on
Bond Street in August 1955|left
Wright Gemini 2 bodied
Volvo B9TL in
Stratford in July 2015 Route 25 began operation on 30 October 1910 between
Old Ford and
Victoria via
Bank,
Holborn,
Oxford Circus and
Piccadilly, the same routing as today's
route 8. On 20 June 1912, routes 8 and 25 exchanged their eastern branches at Bank, with route 25 taking over what has become its traditional route from
Seven Kings to Victoria. By the end of the
World War I, route 25 was working daily between Seven Kings Garage and Victoria, with a Sunday 25A route from
Chadwell Heath to Victoria. During the 1920s, London's bus transport expanded rapidly, and route 25 soon had gained 25B, 25C and 25D suffixed routes. A scale model of a 25 bus as operated by the
London General Omnibus Company from the 1910s is displayed at the
Science Museum in London. On 1 December 1924, many routes in the group were renumbered, with 25A becoming 125, 25B changing to 26, 25C to 126 and the 25D becoming
route 145. This situation remained until 3 October 1934, when the newly constituted
London Passenger Transport Board instituted its own numbering system, which generally re-instated the situation previous to December 1924, apart for route 145, which by then had developed into a self-contained route, thereby keeping its route number. Each route ran every 6 minutes on Mondays to Fridays, providing 40 buses per hour on the common sections; the routes were operated from garages in Seven Kings,
Forest Gate,
Upton Park and
Hammersmith on route 25. 25 bus from the 1910s at the
Science Museum The route was allocated to the
East London division of London Buses in April 1989. On 18 July 1992 the route was curtailed at Oxford Circus, with the section to Victoria becoming part of route 8. The weekend diversion to Tower Hill was withdrawn. Route 25 was the longest route in London to use
articulated buses in terms of route length. In January 2004, three
hydrogen fuel cell powered buses were introduced on route 25 on a two-year trial. The route was chosen due to its length and "wide variety of traffic conditions". However, the vehicles were transferred to
route RV1 in September 2004. Upon being re-tendered, on 25 June 2011 the route passed to
First London. On 22 June 2013, route 25 was included in the sale of First London's Lea Interchange garage to
Tower Transit. In August 2014, two buses on the route were fitted with equipment designed to enhance bus drivers' awareness of pedestrians and cyclists as part of a six-week trial. The route was chosen because it was "most likely to encounter packed seas of distracted shopping people and cyclists". In 2015/16 route 25 was the busiest route in London with 19.4 million passengers. Tower Transit retained the route when next tendered with a new contract commencing on 25 June 2016. However rather than the usual duration of five years, the new contract only runs until November 2019 to allow demand to be reassessed after the opening of
Elizabeth line. From 1 December 2018, route 25 was cut back from Oxford Circus to
City Thameslink station. It ceased to be a 24-hour route from the same date with the introduction of
route N25. On 23 May 2020, route 25 went back to Stagecoach London. == Incidents ==