London Buses route 453

London Buses route 453 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. The service is currently contracted to Go-Ahead London.

History
The 453 was formed from London Buses route 53 on 15 February 2003, the weekend that the London congestion charge began. It was run by Stagecoach London.

The 453 operates from Deptford to Marylebone, with Citaro O530Gs, known as "Bendy buses", although standard double deckers had to be used for the first four weeks as Mercedes-Benz could not deliver enough in time.

The 453 has taken a lot of pressure off of the 53. The 453 originally started from the first busy single stop on the 53, at Deptford, outside Addey and Stanhope School, then follows the 53 via New Cross, New Cross Gate, Old Kent Road, Bricklayers Arms, Elephant & Castle, St. George's Circus, Westminster, to Whitehall, then Regent Street, Oxford Street, Great Portland Street, Regent's Park and to Marylebone. The section north of Oxford Circus was a new service designed to create a new south - west link at Regent's Park Underground station.

The buses were based at Selkent's Plumstead garage, as is the 53, which is obviously a long way off route and results in a lot of empty running. An unfortunate situation arose because the originally planned terminus at Deptford's Seager development (by Deptford Bridge DLR station) was delayed for three years. As there was nowhere else suitable to turn the buses round, buses ran empty all the way to and from Lewisham (Jerrard Street) to turn round and stand. This meant 2 or 3 buses were tied up all day just running to and fro empty. Selkent proposed to extend the whole service to Catford garage, where the route would have been based, but buses are now able to turn around at Deptford.

This was the second of the "bendy bus" routes to operate out of Zone one (after the 436; the 507 and 521 were the first bendy buses, operating from 5 June 2002). In common with all bendy routes in London, it is a ticket-less route - which is to say, tickets are not issued by the driver. Anecdotal evidence suggests that fare evasion rates are quite high despite more intensive ticket checking than normal, sometimes backed up by the Metropolitan Police stopping a whole bus and then checking everyone's tickets. Indeed, in an interview with James Righton of New Cross-based musical act Klaxons in the 2006 NME Student Guide, he encouraged readers to take the "45free" bus - a clear reference to the easily avoidable fare.

A surprising change from 15 January 2005 was the reduction of the Monday to Friday frequency from every 6 minutes to every 8 minutes, although there are a couple of extra peak hour journeys. This was mainly to free up 5 Citaros for route 25 for East London, which is even busier.

A large section of the route of the 453 parallels the Bakerloo line (Marylebone, Oxford Circus, Elephant and Castle etc.) and is very useful at times when the Bakerloo line is suspended due to engineering works.

Operation of route 453 was transferred to London General on 16 February 2008, with a new batch of Citaros, which have the new Euro 4 style front and rear ends.

Route departing Deptford

 * Deptford Bridge Station
 * Deptford Broadway
 * New Cross Road
 * New Cross Station
 * Amersham Road
 * Parkfield Road
 * Lewisham Way
 * New Cross Road
 * New Cross Gate Station
 * New Cross Road
 * Old Kent Road
 * Bricklayers Arms
 * New Kent Road
 * Elephant & Castle Station
 * St George's Road
 * Westminster Bridge Road
 * Lambeth North Station
 * Westminster Bridge Road
 * Westminster Bridge
 * Westminster Station
 * Bridge Street
 * Parliament Square
 * Parliament Street
 * Whitehall
 * Charing Cross
 * Trafalgar Square (for Charing Cross Station)
 * Cockspur Street
 * Pall Mall
 * Waterloo Place
 * Regent Street
 * Piccadilly Circus Station
 * Regent Street
 * Oxford Circus Station
 * Langham Place
 * Portland Place
 * Devonshire Street
 * Great Portland Street
 * Great Portland Street Station
 * Marylebone Road
 * Regent's Park Station
 * Marylebone Road
 * Baker Street Station
 * Marylebone Road
 * Harewood Avenue
 * Marylebone Station

Route departing Marylebone

 * Marylebone Station Great Central Street
 * Marylebone Road
 * Baker Street Station
 * Marylebone Road
 * Regent's Park Station
 * Marylebone Road
 * Great Portland Street Station
 * Great Portland Street
 * New Cavendish Street
 * Portland Place
 * Langham Place
 * Regent Street
 * Oxford Circus Station
 * Regent Street
 * Piccadilly Circus Station
 * The Haymarket
 * Cockspur Street
 * Trafalgar Square (for Charing Cross Station)
 * Charing Cross
 * Whitehall
 * Parliament Street
 * Bridge Street
 * Westminster Station
 * Westminster Bridge
 * York Road
 * Addington Street
 * Westminster Bridge Road
 * Lambeth North Station
 * Westminster Bridge Road
 * St George's Circus
 * London Road
 * Elephant & Castle Station
 * New Kent Road
 * Bricklayers Arms
 * Old Kent Road
 * New Cross Road
 * New Cross Gate Station
 * New Cross Road
 * New Cross Station
 * New Cross Road
 * Deptford Broadway
 * Deptford Bridge Station