* [http://www.londonbusesbyadam.fotopic.net London Bus Routes Fotopic]
* [http://www.busesatwork.co.uk London Bus Routes]
* [http://www.busmap.org/tt4/248.pdf Full timetable (PDF)]