London Buses route 18 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. Running between Sudbury and

Euston bus station Euston Bus Station serves the Euston area of Camden, London, England. The station is owned and maintained by Transport for London. It is situated next to Euston main line railway station and above Euston Underground station and near Eust ...

, it is operated by London United. In 2018/19 it was the busiest route in London.

History

In 1934 there were four routes, 18, 18A, 18B and 18C. The 18 and 18A, plus 18B on weekdays, ran from

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 m ...

, via

Southwark Bridge Southwark Bridge ( ) is an arch bridge in London, for traffic linking the district of Southwark and the City across the River Thames. Besides when others are closed for temporary repairs, it has the least traffic of the Thames bridges in Lond ...

, St Paul's station and

Gray's Inn Road Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at the City of London boundary, where it bisects High Holborn, and ends at King's Cross and ...

to King's Cross station. From here the 18 and 18B ran daily, the 18A on Mondays to Saturdays and the 18C on Sundays, via

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

and

Harrow Road The Harrow Road is an ancient route in North West London which runs from Paddington in a northwesterly direction towards Harrow. It is also the name given to the immediate surrounding area of Queens Park and Kensal Green, straddling the NW10 ...

Harlesden Harlesden is a district in the London Borough of Brent, North West London. Located north of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs, the Harrow Road flows through the centre of the area which goes eastwards to Central London and west towards ...

, where the 18A continued to Park Royal. The other three routes ran to Stonebridge Park; the 18B ran on via the

North Circular Road The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting ...

Brent Cross Brent Cross is originally the name of a crossroads that today forms a major interchange for traffic in the London Borough of Barnet, England. Located a mile from the centres of Hendon and Golders Green, the area also contains the Brent Cros ...

. The 18C peeled off here to serve

Wembley Empire Pool Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-sea ...

, while the 18 and 18C served Wembley and Sudbury. The 18C then headed south to

Greenford Greenford () is a suburb in the London Borough of Ealing in west London, England, lying west from Charing Cross. It has a population of 46,787 inhabitants, or 62,126 with the inclusion of Perivale. Greenford is served by Greenford Station (Lo ...

and

Hanwell Hanwell () is a town in the London Borough of Ealing, in the historic County of Middlesex, England. It is about 1.5 miles west of Ealing Broadway and had a population of 28,768 as of 2011. It is the westernmost location of the London post t ...

, while the 18 continued north to Harrow and

Harrow Weald Harrow Weald is a suburban district in Greater London, England. Located about north of Harrow, Harrow Weald is formed from a leafy 1930s suburban development along with ancient woodland of Harrow Weald Common. It forms part of the London Boro ...

. Route 18 was withdrawn between

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

and Harlesden except on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, times at which route 18A no longer ran. The 18A, having run every four minutes, was withdrawn without replacement on 17 October 1939. The 18C Sunday extension into the centre was also withdrawn; the 18 was cut back to Wembley Empire Pool on Mondays to Saturdays, but was diverted at Wealdstone to serve

Canons Park Canons Park is a public park and the name of its surrounding residential area, in the Stanmore district of the London Borough of Harrow, north west London. Canons Park was a country estate which partially survives today as a public park. St. Law ...

and

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

, with a peak hours and Sundays extension to provide a service to

Aldenham Works The Aldenham Works, or Aldenham Bus Overhaul Works, was the main London Transport bus overhaul works. It was located on the edge of the Hertfordshire village of Elstree and not in Aldenham. In its heyday, 50 buses a week were overhauled there ...

. The 18C was renumbered to 92 on 14 June 1944, with a 92A variant running to Wembley Trading Estate at certain times of the week.

Trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

replacement in the 1960s saw the 18 extended back to Paddington Green to replace route 662. The 18B was withdrawn, and the 18 extended except on Monday to Saturday evenings to London Bridge. The former 18A was reintroduced at peak hours, running between

Acton Acton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Acton Australia * Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie * Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton Canada ...

and Paddington Green via a slightly different route. This was extended to

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...

in 1978, but withdrawn in September. In 1970, the 18 was cut back to run only as far out as Sudbury, with new route 182 covering the section between Wembley and Harrow Weald (and on to

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

), and the 186 the section between Harrow and Edgware, both routes later being extended to new shopping centre at Brent Cross. In 1985 the 18 was curtailed at King's Cross, apart from a peak hours service as far as

Farringdon Street Farringdon Road is a road in Clerkenwell, London. Route Farringdon Road is part of the A201 route connecting King's Cross to Elephant and Castle. It goes southeast from King's Cross, crossing Rosebery Avenue, then turns south, crossing C ...

. The section between King's Cross and London Bridge was covered by new route 17. In 1992 the Countdown

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

information system was installed at stops on route 18. The system proved popular with passengers and has been extended across London. In November 2003, route 18 Mercedes-Benz O530G articulated buses replaced

Plaxton President The Plaxton President was a low floor double-decker bus body built at Northern Counties plant in Wigan, England and branded as a Plaxton product for its main production run. It was first unveiled in 1997 on the longitudinal Volvo B7L chassi ...

bodied Dennis Tridents with the route transferred from Westbourne Park garage to

Willesden Junction Willesden Junction is a railway station in Harlesden, north-west London, UK. It is served by both London Overground and London Underground services. History The station developed on three contiguous sites: the West Coast Main Line (WCML) st ...

. In 2008 the route was named as the most problematic for crime in London. On 13 November 2010, route 18 was converted back to double deck operation as part of the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

's policy to replace the O530Gs. New

Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 The Wright Eclipse Gemini is a Low-floor bus, 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 ...

bodied

Volvo B9TL The Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo from 2002 until 2018. It superseded the Volvo Super Olympian and the Volvo B7TL. The 2-axle version has been superseded by the Volvo B5TL in 2014 and the 3-axle version has been su ...

s were introduced, and the frequency was increased to every 4 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes and to 6-7 Sunday daytimes. On 22 June 2013, route 18 was included in the sale of

First London First London was a bus company operating services in east and west Greater London, England. It was a subsidiary of FirstGroup and operated buses under contract to Transport for London. It was formed in the late 1990s through the acquisition o ...

's Willesden Junction garage to

Metroline Metroline is a bus company operating services in Greater London and south Hertfordshire. It is a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Corporation and operates services under contract to Transport for London. As at March 2021, the fleet consisted of 1,5 ...

. Upon being re-tendered it was awarded to London United's Park Royal garage from 11 November 2018. In 2018/19 it was the busiest TfL bus route, carrying 16.7 million passengers.

Current route

Route 18 operates via these primary locations:Route 18 Map
Transport for London * Sudbury & Harrow Road station *

Wembley Central station Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

Stonebridge Park station Stonebridge or StoneBridge may refer to: Places * Stonebridge Estate (disambiguation) United Kingdom * Stonebridge, Essex, a hamlet * Stonebridge, London, an area in northwest London * Stonebridge, Norfolk, a village * Stonebridge, West Mid ...

''High Street'' *

Kensal Green station Kensal Green is a railway station served by London Underground Bakerloo line and London Overground trains. It is located in College Road, London NW10 close to the junction with Harrow Road. It is about 0.5 mile (750m) route distance from the ol ...

* Royal Oak station *

Edgware Road station Edgware Road is the name of two London Underground stations near the junction of Edgware Road and Marylebone Road in Central London: * Edgware Road tube station (Bakerloo line) * Edgware Road tube station (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City l ...

Marylebone Road Marylebone Road ( ) is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east–west from the Euston Road at Regent's Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington. The road which runs in three lanes in both direction ...

for ''

Marylebone station Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern ter ...

'' * Baker Street station *

Harley Street Harley Street is a street in Marylebone, Central London, which has, since the 19th century housed a large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. It was named after Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.< ...

* Regent's Park station * Great Portland Street station * Warren Street station * Euston Square station *

for

Euston station Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...

References

External links

*
Timetable
{{DEFAULTSORT:018, London buses route Bus routes in London Transport in the London Borough of Brent Transport in the London Borough of Camden Transport in the City of Westminster