The only London Buses route not to terminate at Uxbridge Station is the U1, as three short routes, the U1, U5 and U6, were unusually amalgamated to provide new cross-town links under the number U1. The route is now operated by standard Centrewest-issue Marshall bodied Dennis Dart SLFs, in this case 10.2m long DML 192 (R192 VLD). Most of the batch is branded for the U1, although in this case part of the branding has been obliterated! More recently, they have been converted to allow wheelchair access, which involves fitting a retractable ramp in the doorway and altering the seating layout to make space (which usually also means losing several seats for ordinary passengers!).

Photo by Andrew Gronneberg.

Most buses stand inside Uxbridge garage (in the background), and therefore have a straight run out to the bus stops, but the U1 has an awkward job as it approaches and departs along the access road (to the left) — hence the slightly odd loading angle in this view! Fortunately the buses are single door, so there are no issues about safety or convenience of passengers alighting via a centre exit.

The U1 previously ran just between Ruislip and Uxbridge, having been a straight re-numbering of that section of historic route 223 upon the launch of the U-Line network in 1988. From 1992 it had a rather bizarre extension from Ruislip to Harefield, Rickmansworth and Chorleywood, with some journeys continuing via Maple Cross and Denham back to Uxbridge, in replacement of Hertfordshire County Council route 128. There was also a short-lived Sunday-afternoon-only route U8 replacing the Sunday 128^A, Uxbridge – Hillingdon Hospital – Ruislip – Mount Vernon Hospital – Harefield Hospital.

However, 1995 saw the introduction of new route 331 serving the London parts of this section, between Ruislip and Harefield (as well as running on into Uxbridge to replace Luton & District routes 347/348), while local Rickmansworth route R1 (now R21) replaced much of the remainder. The U1 thus reverted to its former Uxbridge – Ruislip function. At this stage the route still lacked a Sunday service – not only leaving a large area unserved by buses on this day of the week, but making a journey between Uxbridge and nearby Ruislip a decidedly lengthy detour on the 331 via Harefield and Northwood!

But within a year the route was extended by a somewhat circuitous route via Cowley, Hillingdon Hospital, West Drayton and Stockley Estate to Stockley Park, directly replacing route U5, then continuing to Hayes in place of the U6. However, the U6 had operated via Botwell Common, whereas the U1 initially took a different route via Blyth Road. Additionally a Sunday service was introduced throughout, being new for most of the route, although it was quickly withdrawn again between Stockley Estate and Hayes, as well as reverting to Botwell Common.

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Chronologically	W11	484
Numerically	T33	U4

See also routes 331, R21