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The Red Arrow network was a group of short, flat fare limited stop feeder bus services in central London. Most of the network has long since disappeared, with only two routes now remaining. In the bus route renumbering scheme of October 1934, the 5xx (and 6xx) series were used for trolleybuses, but the series became free with the ultimate demise of the trolleybus network on 8 May 1962. Because the Red Arrow routes were limited stop services, their “E” plates were coloured blue, the same as the express routes. Curiously, many Red Arrow plates exist both with and without full-stops after the abbreviations “MON” and “FRI”.
 |  This “E” plate probably came from one of the few stops on the one-way working which was not served during peak hours in the early years—an astonishingly rare plate indeed! The plate is particularly unusual as the “SEE BELOW” description would relate to just a few stops. |  This poster was issued in 1967 to publicise the original Red Arrow service between Victoria and Oxford Street. It features a photograph of a Merlin bus at speed, as well as one of the original, special Red Arrow bus stops. |
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Route 500 was introduced in 1966. Initially it ran during rush hours between Victoria Station and Marble Arch via Hyde Park Corner as an express commuter service. In the off-peak the 500 provided a circular service between Victoria Station and Oxford Circus via Hyde Park Corner, Grosvenor Square and Hanover Square, returning via Marble Arch and Hyde Park Corner, although latterly it ran both ways along Oxford Street. The route has long since been withdrawn. | ||
Route 501 was introduced in 1968 as a weekday-only flat-fare, limited-stop service that ran from Waterloo Station to Aldgate via Aldwych, Holborn and Bank. No evening service was provided. It was later extended to London Bridge. Initially operated by MBA-class AEC Merlins, it was later operated by LS Leyland Nationals and then GLS rebuilt Nationals. The 501 was withdrawn as recently as 2002. | ||
 |  | ← This “E” plate is astonishingly rare as it would have been used on just one bus stop in Waterloo Road which was not served during rush hours when buses ran into The Colonnades (now part of the Jubilee Line station). |
 |  |  This “E” plate is astonishingly rare as it would have been used on just one bus stop at Waterloo which was not served during rush hours when buses ran into The Colonnades (now part of the Jubilee Line station). |
Route 502 was introduced in 1968 as a Mondays-to-Fridays-only route that ran from Waterloo Station to Liverpool Street Station via Aldwych, Fleet Street, St. Paul’s and London Wall, returning via Bank. No evening service was provided. The 502 is covered mainly by today’s route 26. | ||
Route 503 was introduced in 1968 as a flat-fare, limited-stop service operated by MBA-class AEC Merlins between Waterloo and Victoria on Mondays to Fridays. It was withdrawn in 1981. There was a later Red Arrow 503 between South Kensington and Moorgate, but this “E” plate is not from that route. |
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Route 505 was introduced as a Red Arrow service in 1968 running on Mondays to Fridays between Waterloo Station and Marble Arch via Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus. |
Route 506 was introduced in 1968 and was a short, limited-stop service between Victoria Station and Piccadilly Circus that ran via Piccadilly, returning via Pall Mall. It was an early withdrawal and “E” plates for this route are rarely seen nowadays. |
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Route 507 was introduced as a Red Arrow service in 1968 running daily between Victoria Station and Waterloo Station via Horseferry Road, Lambeth Bridge and Lambeth Palace Road. It was a short route and there were special flags at Victoria and Waterloo which did not use “E” plates. Coupled with the route being limited stop, there would not have been too many of these plates around, and they are rarely seen nowadays. It is now operated by bendy-buses. |
Route 513 was part of the Red Arrow express feeder network and ran between Waterloo Station and London bridge Station via Aldwych, Fleet Street, St. Paul’s and Cannon Street. It was a late addition to the network, and took its number from the service it replaced along Cannon Street: route 13. It was introduced on 24 January 1970 as a new Monday-Saturday operation and brought London Bridge into the Red Arrow network for the first time. Just a year later, in January 1971, the Saturday service was withdrawn due to the drop in numbers of office-workers on Saturdays and the route became Monday to Friday only. The 513 lasted until July 1992 when it was withdrawn and replaced by new route 521. Both of these “E” plates are likely to date from 1971 when the 513’s Saturday service was withdrawn. |
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 | This “E” plate is interesting because it combines the lowest-numbered route with the highest-numbered Central Area one, and would presumably have come from a stop in Oxford Street. I would imagine that London Transport avoided making split-background-colour plates as far as possible owing to their additional complexity. | |
Route 616 was one of two express routes numbered in the 6xx series (the other being the short-lived 615 between Poplar and Cheapside) which did not fall into the Red Arrow network. It was introduced on 15 June 1970, running Mondays to Fridays between Cricklewood and Oxford Circus via Kilburn, Edgware Road and Marble Arch, supplementing the 16. In latter days it was reduced to peak hours only, and was eventually replaced by route 16A (which has also now disappeared). | ||
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| Click on any of the tiles below to go to images of the “E” plates and the route descriptions for that number series. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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