The withdrawal of route 347, London's least frequent bus, is a excellent excuse to update the new top 10.
London's ten rarest bus routes*
* scheduled TfL buses, in one direction, ordered by weekly frequency (no school journeys, no mobility services)
1)389Barnet → Western Way 2)399Barnet → Hadley Wood
The 299 bus runs regularly between Muswell Hill and Cockfosters. Once the morning rush hour is over one vehicle flips its blind to become a 399 and nips round Hadley Wood to the shops in Barnet. Here it flips its blind again to become a 389 for the eight minute trip to the Underhill estate. Then it's eight minutes back to Barnet, and flip back to 399, and back to Hadley Wood, and flip back to being a 389 again. And repeat, but only until the evening peak - both services are all sewn up by 3pm. The 389 is also London's shortest bus route while the 399 is London's least used bus route, so they now hold all the crowns. Flipping infrequent. Mon-Fri 5/6 buses, Sat 5/6 buses; weekly total 30/36 buses
2)385Chingford → Crooked Billet
When they say Crooked Billet they really mean the big Sainsbury's close to what used to be Walthamstow Stadium. The 385 exists solely so TfL can claim that people living along the eastern edge of the Lea Valley reservoirs have a bus service (even if it is a bit sparse and packs up by 4pm). Mon-Fri 6 buses, Sat 6 buses; weekly total 36 buses
2)R10Orpington ← Knockholt ← Orpington (circular) 5)R5Orpington → Knockholt → Orpington (circular)
The southeast corner of London is remarkably rural, green and villagey. These minor routes penetrate the border with Kent, serving Cudham on the London side and Halstead on the other, via a variety of other obscure non-urban locations. The R10 goes anti-clockwise round the big loop while the R5 goes clockwise, slightly more often. The 150 minute gap between services is the longest of any TfL bus route. Mon-Fri 6/7 buses, Sat 6/7 buses; weekly total 36/42 buses
5)H3Golders Green → Hilltop → Golders Green (circular)
The H3 minibus meanders round Hampstead Garden Village to the north of the Heath, along long residential roads where every householder owns a car. It pauses at the Spaniards Inn, nips up to East Finchley station, turns round beneath East Finchley Cemetery and then heads all the way back again. You probably wouldn't (and after 3pm, you can't). Mon-Fri 7 buses, Sat 7 buses; weekly total 42 buses
7)375Romford → Havering-atte-Bower → Passingford Bridge
Over to Romford for a one-and-a-half-hourly bus, introduced in 2008 as part-replacement for an Arriva service that linked Romford to Epping. The 375 trots infrequently to the edge of London, continues to the first practical turning point at Passingford Bridge and then heads back to Romford again. It no longer connects to anywhere useful but keeps the edge of Havering ticking over. Mon-Fri 9 buses, Sat 9 buses; weekly total 54 buses
7)U10Uxbridge → Ickenham → Ruislip
The U10 serves otherwise-isolated estates in Ickenham and Ruislip and has done since 1994. It entered the top 10 in 2022 when its frequency was cut from hourly to every 90 minutes, to the dismay of local residents, notionally to improve reliability. Now that the 347 has been extinguished London's least frequent buses are the R5/R10 (every 2½ hrs), the 375 and U10 (every 1½ hrs), the R8 (every 80-85 minutes) and the 146 (a bit worse than hourly). Mon-Fri 9 buses, Sat 9 buses; weekly total 54 buses
9)N28Camden Town → Earl's Court → Wandsworth 9)N113Trafalgar Square → Brent Cross → Edgware
The N28 interleaves with the N31 between Camden and South Kensington before bearing off alone, not quite so often, towards Wandsworth. The N113 was introduced in 2012 as a parallel service to the N13, running to Edgware rather than Finchley, introducing an overnight service to the A41 corridor for the first time. These are the only N-prefixed buses to run just eight times a night. (The N11, N27, N31, N33, N41, N65, N72, N74, N136, N199, N250 and N381 run nine times, so they'd be joint twelfth) Mon-Fri 8 buses, Sat 8 buses, Sun 8 buses; weekly total 56 buses
11)SL6Russell Square → West Norwood → West Croydon
I know I said this was a top 10 but I had to include number 11 because it's a Superloop service. Twelve buses into town during the morning peak and twelve back again in the evening is ridiculously fewer services than the rest of the Superloop routes. It's the only bus you're not allowed to get off untill the express section is complete so makes for a unique commuting experience Mon-Fri 12 buses; weekly total 60 buses
