The lowest number that isn't a nightbus: 4
The only overnight bus that starts with a letter that isn't N: EL1
Five consecutively numbered nightbuses: N25, N26, N27, N28, N29
Can you show me a map of all the nightbuses? Yes, here's one. I generated it using route-mapster.vercel.app(which if you like bus map facts is seriously brilliant)
[Night routes in orange, 24-hour routes in blue]
The extremes of the nightbus network Most westerly: N9 (Heathrow Terminal 5) Most northerly: N279 (Waltham Cross bus station) Most easterly: N86 (Harold Hill) Most southerly: N68 (Old Coulsdon)
The only nightbus to go outside London: the aforementioned N279
Nightbuses that go nowhere near the daytime route with that number
N5: Trafalgar Square - Edgware (not Canning Town - Romford)
N20: Trafalgar Square - Barnet (not Walthamstow - Debden)
N97: Trafalgar Square - Hammersmith (not Stratford - Chingford)
Nightbuses whose numbers aren't used by daytime buses: N118, N472, N550, N551
How many nightbuses start at Trafalgar Square? 22
Earliest start for a nightbus: 2300 (on the N140 from Harrow Weald) Latest start for a nightbus: 0115 (on the N133 in both directions) Earliest finish for a nightbus: 0512 (on the N28 in both directions) Latest finish for a nightbus: 0717 (on the N140 to Harrow Weald) (and on Sunday mornings, 0807 on the N9 to Heathrow)
The three most frequent nightbuses
N15 (every 10 minutes, every 8 at weekends)
N25 (every 8 minutes, every 10 at weekends)
N29 (every 10 minutes)
n.b. the vast majority of nightbuses run every 30 minutes
When was the first nightbus? 1913, on route 94 (here's a photo of the B-Type outside Piccadilly Circus station)
When was the first 'N' nightbus? 12th October 1960
Here's an N83 timetable (Charing Cross - Tottenham) from July 1961.
What was the nightbus network like in 1972? There were 19 proper Night Bus routes, numbered consecutively from N81 to N99, which generally bore no relation to similarly-numbered daytime routes. Of these only the N97 survives today. Four other routes ran overnight, the 11, 109, 168 and 185. I've blogged about this before.
Number of nightbus routes 25 years ago: 61
The following year 24-hour services lost their N prefix.
Here's a nightbus map from 2005 (by Mike Harris).
And here's the 2015 Central London nightbus map.
The nightbus route that travels the furthest every year: N15 (390,156 km, way way ahead of the N29)
The nightbus route that travels least far every year: N472 (47,709 km)
Places that are more than 2 miles from an overnight bus: Northwood, Ickenham, Mill Hill, Upminster, Biggin Hill, Wallington
London's five least busy nightbus routes (2024/25) 1) 486 North Greenwich - Bexleyheath (39,000) 2) 213 Kingston - Sutton (44,000) 3) N33 Hammersmith - Fulwell (52,000) 4) 365 Orchard Estate - Havering Park (54,000) 5) 85 Putney - Kingston (55,000)
The next ten: 474, 321, N72, 158, 24, 119, N381, N472, 93, 264
The only single decker nightbus routes: N33, N72
The only nightbuses to start and finish in the same place: N5 and N113 (Trafalgar Square - Edgware bus station)
London's newest nightbuses
N472 (North Greenwich - Abbey Wood) [24 January 2026]
N118 (Trafalgar Square - Ruislip) [17 January 2026]
N263 (Moorgate - North Finchley) [6 April 2025]
The three bus stops served by the most nightbuses
Southampton Street/Covent Garden (A)
Bedford Street (J)
Savoy Street (U)
...all served by the N9 N15 N21 N26 N44 N87 N89 N91 N155 N199 N343 N550 N551 (n.b. three routes were missing from the tiles when I took these photos in 2024)
Bus stops that are only used by nightbuses
N3/N87: Abingdon Street
N8: The Lowe (in Hainault)
N9: Holland Road, Nene Road Roundabout, Newbury Road/Compass Centre (north of Heathrow)
N133: The Drive (in Morden)
N199: Murray Road (in St Mary Cray)
N205: Warton Road (will be served by the D8 later next year)
N551: Tobacco Dock, Wellclose Street
London's longest night bus routes 1) N199 Trafalgar Square → St Mary Cray 21.92 miles 2) N89 Trafalgar Square → Erith 21.33 miles 3) N9 Heathrow T5 → Aldwych 20.94 miles 4) N68 New Oxford Street → Old Coulsdon 19.74 miles 5) N15 Romford → Oxford Circus 18.75 miles
The shortest nightbus route: The N97 is 6.13 miles long
The shortest overnight routes: The 238 and 271 are both under five miles
Nightbuses which run within a single borough: 64, 278, 365, EL1
The borough with only one nightbus: Sutton (plus three 24 hour routes)
The borough with 49 nightbuses: Westminster (77% of the total)
Have you ridden on all the nightbuses? Yes I have, it took three nights, although this was in 2018 and there were only 50 back then.
Has anybody else done this? Geoff's just ridden all 64 and made a video about it.
Has anybody else done this? Yes.
