London Buses route 343 is a
Transport for London contracted bus route in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England. Running between
New Cross Gate
New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwic ...
and
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
, it is operated by
London Central
London Central is a bus company operating in South London. It is a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group and operates services under contract to Transport for London.
History
London Central commenced operating on 1 April 1989 when London Bus ...
.
History

When re-tendered, the route passed to
Travel London's
Walworth garage on 21 September 2005 with
Wright Eclipse Gemini
The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a low-floor double-decker bus body that was built by Wrightbus since 2001, based on the single-deck Wright Eclipse design. The second-generation Eclipse Gemini 2 was launched in 2009, followed by the third-generat ...
bodied
Volvo B7TL
The Volvo B7TL is a low-floor double-decker bus chassis which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of the Volvo Olympian (its 3-axle version was replaced by the Volvo Super Olympian). It was built as the British bus operators seem ...
s introduced.
Route 343 was included in the May 2009 sale of Travel London to
Abellio London
Abellio London is a bus company operating services in Greater London. A subsidiary of Abellio, it operates services under contract to Transport for London (TfL). Until September 2018, services were operated in Surrey under the Abellio Surrey ...
. Abellio London successfully tendered to retain the route with a new contract commencing on 5 May 2011.
In June 2010, the route was revealed to be amongst the ten worst performing in London. Two additional morning peak journeys were introduced on 12 June 2010 with the intention of solving the problems; performance improved as a result, although the route continued to receive complaints.
A proposal to increase the frequency of the route was announced by
Transport for London in November 2010.
At 08:22 on 17 March 2012, a route 343 caught fire on Pepys Road, New Cross. The fire was put out by 09:20 and there were no injuries.
On 25 June 2019, the route received an extension from City Hall to Aldgate to replace part of the now withdrawn RV1.
Current route
*
New Cross Gate
New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwic ...
''Jerningham Road''
*
Brockley
Brockley is a district and an electoral ward of south London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham south-east of Charing Cross.
History
The name Brockley is derived from "Broca's woodland clearing", a wood where badgers are seen (''br ...
*
Peckham Rye station
*
Elephant & Castle station
*
Borough station
*
London Bridge station
London Bridge is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Southwark, south-east London. It occupies a large area on three levels immediately south-east of London Bridge, from which it takes its name. The ...
*St Thomas Street ''for
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science cent ...
''
*
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
''Queen Elizabeth Street''
*
Tower Gateway station
*
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:343, London buses route
Bus routes in London
Transport in the London Borough of Lewisham
Transport in the London Borough of Southwark