The Bus Stop That's Not a Bus Stop (Epsom Golf Club and Rose Bushes)

London has over 19,000 bus stops, several hail and ride sections, and (to my knowledge) two bus stops that are not a bus stop. Bus stops that are not a bus stop are common outside of TfL's remit with them usually seen as a way to save money and only erect one bus stop not two.

Interestingly, whilst served by a TfL operated bus route both of these stops are actually located in the county of Surrey (outside of Greater London) with one in the borough of Epsom and Ewell, and the other in Reigate and Banstead.

The bus that serves both bus stops that are not a bus stop

Normal Bus Stops

These are so common that almost every London resident is within 400 metres of one (most likely a lot more than one). And are widely recognisable throughout the world.

The majority of the over 19,000 bus stops consist of a purpose built totem affixed with a white letter on a red circular disk at the top. Near the top of the totem is a board with an either white or red roundel at the top (designating whether it's a request stop or a bus stop), the name of bus stop underneath (white text on a grey background), the direction or directions of travel on the bus or buses from that stop, and a list of buses that stop their at the bottom of the board which is formed of tiles square tiles.

Use of these bus stops is straightforward and what you would expect. This means that to embark you wait at the stop's location and flag down your desired bus when it arrives. And to disembark you simply ring the bell before your stop and alight at the stop.

Hail and Ride "Stops"

In some, mostly outer residential, locations in London, some buses operate as hail and ride. In these sections you can board or alight the bus at any safe section of road. This means that there are no physical bus stops and little evidence of a bus actually operating.

A hail and ride totem which explains how hail and ride works

But we are talking about the bus stop that's not a bus stop, not the non-bus stop where you can get on/off a bus. Which leads onto the two special bus stops.

The Two Stops

The two special bus stops, located proximal to Epsom Downs, are served solely by the 166, and are actually almost consecutive with only one normal bus stop between them. The 166 is an interesting route with a seemingly normal regular three times an hour Monday-Saturday service and a twice an hour Sunday service. But this is only true between West Croydon and Banstead with the route having hourly extensions to Epsom Hospital Monday-Saturday and there being no service between Banstead and Epsom Hospital on Sunday.

Notice the note stating "Buses stop on the other side of the road"

This means these two stops have quite a limited service which might be partially why, along with the stops being located outside of Greater London (and TfL Taxpayers), TfL only erected one bus stop for both directions of travel.

Epsom Golf Club Bus Stop(s)

Located just outside of Epsom Golf Club on Longdown Lane South there are two bus stops, one towards Epsom and one towards Banstead.

But that's on paper, in reality whilst there are two embarkation locations (one for each direction), both are served by one physical bus stop. The actual sign (affixed to a lampost) is located in the Epsom direction meaning there's no street furniture for the Banstead direction.

This setup necessitated a couple alterations to the sign with the towards section stated in both directions (towards Epsom or Banstead). And with an added section on the bottom of the board stating "Wait on other side of road for buses towards Banstead".

Rose Bushes Bus Stop

The absence of a bus stop on the other side of the road

This stop's infrastructure is very similar to Epsom Golf Club but the physical totem is placed in the Banstead direction which means the board states "Wait on other side of road for buses towards Epsom".

Interestingly, unlike Epsom Golf Club, this is also only one stop on TfL's systems, not the expected two for each direction. This is most likely an error as buses stop on both sides of the road to go in different directions.