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Back to Schooldays
Rowson's Comment
Around the Block
News in Brief
Stop the War
Mini-march
Lysistrata Day
Fringe Festival
Straight to the Point
Time to Finnish
Day in the Nick
Starting Over
Readers Letters
Herbal Cleansing
Local Music
Tripping Out
Tippling at the Tup
Property
Housing Matters
Very Testi
Art Happenings
Vietnamese Food
Entertainment
Gardening
Marathon Man
Surfing N16
Man in North Bank
Xword
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Rowson's Comment
Sunday mid
morning, waiting for the magical mystery tour. Could it be true, a bus connecting the
Holloway Road and the River Lee via Church Street? The sign on the bus stop definitely
announced the new service but, alas, there was no timetable anywhere to be seen for the
new service.
‘Forty-seven years I’ve been waiting for this bus’, commented one middle-aged lady gripping her shopping bag as the new 393 headed over Green Lanes into Highbury New Park on its way to Holloway on that first Sunday of operation.
It’s a similar story at the other end of the route, as it moves through the Clapton area. The last bus to operate through this large commercial and residential area was some twenty odd years ago. So my short wait for a bus was peanuts in comparison.
The new route - which was delayed for nearly two years because of complaints from residents in the Highbury New Park area - now offers the chance for Stoke Newington residents to travel direct to Highbury Corner to connect with the Underground or on to Holloway Road.
And in the other direction to get over to the Lee Valley, a good chance to get some exercise with a walk along the river and perchance to take a glass of ale at the Anchor and Hope, or more importantly for many young people to save long walks to Skinners Girls School and the new Brook House Sixth Form College.
Weekdays, the route operates on a twelve-minute interval between
buses and twenty minutes on Sundays. The journey from the large Argus store on Holloway
Road to the Lee Bridge roundabout takes approximately 40 minutes. However, one fly in the
ointment is a short-term lack of drivers and so twenty minutes seems to be about the
standard wait at the moment.
One slight concern expressed along Church Street was that, with three bus routes now in operation, especially during the rush hour vehicles in general could face slower journey times. This worry was also expressed along Casenove Road with its many schools, education establishments and places of worship, with parking at a premium and often very little clearance for traffic.
There is no doubt from talking to passengers that this route will quickly become a firm favourite. In fact, as the bus moved through the eastern end of the route, people were stopping the bus not to get on but to find out more details of where and when the 393 would run. On that first weekend, it was a novelty; by the second weekend it was reality.
The 393 had finally arrived.