London Buses route 108

London Buses route 108 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to East Thames Buses.

History
The 108 is considered to be one of London’s most difficult routes to operate, and is said to be agonisingly slow for a through journey from Lewisham to Stratford, taking just under an hour. This journey is now also covered by the Docklands Light Railway in offpeak times, taking about half as long, but via Greenwich and the Docklands rather than Blackheath and the Blackwall Tunnel. The unusual feature of the route is its use of the Blackwall Tunnel, which is has a lot of triffic at the best of times, and regular closures and maintenance work cause havoc with the service.

Originally the route ran from Crystal Palace via Sydenham and Catford to take up the present routing from Lewisham via Blackheath, East Greenwich and the Blackwall Tunnel to Bow. It may seem strange now, but the route was then double deck — especially bearing in mind that there was only one tunnel then, which is now the northbound tunnel.

Two batches of double deck buses (NS and STL types) were specifically built for use in the Blackwall and Rotherhithe Tunnels, with specially shaped roofs to improve clearance on the corners.

1940s
On April 19 1944 the 108 sprung an A-suffixed variant running to Well Hall Circus, providing this section of the Rochester Way with a bus service for the first time, and run from Athol Street garage. Initially it ran peak hours only, but soon expanded to a Monday to Saturday then daily operation, and was also subsequently extended into Eltham (Southend Crescent), but then retracted to operate Eltham – East Greenwich only.

Meanwhile, the 108 was split, the main service becoming Blackheath to Bow only, with a new 108B running from Crystal Palace to the Ordnance Crescent/Tunnel Avenue industrial area on the south side of the tunnel.

1950s and 1960s
In 1951 the road surface was lowered allowing standard RTs to operate. However, as vehicles got wider and wider over the years it became necessary to raise the carriageway level to make the road wider at the expense of height clearance, which was done during 1967-1968 after the new tunnel opened, so now there are severe height restrictions and the northbound tunnel can only accommodate single deckers.

1970s
Further re-structuring took place in January 1970, with the 108A withdrawn and replaced by an extension of the 108 from Blackheath. The 108 was extended at the north end to Stratford in 1977.

1980s
The next major changes were in 1986 when the 108B was reduced to run Crystal Palace - Lewisham only, with the 108 restored to serve Lewisham and new route 286 taking over the Eltham – Blackheath section of the 108 and the Blackheath – West Greenwich section of the 108B. The 108B has since been replaced by changes to the 75 and new route 202. In 1988, the 108 was further extended from Stratford to Wanstead replacing part of route 10 (once Abridge – Victoria, but by then only running as far out as Wanstead).

Although the approach roads on both sides of the tunnel have been massively upgraded, in connexion with the new southbound tunnel, the 108 takes many long cuts. Buses leaving both Stratford and Lewisham operate via the shopping areas, and in both directions deviate to serve Bromley High Street in Bow, resulting in southbound buses circumnavigating the roundabout twice; northbound buses serve the only surviving part of St. Leonard’s Street (the rest having become the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach). Southbound buses also deviate via the Tesco in Hancock Road and via Gillender Street, but northbound buses have stops on the dual carriageway. Finally, and most recently, the 108 became the first bus route to serve the Millennium Dome at North Greenwich during construction, and as initially this stop was inside the security area, only staff were allowed to alight. This deviation has added nearly 10 minutes to the through journey time, partly because of an unusual 3 minute hesitation now scheduled at North Greenwich. From 1989 the route was won by Boro'line Maidstone using a batch of new Leyland Lynxes. Boro'line subsequently collapsed and was bought by Kentish Bus.

1990s
The 1993 Stratford area route scheme saw the section north of Stratford withdrawn, with links maintained by the 257 and 308, but the frequency was improved from every 15 minutes to every 12. The Lewisham scheme soon after in 1994 saw the introduction of Volvo B6 buses operated from Ash Grove garage.

Kentish Bus saw the route through a particular period of turmoil, with the redevelopment of Lewisham and Stratford town centres, and the major rebuilding of the East India Dock Road junction and streamlining of the tunnel approaches. Closure of the East India Dock Road bridge at weekends resulted in a lengthy diversion, with northbound buses via Cotton Street, Poplar High Street, Bazely Street, Chrisp Street, Violet Road and Devas Street to rejoin the normal route, and similarly southbound via Twelvetrees Crescent, Devas Street, Violet Road, Chrisp Street, Bazely Street, Aspen Way, Leamouth Road and East India Dock Road. In addition, routine maintenance work often takes place at night, with one or other or sometimes both tunnels closed between about 21:00 and 06:00, and buses are then diverted via Tower Bridge.

A major surprise in 1997 was the award of the route to a newcomer to London Bus operations, Harris Bus. 11 new Optare Excels were purchased, restricted in length to the 10.7m version due to a new deviation in Blackheath via Prince Charles Road instead of Prince of Wales Road. Buses were initially operated from the firm’s far-away base in West Thurrock, although the subsequent win of routes 180 and 132 saw operation transferred to a new base in Belvedere.

Harris Bus got into serious financial difficulties late in 1999, and as a result operations of its LT contract routes was taken over by a new subsidiary of LT itself, trading as East Thames Buses. Harris’s colourful, albeit latterly rather scruffy, blue and green livery was sacrificed in favour of dull all-over red. East Thames Buses initially ran its routes north of the Thames from the former London Forest garage in Ash Grove, along with the Harris Belvedere base. Part of the 108 was based at Ash Grove, a neat coincidence considering that Kentish Bus operated the 108 from there for a while as well.

Since takeover by Harris, the 108 has been diverted via North Greenwich, but to compensate reverted to the more direct route across Blackheath via Prince of Wales Road; the frequency has been further enhanced to every 10 minutes, utilising four earlier Excels made redundant by the loss of car park services at Lakeside shopping centre, but this is still not as good as the 5 minute double deck service provided in 1933.

2000s
Unfortuantely, Optare Excels have not been known for their reliability, and East Thames Buses started to replace those on the 108 (and 132) with Caetano Compass bodied Dennis Darts surplus to requirements at Connex Bus (now Travel London).

However, in the interests of fleet modernisation, a decision was taken to acquire a batch of Volvo Merit vehicles. These are really VDL SB120 buses with Wright Cadet bodywork, but sold by Volvo.

Route departing Lewisham

 * Lewisham station
 * Lewisham High Street
 * Lee Bridge
 * Belmont Hill
 * Lee Terrace
 * Blackheath Village
 * Blackheath Station
 * Blackheath Village
 * Tranquil Vale
 * Royal Parade
 * Montpelier Row
 * Prince of Wales Road
 * Stratheden Road
 * Blackheath Royal Standard
 * Westcombe Hill
 * Westcombe Park Station
 * Westcombe Hill
 * Combedale Road
 * Woolwich Road
 * East Greenwich
 * Blackwall Lane
 * Millennium Way
 * North Greenwich Station Bus Station
 * Millennium Way
 * Blackwall Lane
 * Tunnel Avenue
 * Blackwall Tunnel Approach
 * Blackwall Tunnel
 * Poplar
 * Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach
 * Bromley-by-Bow Station
 * Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach
 * St Leonards Street
 * Bromley High Street
 * Slip Road
 * Bow
 * Bow Bridge roundabout
 * Stratford High Street
 * Great Eastern Road
 * Stratford station Bus Station

Route departing Stratford

 * Stratford station Bus Station
 * Great Eastern Road
 * The Grove
 * The Broadway
 * Stratford High Street
 * Bow Road
 * Bow Bridge roundabout
 * Bow Road
 * Bow Church (for Station)
 * Bromley High Street
 * Slip Road
 * Bow Bridge roundabout
 * Hancock Road
 * Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach
 * Bromley-by-Bow Station
 * Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach
 * Gillender Street
 * Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach
 * Poplar
 * Blackwall Tunnel
 * Blackwall Tunnel Approach
 * Tunnel Avenue
 * Dreadnought Street
 * Blackwall Lane
 * Millennium Way
 * North Greenwich Station Bus Station
 * Millennium Way
 * Blackwall Lane
 * East Greenwich
 * Woolwich Road
 * Combedale Road
 * Westcombe Hill
 * Westcombe Park Station
 * Westcombe Hill
 * Blackheath Royal Standard
 * Stratheden Road
 * Prince of Wales Road
 * Montpelier Row
 * Montpelier Vale
 * Blackheath Village
 * Blackheath Station
 * Blackheath Village
 * Lee Terrace
 * Belmont Hill
 * Lee Bridge
 * Lewisham High Street
 * Lewisham station Bus Station