Route W5 Stanhope Road
CT Plus took over operation of route W5 (Harringay-Archway) from Metroline on Saturday 5th February 2011 with a batch of new Optare Solos. However a couple of the vehicles were not delivered in time and helping out on Monday 7th February is OS2, one of a batch delivered in March 2010 for the W12 - these are shorter and narrower than the W5 vehicles. The bus is in Stanhope Road, Highgate, headed for Archway and is about to pass under the Parkland Way footbridge.
Stanhope Road runs between Hornsey Hale and Shepherds Hill, Highgate; as both roads run on ridges Stanhope Road dips in the middle. It was once crossed by a railway bridge; this carried the Great Northern branch lines from Finsbury Park (where they split from the main line from Kings Cross) through Highgate to Alexandra Palace, High Barnet and Edgware. During the 1930s London Transport planned to link these lines to the Moorgate-Finsbury Park line and incorporate the services into the Northern Line. However the work was stopped in 1940 due to the Second World War, with only the High Barnet line and a short spur to Mill Hill East (strategically importatnt as there were Army barracks nearby) completed. The rest of the scheme was abandoned after the War, leaving steam trains to shuttle between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace until closure in 1954. The line continued to be used for empty stock movements between Highgate and Drayton Park Depots until 1970; since then it has been converted into a green corridor known as the Parkland Walk. The footbridge allows photos of passing W5 buses to be taken from above.
In the 1980s and 1990s there was pressure to reopen the line as the "Muswell Hill Metro", using light rail vehicles between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace, but the idea faced considerable opposition as it would have meant the loss of the new green corridor in a busy urban area.
Route W5 Stanhope Road
CT Plus took over operation of route W5 (Harringay-Archway) from Metroline on Saturday 5th February 2011 with a batch of new Optare Solos. However a couple of the vehicles were not delivered in time and helping out on Monday 7th February is OS2, one of a batch delivered in March 2010 for the W12 - these are shorter and narrower than the W5 vehicles. The bus is in Stanhope Road, Highgate, headed for Archway and is about to pass under the Parkland Way footbridge.
Stanhope Road runs between Hornsey Hale and Shepherds Hill, Highgate; as both roads run on ridges Stanhope Road dips in the middle. It was once crossed by a railway bridge; this carried the Great Northern branch lines from Finsbury Park (where they split from the main line from Kings Cross) through Highgate to Alexandra Palace, High Barnet and Edgware. During the 1930s London Transport planned to link these lines to the Moorgate-Finsbury Park line and incorporate the services into the Northern Line. However the work was stopped in 1940 due to the Second World War, with only the High Barnet line and a short spur to Mill Hill East (strategically importatnt as there were Army barracks nearby) completed. The rest of the scheme was abandoned after the War, leaving steam trains to shuttle between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace until closure in 1954. The line continued to be used for empty stock movements between Highgate and Drayton Park Depots until 1970; since then it has been converted into a green corridor known as the Parkland Walk. The footbridge allows photos of passing W5 buses to be taken from above.
In the 1980s and 1990s there was pressure to reopen the line as the "Muswell Hill Metro", using light rail vehicles between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace, but the idea faced considerable opposition as it would have meant the loss of the new green corridor in a busy urban area.