London Buses route X26

London Buses route X26 is a Transport for London contracted bus route from Heathrow Airport to West Croydon. The service is currently contracted to Metrobus.

The route is the longest London Buses route in London.

History
The X26 has its origins in Green Line Coach route 725, which started in the 1950s and ran from Gravesend and Dartford through Bromley, Croydon, Sutton and Kingston to Staines and Windsor. In the late 1970s the 726 was introduced as a variant, running from Gravesend to Windsor via Heathrow Airport and Slough instead of Staines.

By the 1980s, the sections of route between Heathrow and Windsor and between Gravesend and Dartford had been withdrawn. At that time the Green Line network was operated by London Country Bus Services, but when that company was broken up in 1986, Green Line route 726, which ran almost entirely within Greater London, came under the control of London Transport. London Coaches, a subsidiary of London Buses privatised in 1992, operated the route using DK class DAF/Ikarus dual purpose type vehicles (i.e. coach seating in a bus body). Such was the success of the service that in 1994 a number of extra journeys were added to the basic hourly schedule at busy times, with three extra DKs purchased to service the increased vehicle requirement.

London Coaches originally ran the 726 from their Wandsworth garage, which operates the London sightseeing tour and is now in the hands of Arriva, but operation was moved in two stages to Northfleet, home of the former North Kent Express commuter coach routes. All journeys ran in service with the result that the first bus left Dartford at 0320 with the last bus back to Dartford arriving at 0209 — almost a 24 hour service.

The 726 suffered from poor reliability. Although perceived as an express route it ran for many miles through congested town centres. This made it relatively unattractive to passengers who might make long journeys. However, the idea of the route - a long direct run across south London - always remained popular to local politicians and enthusiasts even if the reality was quite different.

When the contract changed from London Coaches to Capital Logistics the timetable was adjusted to reflect the relatively low demand for the service. At a time when bus usage in London was growing, the 726 remained in continued decline and LT attempted to withdraw the service. Eventually a compromise was reached, and early in 1999 the service was cut back to run between Bromley and Heathrow only, and yet more journeys were cut from the timetable, returning the service to regular hourly, and with no early morning or late evening service. The first journey to Heathrow arrived around 0745, two hours after the first plane departures, and after the 0600 shift change at the airport. This journey was invariably very crowded.

Consistent with the decline of the service, passenger journeys appeared to evaporate in the section east of Croydon. The Heathrow end of the route remained very busy.

Capital Logistics was bought up by Tellings-Golden Miller (TGM) on 1 June 1999, coincidentally just after a new contract for the 726 had been awarded to TGM in their own right, for takeup during 2000. The original DAFs, which had transferred from London Coaches, transferred again, although new low floor buses were specified, and 7 Alexander ALX300-bodied Volvo B10BLE buses were purchased.

Although there was pressure to enhance service frequencies, the limited additional revenues would not have supported the cost of running a 30 minute service. The 726 suffered from very little bus priority and very many bus stops - resulting in long end-to-end run times. The route was therefore unattractive to most prospective passengers.

In 2005 the 726 was remodelled. Many stops were withdrawn to reduce run times and improve reliability. The service was renumbered X26 and awarded to Metrobus who use new Scania OmniCities.

London Buses hoped that the re-modelled route would attract more passengers and therefore specified large single deck buses. Some stops were restored to the route, including a new stop at Teddington - the route previously ran via Hampton Court.

On the 22 November 2008, route X26 was doubled in frequency to every 30 minutes for most of the day. The evening service is still hourly. To cover for the increase in PVR while new vehicles were prepared, Metrobus hired some Mercedes-Benz Citaros from Wealden PSV, but delivered directly from original owner Quality Line (who had them spare from the loss of route 293 to Metrobus). Since this, the Citaros have been returned to Wealden PSV, the dealer, and replaced with former Scania OmniCitys from the Crawley Fastway network, which have been refurbished and painted red. These are older than the original OmniCitys used on the route, and have two doors rather than one.

Current route

 * Heathrow Airport Central Station Bus Station
 * Hatton Cross Station
 * Teddington
 * Kingston Cromwell Road Bus Station
 * New Malden
 * Worcester Park
 * North Cheam
 * Cheam High Street
 * Sutton
 * Carshalton High Street
 * East Croydon Station
 * West Croydon Bus Station