ROUTE R1
GREEN STREET GREEN - ST. MARY CRAY
Route R1 was conceived along with the other Roundabout routes in the early 80s to revolutionise the bus network of Orpington. The R1 was the first of these routes. Running from Green Street Green, just south of Orpington to St. Paul's Cray.
It began operation on the 16th August 1986, running in two overlapping sections. The first ran between Bromley Common and St. Paul's Cray, whilst the second section ran between Green Street Green, and Sidcup. (Diagram here). It ran with the standard Orpington Hoppa buses. In October 1987, the route had its route changed. The R1 would no longer run between St. paul’s Cray and Queen Mary’s Hospital between 0830 and 2030 on weekdays, between 1345 and 2030 on Sundays, and the whole route would no longer run after 1345 on a Sunday. These workings were replaced by the newly introduced Route R11. In 1990, the route gained Carlyle bodied Darts as a replacement for the Minibuses. These darts were more suited to the routes ever increasing passenger flow. Towards the end of 1995, the section between Queen Mary’s and St. pauls Cray was withdrawn entirely, replaced by a regular service on the R11. The route had also handed to First Centrewest with new Plaxton Pointer Mk. 1 Darts. The last major change was in 2001. It gained 7 8.9m Dennis Marshalls (DMS’s), and was withdrawn between Green Street Green and Bromley Common. It was also diverted to replace a withdrawn section of the R3 near Green Street green. Other diversions took place, like in Orpington, where it was diverted in Orpington to double run at the Bus Station, and it was also diverted at St. Pauls Cray to serve Grovelands. The route is currently run by Metrobus (Since 2007), using E20D/Enviro 200’s. |