London Buses route 43 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Friern Barnet and London Bridge, it is operated by Metroline.
History
Route 43 commenced operation in August 1912 as a daily route between Archway and London Bridge stations via Holloway Road, Upper Street, Angel, City Road, Moorgate,Bank station and London Bridge, and was quickly extended to Muswell Hill Broadway via East Finchley and Fortis Green Road.
On 11 September 1913, a daily supplementary 43A was introduced between Archway tube station and London Bridge station.
In November 1913, the Sunday service on this route was withdrawn.
On 29 June 1914, the route was extended daily to Peckham Rye, and introduced on Saturdays and Sundays between Muswell Hill Broadway and Peckham Rye.
On 25 October 1914, the route was withdrawn as a wartime economy.
On 7 December 1914, the route was reinstated as a daily route between Colney Hatch Lane and London Bridge station.
In January 1915, the Sunday service was withdrawn.
On 2 April 1915, the route became a daily route again.
On 16 April 1916, the route was extended northwards on Sundays to Friern Barnet.
On 16 July 1916, the route was ceased.
On 29 March 1918, the route was extended southwards on Sundays to Brixton via Elephant & Castle and Kennington.
In April 1919, the Sunday service was further extended to Kenley Hotel via Streatham, Croydon and Purley.
In December 1919, this lasted until when the route was withdrawn on Sundays.
In 1920, the route was reintroduced between Muswell Hill Broadway and Caterham, but was cut back to terminate at South Croydon at the end of the summer, Caterham becoming the Summer Sunday and Bank Holiday terminus.
On 1 December 1924, a new system of route numbering on London Buses came into force under The London Traffic Act of 1924. This made the Metropolitan Police responsible for bus operation and route numbering in London. The route retained its number: Route 43A was renumbered 143 while route 43B became route 144. All three routes had short working suffixed routes, the plain route number being only used for journeys for the whole length of the route.
On 3 October 1934, the situation was retained when the newly constituted London Passenger Transport Board instituted its own numbering system which reinstated the situation previous to December 1924 apart from route 143 which kept its number.
On 21 April 1935, the route was withdrawn on Sundays with a new Sunday only route 43A introduced for the summer months, between Friern Barnet and Croydon Airport.
In October 1935, the route was withdrawn when the route was reinstated on Sundays between Friern Barnet and South Croydon.
On 12 April 1936, the Sundays only 43A was reintroduced with the route becoming a Monday to Saturday route working again.
On 10 March 1937, the route was reintroduced on Sundays to replace the 43A, now running on to Croydon Airport.
After the outbreak of World War 2, when economies in fuel consumption had to be made.
On 15 November 1939, the route was withdrawn except Monday-Fridays peak hours between Muswell Hill and Friern Barnet. The route was also withdrawn throughout on Monday-Friday evenings and on Saturday afternoons and evenings.
On Sunday evenings, the route was cut into two sections, being withdrawn between London Bridge station and Streatham garage.
In 1940, the Sunday evening service between London Bridge and Streatham was reintroduced from 28 March, but was withdrawn from 24 November.
On 6 April 1941, the retrenchment occurred when the route was withdrawn south of London Bridge Station on Sundays. The route was replaced by parallel services and a Sunday extension of route 115 between Streatham Common and Croydon Airport.
In April 1943, the route was reinstated on Monday to Friday evenings between Muswell Hill and Friern Barnet.
In 1950, the route had become a daily service between Friern Barnet and London Bridge with evening restrictions to the service on Mondays to Saturdays. Towards the end of the decade, in the aftermath of the Busmen's Strike of 1958, London Transport needed to make economies.
On 30 November 1958, the Sunday service was withdrawn and was replaced by an extension of route 133 to Archway.
On 8 November 1961, stage 12 of the trolleybus replacement scheme took effect with route 609 (Moorgate to High Barnet) replaced by route 104 which paralleled the route from Archway to Moorgate.
In January 1966, the service was increased, but on Saturday afternoons the service was cut back to City Road. The Saturday afternoon service was further cut back to Angel.
On 28 October 1978, the route became an all-day Monday-Saturday Friern Barnet to London Bridge service.
On 28 July 1984, the garage journeys to and from Finchley garage could be used by passengers.
On 14 July 1987, the route was converted to one person operation.
On 2 February 1991, the route was extended on Sundays to Liverpool Street station via Moorgate and was withdrawn on Sundays between Muswell Hill Broadway and Friern Barnet.
On 31 January 1998, the service once again became a daily Friern Barnet - London Bridge service.
On Sundays, the route was diverted between Old Street and Monument via Shoreditch and Liverpool Street station.
In 1992, the route operates was designated as London's first Red Route bus priority scheme.
In 1999, the route was converted to low floor using brand new Plaxton President bodied Dennis Tridents.
In March 2004, Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs were introduced.
On 6 November 2004, the Sunday service via Liverpool Street station was withdrawn, buses then reverting to the Monday to Saturday routing.
On 2 February 2005, the route was converted into a 24-hour service.
On 4 February 2012, the route was retained by Metroline with brand new Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B9TLs introduced.
In 2016, Alexander Dennis Enivro 400s were introduced.
Brand new MCV EvoSeti bodied Volvo B5LHs will be introduced from June 2018.
The route will be retained by Metroline from 2 February 2019.
Variants
In 1992 a peak hour route X43 was introduced to supplement route 43 in connection with the Red Route bus priority scheme introduced at the time. It used specially liveried Scania N113 double-deckers branded as Red Express. London Northern, the subsidiary of London Buses which had taken over operation of the route in 1989, stated that passenger numbers along the route increased by 8,700 in the year following its introduction.
Current route
- Friern Barnet Library
- Muswell Hill Broadway
- Highgate Station
- Archway station
- Holloway Road Station
- Highbury & Islington Station
- Islington Upper Street
- Angel Station
- Old Street Station
- Moorgate Station
- Bank Station
- Monument Station
- London Bridge Bus Station