No. 88 Bus

The 88… an auspicious bus route. Chinese couples line-​up to be married on this bus. Okay, not really, but it’s still one of the best of London’s bus lines.
Here are its Skillstats
@ Double-​decker
@ Clapham to Camden
@ Night bus capabilities
@ Landmark stops: Trafalgar, Picadilly, Oxford Circus
@ Minimal cellphone music on loudspeaker events
It was always my favourite bus, the one I trusted for North to South and South to North transit. There for me 24 hours a day, dropping me near pals at one end and just minutes from my bed at the other. So it should be a shoe-​in for 5 stars, right? Nope…
The one thing you need for the perfect 5 star bus is trust that in Nightbus mode that you’ll survive even if you fall asleep. Getting on plastered at 2am at its start in Camden by The Egg this was the assumption I made, that if I did fail and fall asleep, that I would still be woken at the terminus in Clapham and could roll out and crawl to my bed.
So why the hell did I next wake up at 4.45am on a bus coming into Harrow from Watford? I’ve still never figured this one out.
Answers on a postcard please!