London Buses route 108

London Buses route 108 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, England. Running between Lewisham Shopping Centre and Stratford International station, it is operated by Go-Ahead London.

108
Go-Ahead London Alexander Dennis Enviro200EV in Stratford
Overview
Operator	Go-Ahead London
Garage	Camberwell (108D) New Cross
Vehicle	Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV (108D) Alexander Dennis Enviro200EV
Peak vehicle requirement	Day: 19 Night: 6
Night-time	24-hour service
Route
Start	Lewisham Shopping Centre
Via	Blackheath Westcombe Park Greenwich Peninsula Poplar Bow
End	Stratford International station North Greenwich bus station (108D)
Length	11 miles (18 km)
Service
Level	24-hour service
Frequency	About every 10-15 minutes
Journey time	40-55 minutes
Operates	24-hour service

An unusual feature of the route is its use of the Blackwall Tunnel, a source of severe delays which leads to the route often being cited as amongst the least reliable in London.^[1][2]

History

Go-Ahead London MCV Evolution bodied Alexander Dennis Dart SLF at North Greenwich bus station in 2014

Two batches of double deck buses were specifically built for use in the Blackwall and Rotherhithe Tunnels, with specially shaped roofs to improve clearance on the corners. On 14 April 1937, the last solid-tyred AEC NS-Type bus in London operated on route 108.^[3] In 1937, forty STL-type buses with convex-shaped roofs made with Blackwall Tunnel in mind were used on routes 108 and 82 and allocated to Athol Street (C) garage in Poplar.^[4]

Harris Bus ran into financial difficulties in December 1999, and as a result operations of its contracted routes were taken over by a new subsidiary of London Buses itself, trading as East Thames Buses. East Thames Buses initially ran its routes north of the Thames from the former London Forest garage in Ash Grove, along with the Harris base at Belvedere.^[5]

Route 108 became the first bus route to serve the Millennium Dome at the Greenwich Peninsula during construction. The stop was initially inside the security area, and was used by staff only.^[6]

On 3 October 2009, East Thames Buses was sold to Go-Ahead London, which included a five-year contract to operate route 108.^{[7][8][9][10]} Increased capacity was introduced on route 108 in 2014.^[11]

In February 2016, Transport for London released a consultation regarding various changes on local bus services in Poplar and the Isle of Dogs. One of these changes saw route 108 swap routes between All Saints and Bow with route D8 and extended to terminate at Stratford International station in lieu of Stratford bus station from 1 October 2016 with it no longer serving Bromley-by-Bow and Poplar.^[12][13] Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaros and two electric Irizar i2es cascaded from routes 507 and 521 were introduced at the same time.^[14][15][16]

On 4 January 2025, the route passed back to New Cross (NX) with existing BYD D9UR Alexander Dennis Enviro200EVs.

Current route

Route 108 operates via these primary locations:^[17]

• Lewisham Shopping Centre
• Blackheath station
• Blackheath Royal Standard
• Westcombe Park station
• Greenwich Millennium Village
• North Greenwich bus station for North Greenwich station
• Poplar
• Langdon Park station
• Devons Road station
• Bow Church station
• London Aquatics Centre
• Stratford City bus station for Stratford station
• Stratford International station