All Over London Bus Blog: The Not So Night Routes: Route N20

Route N20, like route N5, is a special night service to compensate the nightly closure of the Northern Line between Charing Cross and High Barnet Stations (except it does not directly serve Totteridge & Whetstone, Woodside Park, Mill Hill East or West Finchley Station's).

It is currently run by Metroline with allocations split between: Potters Bar (PB) & Holloway (HT).

It is also London's longest running Night route in timetable terms, narrowly beating Route N9 which runs between Aldwych - Heathrow Terminal 5.

The route "N20" is one of a few night routes that is not an extended day route and with a "N" prefix added. In fact, the day route 20 actually runs from Walthamstow through to Debden in Essex!

History:

The route was initially numbered N1 and began operating on the morning of 28 October 1989, running from High Barnet to Charing Cross and then via the Strand to terminate at the Aldwych.

Some journeys diverted via Whitehall and Westminster to Victoria Station (returning via Victoria Embankment and Arundel Street before continuing from Aldwych).

The section between Aldwych and Trafalgar Square (Charing Cross) was withdrawn on 18 July 1992.

The journeys to Victoria were withdrawn on 24 June 1995, when the route was renumbered N20, as the number N1 was needed for the night service route 1.

The route N20 began on the 24th June 1995 and provided a night service between Trafalgar Square and Barnet Church (One garage journey travelled on to Potters Bar garage though) via Charing Cross Road, Tottenham Court Road, Euston Station, Camden Town, Kentish Town, Tufnell Park, Archway, East Finchley, East End Road, Finchley Central, North Finchley and Whetstone.

The route was operated at Holloway (HT) and Potters Bar Garage (PB). The current PVR was Monday to Sunday 3 Metrobus (M) (HT), 1 Metrobus (M) (PB).

On the 8th November 1997 the Friday and Saturday night service was increased, the current PVR was Monday to Friday 3 (M) (HT), 1 Metrobus (M) (PB) and weekend service 4 Metrobus (M) (HT) and 2 Metrobus (M) (PB).

On the 25th July 1998, the contract was awarded to First Capital from Northumberland Park Garage (NP), and therefore the garage journeys to Potters Bar were withdrawn.

The PVR then was Monday to Sunday 5DD.

On the 8th January 2000, there was an increased weekend service which was operating between Trafalgar Square and Finchley Central not to Barnet Church.

The PVR then was Monday to Friday 5DD and Weekends 11DD.

On the 25th July 2003 the contract was won by Metroline and they operated the route from Potters Bar Garage (PB). The route stayed the same but an increased service running weekends but now all the way to Barnet Church. The current PVR was Monday to Friday 6TP and Weekends 12TP.

On the 4th February 2005 a Holloway garage was introduced, again the PVR was Monday to Friday 6 President's (TP) and weekends 2VP (HT) 12TP (PB).

In the Autumn of 2011 due to Northern Line engineering works, it was decided that the timetable would be extended to coincide with the timetable of the first trains on Sundays.

Currently the northern line opens at about 10 o'clock on a Sunday whilst track between High Barnet and Camden town is replaced, running between Barnet Church and curtailed to Euston; This extended service is officially named the N20U.

This service however, will draw to a close on the 4th of November 2012.

Thus making the last full N20U service to run next weekend, so I advise you to head down and try out this service before it's too late!

The current PVR is Monday to Friday 7 Volvo B9TL/ Wright Gemini 2 (VW) (HT) and 7 Trident/Plaxton President (TP) (PB).

On Saturday nights (along with the PVR of 14), extra 11 buses will go out for the N20U 9 TP, TE (PB) - 2 VW, TE( HT)

The service is around every 30 minutes and the average journey time is between 50-65 minutes.

Without further ado, enjoy the rest of the pictures!