London Buses route 185

infobox London Bus
number=185


operator=East Thames Buses
length=10 miles (15 km)
time=42-90 minutes
vehicle=Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President
garage=Belvedere and Mandela Way
start=Lewisham
end=Victoria
via=Catford
Forest Hill
Dulwich
Camberwell Green
Vauxhall
level=Daily
frequency=About every 10 minutes
night=No night service
pvr=6 from Belvedere
13 from Mandela Way
day=4:30am until 0:30am

London Buses route 185 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to East Thames Buses, based at Mandela Way (near Bricklayers Arms) and Belvedere, both quite a distance from the terminals. The 185 is allocated Plaxton President low floor double deck buses but also uses the Wright Eclipse Gemini shared with the 1 at Mandela Way and the 132, 180 and night bus N1 at Belvedere.

History

The 185 has had a couple of rocky years. The original route was Victoria to Blackwall Tunnel south side, via the current route and Greenwich. This bus acted as a tram replacement route, at the time in which the government was trying to phase out the olden trams.

In 1982 the Lewisham to Blackwall Tunnel stretch was withdrawn, with the exception of peak services to Greenwich Church. In 1987 the part between Lewisham and Greenwich was completely scrapped, in favour of a shorter route. The route only had minor modifications between then and 2001, such as garage changes and the buses changing from RTL's to Titans.

In January 2001 Stagecoach London (Stagecoach Selkent at the time) operation was terminated in favour of London Easylink. However because Easylink did not hold a licence at the time to operate in London a temporary service was operated by Stagecoach, London General and Blue Triangle for a few weeks. The operation of the 185 then ran smoothly for just over a year until in August 2002 London Easylink went into liquidation and at short notice Blue Triangle was given the task of organising emergency cover. Quite a large number of operators were used such as the following:

*London Central
*London General
*First London (even though they had no double-decker operations in the Lewisham area at the time)
*Blue Triangle
*The Original tour

This caused problems to people who had not travelled on the 185 before. Blue Triangle brought in some Original Tour central London buses which were roofless!

Finally after a long time of this operation, in 2003 East Thames Buses - a direct subsidiary of TfL - was awarded the contract. East Thames Buses initially started operating with low floor Dennis Dart SLF/Caetano Compass buses, but these were soon replaced.

Current route

Route departing Lewisham

*Lewisham station "Bus station"
*Lewisham High street
*Lewisham Shopping centre
*Ladywell "Leisure Centre"
*University Hospital Lewisham
*Catford "Rushey Green"
*Catford "Lewisham Town Centre"
*Catford and Catford Bridge Stations
*Catford St. Dunstan's College
*Stanstead Road "Catford Hill"
*Stanstead Road "Brockley Rise"
*Forest Hill railway station
*Forest Hill London Road
*Horniman Museum
*Lordship Lane
*Dulwich "Library"
*East Dulwich "Goose"
*East Dulwich railway station
*Dog-Kennel-Hill
*Denmark Hill railway station
*King's College Hospital
*Camberwell Town Centre
*Camberwell New Road
*Camberwell Green
*Oval Underground station
*The Oval Cricket Ground
*Kennington
*Vauxhall stations
*Vauxhall "Bus station"
*Pimlico Underground station
*Vauxhall Bridge Road
*Victoria station "Bus station"

Route departing Victoria

*Victoria station "Bus station"
*Vauxhall Bridge Road
*Vauxhall "Bus station"
*Vauxhall station
*Kennington
*The Oval Cricket Ground
*Oval Underground station
*Camberwell Green
*Camberwell New Road
*Camberwell Town Centre
*King's College Hospital
*Denmark Hill railway station
*Dog Kennel Hill
*East Dulwich railway station
*East Dulwich "The Green"
*Dulwich "Library"
*Lordship Lane
*Horniman Museum
*London Road
*Forest Hill railway station
*Stanstead Road "Brockley Rise"
*Stanstead Road "Ravensbourne Road"
*Catford St. Dunstan's College
*Catford and Catford Bridge stations
*Catford Lewisham Town Hall
*Catford "Rushey Green"
*University Hospital Lewisham
*Ladywell "Leisure Centre"
*Lewisham Shopping Centre
*Lewisham High Street
*Lewisham station "Bus station"

ee also

*List of bus routes in London
*East Thames Buses

External links

* [http://www.tfl.gov.uk Transport for London]
* [http://www.busesatwork.co.uk London Bus Routes]
* [http://www.busmap.org/tt4/185.pdf Full Timetable (PDF)]