68 The London Bus
A
lthough Uxbridge
garage has
only been on its
current site since
1983 there has
been a bus garage in the town
since 1922.
The original site, on the main
A40 to the west of the town,
was owned by the London
General Omnibus Company, but
Thames Valley Traction operated
services on the General’s behalf
until 31 December 1928. These
initially operated to West
Wycombe (W21), Windsor (W22),
Great Missenden (W23) and
Watford (W24), although the
Great Missenden service was
soon cut back to Amersham and
the Watford one was abandoned
altogether. In 1924, the W21
became the 502, the W22 the 503
and W23 the 504.When General took control
of the operation, it operated
route 503 from its garage in
Langley. The 502 and 504 passed
subsequently to Amersham
& District, in which it had a
substantial controlling interest,
and the 504 was subsumed
into the new Amersham-Oxford
Circus express route that went
on to form part of the Green Line
coach network.
Langley garage passed to
London General Country
Services in March 1933,
becoming part of London
Transport’s Country Bus &
Coach Department in July that
year. Routes in the 500 series
were renumbered in 1934, the
502 becoming the 455 and the
503 the 458. A further route
linking Uxbridge with Windsor
via Iver Heath became the 457.Today, First Berkshire continues
to provide a link between
Uxbridge and Slough via Iver as
its route 3.
Under General control,
Uxbridge garage provided buses
for routes operating largely to
the east of the town in what was
to become Greater London. The
garage is allocated the code UX.
Following creation of the
Greater London Council in
1965, Uxbridge was one of only
three London Transport Central
Area garages outside the new
authority’s area (the others being
Loughton and Potters Bar).
In early postwar years plans
were developed to rebuild the
garage although these were
subsequently shelved and in
1954 an extension to the existing
site was erected on an open
parking area to the side of theLondon Bus Garages
ABOVE: Uxbridge
bus station and
garage entrance,
with a Metroline
Alexander
Dennis Enviro200
operating route
U10.
Now part of Metroline, the 35-year-old garage in this Middlesex border town is
partially hidden within an office block and operates a route network that has its
origins in the 1920s
Uxbridge