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BELMONT STATION and SUTTON GARAGE (Mon-Sat between peaks)

 

Reason for single-deck operation

The section of route from Sutton via Carshalton Windsor Castle and Carshalton Beeches Station to Belmont had been an integral part of the 213 since before the war.  In January 1962, this section of the service was replaced on weekdays by an extended 151, whilst the 213 continued to Belmont on Sundays.  The 213 was still RF-operated at the time, converting to RTs a year later.

 

 

The 151 had been a post-war addition to the Morden Station feeder routes, RT-operated once RTs replaced Ds at Sutton in 1954, and up to October 1961 had run only from Hackbridge Reynolds Close to Morden and (in peak hours) onwards in a dog-leg to North Cheam.  At that time, it was extended to Sutton on weekdays, in partial replacement of another Morden feeder route, the circular 156.  Two months later, the route was extended again on weekdays to Belmont, picking up the withdrawn section of the 213.

 

The route was obviously relatively unremunerative even then, as during the overtime ban in January 1966 which caused the suspension of a number of routes, the 151 was one of those suspended.  Operation over the two sections not otherwise served was provided by Carshalton Belle between Hackbridge and St Helier Avenue Middleton Road and by Paynes between Carshalton Windsor Castle and Belmont.

 

With the replacement of the Hackbridge to Morden section by flat fare route M1 in March 1969, the 151 became a weekday-only Morden to Belmont route, but this lasted only a year and the route was withdrawn in April 1970.

 

Meanwhile, the Sunday service to Belmont had been variously with the 213, a spell with the 213^A and then the 213^B in 1963-4, then 213 again until it reverted to the 213^A in March 1969, only to be withdrawn in April 1970.

 

From April 1970, the 213 again ran to Belmont, to cover the withdrawn 151, but only Monday to Friday peak hours, leaving other times without a service.  This led to complaints to the London Transport Passengers' Committee, and it was with the objective of covering this lack that the 'new' 151 as introduced in October - no longer with RTs but with a single-RF OMO route (this was at the time of the decision that no more Swifts would be purchased and future new OMO buses would be double-deck). 

 

The re-introduced 151 might have been designed to fail - it ran only every hour on weekdays, using a spare bus from the 80, and the afternoon service finished before 4 pm.  Not surprisingly, it was usually empty and was withdrawn the next spring.  It was not replaced.

 

The route number was reused in the Lewisham area the next year, but in 1984 reappeared in the Sutton area (on a completely different route) which still operates today.

 

RF route in detail, with timing points

BELMONT STATION, Downs Road, Banstead Road South, Staplehurst Road, Beeches Avenue, Carshalton Beeches Station, Park Hill, Carshalton Windsor Castle, Carshalton Road,Sutton Cock, High Street Sutton, Bushey Road, SUTTON GARAGE

 

 

Mon-Fri - 6 journeys, every hour with a gap at lunchtime.  Sat - 7 journeys, as Mon-Fri plus one later journey.  The route took about 23 minutes end to end.

 

PVR 1970 (Oct): Mon-Fri 1 ex-80, Sat 1 ex-80, Sun -

 

An RF operated the morning timetable of this version of the 151 at our Carshalton Running Day in 2007.