London Buses route 350

London Buses route 350 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Abellio London.

History
Route 350 is one of many new routes in and around Hillingdon that were designed to serve the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. The route is notable as it operates on many roads in Harlington that were not previously served by buses. In January 2008 it was awarded to Travel London using new Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts, and began operating on 22 March 2008 between Hayes & Harlington Station and Harmondsworth, and was extended to Terminal 5 when it opened.

The route is a renumbering, and extension from West Drayton to Heathrow T5, of the previous route H50 which was introduced in 2001 to create a new direct link between Hayes & Harlington and West Drayton stations via Stockley Business Park, as the only routes serving Stockley Park (routes A10 and U1, and now route U5) were not direct enough to transport commuters to the railway stations.

The route was initially branded as Trainlink, provided the Hayes West Drayton partnership and the Government's Challenge Fund, operated by Wings, the 3 single deck buses carried a green livery with route brandings, similar to that of route A10.

The service had become very popular with commuters commuting to and from Stockley Park in the mornings and evenings, but very little used outside these times with buses often seen running nearly empty. The decision was taken to convert the whole service to double deck as there were only 3 buses needed for the route. However, Wings had sold their bus operation to Tellings-Golden Miller (TGM), who were reluctant to operate double deckers, so various options were considered and the problem eventually solved itself when TGM was bought out by Travel London who were able to operate double decker buses, which entered service in April 2005. This was short lived, and the route was converted back to single deck, with some double deck peak journeys, on 22 March 2008 when it was renumbered 350 and officially extended from West Drayton to the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow, although buses stopped short at Harmondsworth until Terminal 5 opened to the public. The low loadings outside peak hours could not justify more double deckers being bought for the extension.

On 31 March 2012, route 350 was converted to double deck using Dennis Trident 2 9.9m / Alexander ALX400.

Current route

 * Heathrow Terminal 5
 * Harmondsworth
 * West Drayton Station Station Approach
 * Stockley Park
 * Hayes & Harlington Station