London's newest bus
Route L10: Horseguards to Buckingham Palace Location: London central Length of bus journey: ½ mile, 14 minutes
A new bus route has been introduced serving a unique section of central London. It operates with double deckers and runs in one direction only to a very specific timetable. The route is excellent for sightseeing purposes, although is not being operated as such. It would be fairer to describe it as a limited stop service rather than an express. A number of keen bus spotters turned up yesterday to be present for the inaugural run, which ran mostly to schedule. As for passenger numbers, it proved so popular that there was standing room only on the upper deck.
The route is relatively straightforward, running from a temporary bus stand at the northern end of Horse Guards Road to a terminus outside the front gates of Buckingham Palace. No other scheduled bus route goes this way so the new L10 offers an exciting way for anyone with a fractured tibia to reach the royal heart of London without hobbling. As is fairly typical with a new route the TfL website provided no information, nor was a timetable provided at bus stops, but the BBC kindly provided a route map enabling tens of thousands of excited enthusiasts to line the route and cheer on the driver and his passengers.
The scheduled departure time for the first service was 12:10pm, as had been heavily trailed in several serious news outlets. Two open-topped Alexander Dennis Tridents had been parked alongside the top corner of St James's Park well in advance, each with a vinyl covering on all sides. So diligently had this been applied that the front blind had been completely obscured, thus it was hard to tell if CHAMP 10 NS was the route number or some kind of marketing claim. Bus wraps can cost the taxpayer several thousand pounds so it was reassuring to see that several corporate sponsors had contributed to the rebrand, a list on the side including Nike, Google, M&S, Budweiser and a company that makes fridges.
You could tell that the intended passengers were true aficionados of bus travel because they arrived in two hi-spec coaches, one a Van Hool the other an Irizar, provided by Ellisons Travel Services of St Helens, Merseyside. Unfortunately both coaches had polarised windows and proceeded to park between two privacy screens so it was not possible to see anyone alight, nor to gain access to the queue preparing to board. There was a brief moment when one of the pony-tailed passengers climbed onto the shoulders of a colleague and waved some silverware around, but it soon became clear that nobody without official clearance would be boarding the inaugural service.
The L10 does not accept either Oyster or contactless. Instead passengers must be in possession of a large European trophy, recently-obtained, and present this to the driver as they board the vehicle. One UEFA Trophy is sufficient to permit access for all, acting as a group ticket for the entire team. Unusually the vehicles provided were both open-topped, a risky prospect on a day when heavy showers were forecast. It also meant spectators unable to board the bus could clearly see the lucky few as they appeared on the top deck, which could have got ugly but instead they cheered loudly and exuberantly, and occasionally called to them by name.
Unexpectedly the bus departed two minutes early, as if nobody at the bus company had any sense of timing. Unfortunately the traffic was awful, the Band of His Majesty's Royal Marines Portsmouth insisting on proceeding at a walking pace in front of the vehicle, so the L10 crept ever so slowly into the Mall. And ridiculously it was immediately followed by a second service, a vehicle packed out with hangers-on nobody appeared to recognise, but lapping up the adulation all the same. I was not able to track either of the vehicles on any of the apps, which seems an unfortunate oversight. But how typical that when it comes to special buses, you wait for years and then two come along at once.
The crowds on the Mall were five deep, which isn't normal behaviour on a new bus route, not even Day One on the Superloop. What's more the majority of them appeared to be female and that's very much exceptional for what's essentially a bus-spotting event. Even the passengers on the top deck, grinning with glee at the situation they found themselves in, weren't the usual men the nation used to think of in these circumstances. What was particularly encouraging to see was the number of young people present, easily into the high thousands, all agog to be here and recording reels to share on their socials as is so often the case with new bus launches today.
Even with a heavy police presence the open-topped service was making slow progress. It's often said that "you could walk it faster" and in this case I actually did, nipping marginally into St James's Park to avoid a throng increasing in density as the journey proceeded. Some families appeared to have travelled for many miles and all because their youngest child had insisted on dragging them here simply to see a particular bus, as is so often the way. They cheered in collective adoration, they waved flags name-checking an online bank and they screamed adoringly at the excitement of a converted Alexander Dennis Trident (or perhaps at the historic gathering on the open deck, it was hard to be certain).
Hundreds of latecomers could be seen running expectantly through the park to try to catch a glimpse, increasingly in vain as the bus inched toward the end of The Mall, with many held back so far from the action so that the double decker formed barely a few pixels on their smartphone screen. A complete bottleneck eventually halted the crowd's onward progress, formed by those who'd had the dedication and forethought to have staked their position hours in advance. At the final cordon it became clear that nothing was getting through apart from the two buses, the triumph of the new route complete in that it was the only possible way to reach the terminus and experience the final celebrations first hand.
A huge bus shelter had been constructed beneath the Queen Victoria Memorial, ideal for shielding passengers from the elements had there been a return journey. It was so large you could almost imagine Heather Small coming out and singing Proud, the inevitable finale to any significant bus-related gathering. Instead the passengers were brought forward one at a time to relate how the 14 minute trip had made them feel, in one case confessing to crying all the way, and seemingly exhausted from all the waving. The entire nation was impressed by how far they'd come, and as Sweet Caroline boomed out were left dreaming that they might one day make the same journey again. It was a day that generations of fans will never forget.
It's hard to see the L10 as a practical bus route, being barely half a mile long and taking the best part of quarter of an hour to complete. The open-topped vehicle is impractical in the British climate and the lack of seats upstairs a glaring error. But 65,000 enthusiasts were drawn to witness its first journey yesterday, and plainly ecstatic at what they saw, confirming that collective endeavour and London buses can always bring the nation together. It may be many years before the same team are back on The Mall with another inspirational success to share, maybe even the men rather than the women next time, but let's hope pride returns to our streets and this becomes a regular service.
