London Buses route K1

London Buses route K1 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to London United.

History
Route K1 is part of the K-prefix network of services run around Kingston upon Thames, introduced in 1987.

The route remained in much the same format from its introduction until a route change in 1993 saw some switching of routes between Surbiton and Kingston. Route K1 swapped with the route of service 71 between Surbiton and Kingston. At the same time, two other K-prefix routes swapped, with route K4 (a later introduction the K-prefix routes in 1990) switching with route K3. Since then, the route has remained in its current format.

There was and earlier K1 shopper service using Routemasters, but in 1987 MCW Metroriders were seen for the first time on the streets of Kingston. Within five years, Dennis Darts were running on the service. The types of theses varied, with no particular allocation, with both Plaxton Pointer and Duple/Carlyle bodied examples running. Low floor vehicles were introduced following the new contract in 2001, with a batch of Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer 2s introduced to the service.

Since its introduction, route K1 has been operated solely by London United (through its Westlink subsidiary) and its successor. The contract came up for renewal in October 2007, which was again won by Transdev London. The contract specified new buses, and a batch of new Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts were introduced in August 2008.

Current route

 * New Malden Station
 * New Malden Police station
 * Malden Manor Station
 * Tolworth Broadway
 * Tolworth Red Lion
 * Hook Thornhill Road
 * Surbiton Station Claremont Road
 * Kingston Eden Street
 * Kingston Cromwell Road bus station