The R8: An Intriguing London Bus Route

An R8 to Biggin Hill approaching its final stop at Lebanon Gardens

The R8 runs between Orpington Station and Biggin Hill via Green Street Green and Downe with the route mostly traversing very narrow rural roads. With an end to end journey time of just over 30 minutes and a scheduled bus every 70-90 minutes the whole route can be served by a single bus. There are 12 services each way a day and no service on Sundays or Public Holidays.

The R8 is one of 13 TfL routes with an R prefix, with these numbered R1-R11, R68, and R70. The R1-R11 all operate in and around Orpington with the R68 and R70 operating around Richmond. Intriguingly all 11 R prefixed buses in Orpington stop at High Street / Orpington War Memorial in central Orpington.

A bus stop in Orpington with an obscenely large number of buses stopping

The Route

Starting at Orpington Station the R8 departs from stop E then travels down Station Road towards the centre of Orpington. The bus then serves Orpington High Street/Walnuts Centre by going via the police station. Then the R8 traverses the same roundabout as it did arriving into Orpington and travels south to Green Street Green via Orpington Hospital.

So far this routing has been relatively unremarkable through average residential roads mirrored by a few other routes but as the route turns left onto Shire Lane the houses disappear, farmland and fields appear, and a five mile stretch of hail and ride begins.

The R8 travelling down a narrow road which is only a few tens of centimetres wider than the bus

A couple of turns later the narrow country roads begin. These two way roads are barely wide enough for the short single deck single door bus that runs on the R8. This means that oncoming traffic needs to pull into verges and driveways for the bus to pass. The narrow roads are also, probably, partly the reason why only one bus is assigned to this route as it would, in some places, be almost impossible for the buses to pass each other.

Two bus stops (one in the other direction) break up the five miles of hail and ride. These bus stops are located in the small village of Downe which is also the terminus of the 146 which provides an hourly service to Bromley.

A person waiting at Downe Church one of the few physical R8 bus stops

After leaving Downe the rest of the 5 miles of Hail and Ride continues. With the roads continuing to be painfully narrow and undulating with many blind corners through various patches of farmland.

The journey then passes Charles Darwin school before emerging onto the A233 (Main Road) just south of Biggin Hill airport where the next real bus stop is which also serves the 246, 320, 464, and R2.

The side of an R8 to Orpington at the start of its route at Biggin Hill

Whilst this road goes straight into the centre of Biggin Hill the R8 needs to turn around for its journey back into Orpington. This is done by another section of hail and ride which, as it is just used to turn around, is done in only one direction through the backstreets just north of Biggin Hill. The bus then emerges back onto the A233 (Main Road) terminating at Lebanon Gardens just down the road from Waitrose.

The R8 doesn’t wait long here as the blind is quickly changed for Orpington passengers (well it was just me when I went) embarked and the journey started back through the rural farmland of the London Borough of Bromley.

Why?

The R8 timetable at Biggin Hill

The R8 is seldom used (for most of my journey I was the only passenger) and it is definitely not an integral part of London’s transport network. But the R8 serves a purpose which is to fulfil TfL’s ambitions to serve all corners of Greater London, albeit infrequently. The 331, 347, R5, and R10 among others also serve similar purposes across the outskirts of London.

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