London Bus Route 310 and some buspotting in Golders Green (29/12/24)

London Bus Route 310 was introduced on Sunday 1st of September 2024, which is an oddity as new bus routes in London usually launch on a Saturday. 

The route 310 map.

The route runs from Golders Green to Stamford Hill, paralleling identically alongside route 210 between Golders Green and Finsbury Park. As part of Sadiq's Khan pledge during the Mayor elections, this had been requested a lot for a long while now by the Jewish community (15 years), as Stamford Hill and Golders Green are two areas which were demanded over the years to have a bus link to. Previously, you had take route 210 from Golders Green to Finsbury Park, then walk underneath the railway bridge to catch either routes 253 or 254 to Stamford Hill on the other side.

London Bus Route 210 operates with double deckers running between Brent Cross Shopping Centre and Finsbury Park Station.

Route 210 travels alongside 310 for the most of the way between Golders Green and Finsbury Park as you can see here.

The low bridge at Finsbury Park station, which is what you would have to previously walk under if getting routes 253 and 254 on the other side.
Taken on Sunday 1st of the September 2024.
Taken during: September 2024 on the first day of operation.
Photo taken by: diamond geezer

Doing the route end to end in terms of timing says it's timetabled to take 41 minutes. I imagine it will probably take almost an hour if you are doing it during the daytime or rush hour etc. From Monday to Sunday it runs every 20 minutes, with no service in the evening. Route 210 under Metroline Travel (at the time of publish) in comparison runs every 10 minutes Monday to Saturdays, increasing to 12 minutes on Sundays and during the evening. Stagecoach London is the operator of the route running from Ash Grove (HK) garage - in Hackney - (in East London yes, don't ask me the reason why) using Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 MMCS that operated on routes W13 and 165.

Ash Grove bus garage is on the right in East London, while Golders Green on the top left in North West London, certainly not nearby!

Seeing Stagecoach operate the route in this area is very odd indeed to say to the least. This route was approaching it's fourth month of operation and while I was unable to complete an end to end of the route, a decent amount of passengers boarded from the first stop. It's worth me noting to say that the route is running on a "trial basis" until Sunday 31st of August 2025 (a 12 month trial). If it turns out well then it could continue to operate. Whether the route is worth it - I don't know. It goes alongside route 210 most of the way and you can hop on route 253 and 254 at Finsbury Park so... but I haven't ridden on it myself - this is probably going to be one of those controversial routes. We will see at the end of the trial*. (see below...)

Afterwards, I did some random bus observations at Golders Green Bus Station.

London Bus Route 268: Golders Green to Finchley Road, O2 Centre

Metroline Travel DE1020 (LK59AVF) is seen on stand at Golders Green Bus Station awaiting a trip on route 268 towards Finchley Road, O2 Centre. Looks like I captured the same bus again!
Bus type seen: Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 (Diesel single decker bus)

Again? Yes. It seems like I photographed the same bus as I did on my previous visit as I recognised the registration plate. Anyways, the Alexander Dennis Enviro 200, once a staple of the diesel British single decker bus market starting back in 2006. Nearly two decades later, the bus type is now starting to slowly be on the decline, especially in London. As enter into the phase of zero emission, diesel buses like this are being phased out in favour of new cleaner buses and technology. Since 2018, Metroline Travel have been operating Route 268 with Enviro 200s like these, taking over from previous operator Arriva London (on the West London side in this area it was known as Arriva The Shires, as they operated from the now closed Garston bus garage). 7 years later, Metroline have retained the route but with new electric single decker buses. The contract starts in June 2025 but obviously the buses will come way after that, so who knows what Metroline will order for this route...*(see below 2..)

Metroline Travel WDE2803 (LV23EBJ) is on stand at Golders Green awaiting a trip on route 240 towards Edgware Station.
Bus type seen: Wrightbus Streetdeck Electroliner (Electric double decker bus)

A bus type that been growing in popularity among bus operators here in London, (and the UK as well) is the Streetdeck Electroliner. This one in particular is for Metroline and have around 169 of them in passenger service as I type this, with more being delivered/ordered for their respective routes. This bus is actually allocated to bus route 297 (Willesden, Bus Garage to Ealing Broadway) and runs from Perivale (PA) garage. The route was retained in 2023, however, there have been delays in electification for the garage so these vehicles have been at other garages working other routes. When will this be done? I don't know. I cannot provide a date for this as these sort of things take time. Although the vehicle above has been at Edgware (EW) garage, largely working route 240 (Edgware Bus Station to Golders Green Bus Station). It transferred in March 2025 to Potters Bar (PB) garage for route 317 (Waltham Cross Bus Station to Enfield). I haven't been on these Electroliners yet, aside from the ones that Stagecoach London have - I imagine there are not too many differences between them.

A 1995 Tube Stock train is seen approaching Golders Green station on a service towards Kennington (via the Charing Cross branch.)

After this, I took a Northern Line train (as seen above) to Tottenham Court Road where I got an Elizabeth Line train home. Was quite a foggy day when I travelled, though, that did not seem to be issue where I was heading so good stuff!

* Update May 2026: Well, the buses confirmed are the BYD B12s which are now in service! They have been in service since the 23rd of April 2026, so are over a month old as of typing this. If you would like to see a video on these in operation check out Mostly Buses video below:

The video also contains information about the previous buses that operated on the route and the history, so might be useful if you are unaware or never used the route before.

*Update June 2026: Route 310 is now a permanent route, but will be rerouted between Archway and Finsbury Park area serving Holloway, Nags Head, so that it does not act as a duplicate 210 bus route. As a result the route will use electric double deckers at some point...

I will link a video in regards to this for more information:

 

This channel largely covers London bus changes around London and sometimes trains, so I will leave a link to their channel if it's of interest to you:

MostlyBuses:https://www.youtube.com/@MostlyBuses1/

Thanks for reading and happy riding!