Tuesday 25th August 2026
Among the many changes to bus routes on the western fringes of Essex at the end of last month was the introduction of new route 19 between North Weald and High Ongar taking in a circuitous route via Epping, Theydon Bois, Abridge, Passingford Bridge and Stanford Rivers. End to end journey time is 55 minutes, but as you can see from the map below, you’d never do that unless writing a blog about the route, as a direct bus from North Weald to Chipping Ongar (running every half an hour) takes under 12 minutes.
Operated by Central Connect, the interesting thing about new route 19 is it reinstates a bus service not only between Abridge and Passingford Bridge (which last saw a bus five years ago when London General’s one shopping journey a day, route 575, was withdrawn between Harlow and Romford – which I blogged about in its final week in August 2021), but also brings a regular bus back to the road between Passingford Bridge and Chipping Ongar.
As explained in that 2021 blog, prior to route 575, Arriva had run route 500 every hour between Harlow, Epping, Abridge, Passingford Bridge and then south to Romford which in turn had replaced long time London Transport route 250 between the same locations as illustrated in this extract from one of Mike Harris’s splendid maps….
… and, of course, back in history the road between Passingford Bridge and Ongar, at the extreme north eastern edge of London Transport’s red bus network, was served by a few journeys a day on route 123 between Ongar and Romford – later route 175 in 1958, then route 175A from 1973, then renumbered to route 247B in 1977 and withdrawn in 1982. I’m not aware of any replacement after that time – maybe readers can help?
The section of route between Epping, Theydon Bois and Abridge sees Central Connect’s route 18 running every hour with buses continuing to Debden and Loughton stations while the direct route between Chipping Ongar, North Weald and Epping is well served by both Central Connect’s half hourly route 20 (with journeys continuing to Harlow) and also from North Weald to Epping by the half hourly (increased from hourly as part of last month’s improvements) route 13 (with journeys continuing to Waltham Cross).
This gives four buses an hour between North Weald and Epping which must be one of the best frequencies connecting these locations … perhaps even ever? I’m sure residents will appreciate these improvements as along with Ongar itself, they’ve long been cut off from the London Underground network with the Central Line famously being cut back from Ongar to Epping in 1994.
New route 19 involves one bus providing a two-hourly frequency comprising four journeys in each direction over an eight hour day between 07:35 and 15:45 on Mondays to Fridays.
A couple of journeys at school times are numbered 19A and double run to Epping St John’s School instead of Epping Station.
Bearing in mind the aforementioned explanation of other bus routes, the only unique section of route served by the new 19 is between Abridge, Passingford Bridge and Chipping Ongar from where journeys continue to the village of High Ongar which is also served by Stephenson’s two-hourly route 32 between Chipping Ongar and Chelmsford.
Central Connect’s website has some wonderful maps showing its networks across East Anglia, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Herts which were all updated to 29th June 2026 so it’s a shame last month’s changes on 26th July have not been included in a further update. I hope that happens soon as the maps really are useful and as you can see shows a gap between Abridge and Chipping Ongar, which is now filled.
I took a ride on route 19 last Thursday morning intrigued to see if, in its fourth week, it will have attracted many new passengers.
Spoiler alert: one.
I caught the 11:05 from outside Epping Station to High Ongar. This arrived from North Weald on time with no one on board but I was impressed to see three passengers hop on board.
Except they all alighted as soon as the bus retuned to the High Street a couple of minutes later. The driver reckoned they misunderstood the destination by seeing the word ‘Ongar’ and assuming it was going on the ‘normal’ direct route via North Weald (as per route 20). He observed it had happened on other journeys too.
So then it was just me on board as we headed out of Epping and turned left towards Theydon Bois where we soon arrived and encouragingly picked up a passenger travelling to Ongar.
She was delighted with the new (for her) direct bus as it saved catching the 18 into Epping and changing there on to the 20, making for a time saving too.
Sadly that was it for the rest of the journey as we continued under the M11…
… turning left at Abridge (having negotiated the narrow ‘bridge’)…
… and then left at Passingford Bridge (now the most north eastern extreme limit to TfL’s operating area and the 375 turns round using the roundabout…
… then passing through the small hamlet of Stanford Rivers and more Essex countryside…
… before reaching the outskirts of Chipping Ongar and where the passenger alighted in the town centre.
For completeness I stayed on the bus to see if anyone would board on the way to the village of High Ongar which entailed passing the town’s former London Underground station (now the heritage Epping Ongar Railway)…
… then a quick sprint along the A414 (towards Chelmsford) before turning off to do a circuit of High Ongar.
The terminal point is outside the village church where in the few minutes before we headed back…
… I noticed the timetable display at the bus stop sadly hadn’t been updated to show the new 19 and I wonder how many villagers are aware of the new service now available.
Back in Chipping Ongar with the driver telling me he’d been driving the route all week carrying hardly any passengers, I decided to leave the bus there and head back on the direct route taken by route 20 with a late running bus about to arrive.
There were six on board and when we arrived at the northern terminal point in North Weald at The Talbot, 12 minutes later, a bus was waiting on route 13 bound for Waltham Cross so I made a snap decision to change on to that and see how the doubling of frequency to half hourly was going.
Another passenger did the same thing and we soon set off with just the two of us on board but picked up another passenger as we passed through North Weald itself with another two joining as we entered the grounds of Epping’s St Margaret’s Hospital with five more joining at the stop on the main road outside. It was noteworthy that five of the nine on board were children enjoying this month’s free travel offer and everyone alighted in Epping except for the passenger who’d boarded with me in North Weald and had also come from Ongar. Interestingly, she also stayed on the bus all the way to Waltham Cross so must be very pleased with the improved frequency and ease of changing buses from the 20 to the 13 at North Weald.
Another passenger travelled from Epping to Waltham Cross and two from Waltham Abbey to Waltham Cross but otherwise, that was it.
I hope the improved frequency of router 13 generates more custom – the one thing that struck me was the long queue of traffic crawling along Epping High Road through the Forest heading into Epping which must prove challenging for timekeeping.
Good luck to new route 19. It’s nice to see a service restored to Ongar after all this time but I think it’s going to take a lot of effort to find enough passengers to make it a worthwhile reinstatement. If you fancy a ride out in long lost former London Transport red bus territory I recommend not leaving it too long to do so.
Roger French
Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu
BusAndTrainUser 
To add a little more information about the 250, I believe it was initially replaced by extending the 247 Brentwood-Romford (the “country” route between these two towns) to Epping over the roads previously covered by the former – you can see part of the 247 on the section of the 247B map shown.
Now that would have been quite a trip….
Paul
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The 250 was indeed replaced by extending the 247 from Romford to Epping. End-to-end journey time of around 1h45m, in a Bristol LH (later replaced by Leyland Nationals).
At the time, London Country’s 339 offered a more direct journey between Brentwood and Epping, via Ongar and North Weald, taking around 45 minutes. The Ongar <> Brentwood section was later transferred to Eastern National, but at deregulation it was one of several Essex County Council tendered services taken up by Nottinghamshire-based East Midland.
Malc M
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The 19 has been primarily designed around a school movement so the 19A is perhaps the ‘core’ route in this case with the 19 infilling.
Epping > North Weald is now 11 buses every 2 hours during the day running generally every 10 mins with 1x 20min gap on alternate hours where the 19 doesn’t run.
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Cannot complain about the livery , it looks like buses are running in the area which is good. but as pointed out , not on the map not on the timetables (has the frequency increase been posted on the other route with new timetables up ?) I feel the new service should have come a couple of months earlier for a summer run at things , but there we are. Looking at the OS map of course the area is thin for serving well with buses , it might have been better in days with fewer cars when London General was creating its operating area and the draw of Romford as the market town for the area worked for service provision until effectively the late 1960s. Will there be a green belt push for more housing – the Govt may instruct the county mayors and those mayors may instruct the local councils where existing but I feel Essex will hold out apart from ideas in Southend and perhaps more Basildon and Chelmsford which have long been pencilled in.
Of course we may moan about publicity for bus services but local newspapers are less read and distributed compared even to a decade ago , the Theydon Bois Village Magazine maybe could have a feature added by someone perhaps on the positive changes to bus services
JBC Prestatyn
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something missing from your article ECC did have this link revived for a bit in April 2016 with the 46D Ongar to Epping St Margaret’s Hospital Wednesdays and Fridays only didn’t last to long ECC contact to Nibs
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You mention Stephensons 32 but I think that’s only a school bus. It’s First Essex 46 which is the regular one between Ongar and Chelmsford.
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The three passengers boarding at Epping Station shows the importance of via points on blinds which TfL, in their infinite wisdom, decided to abolish.
MotCO
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With onboard PIS systems and LED displays one would have thought it should be BIG DESTINATION Next Timing Point INTERESTING MID POINT ( In smaller caps) possible from the tracker etc systems.
JBC Prestatyn
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The 19/19A is nothing to do with TfL, so there is nothing stopping Central Connect from displaying via points if they chose to.
Via points are all well and good (although they do add clutter to the display in my opinion). They do, however, rely on intending passengers reading them, knowing enough of the geography of the area to understand whether the route is indirect, knowing also whether more direct alternatives are available and also being able to work out whether the bus has yet to serve them or has already gone past them.
Malc M
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The route may have 4 journeys but realistically only the early two outward and last three return are of any meaningful use. A late(r) journey each way might be of use to catch more otherwise car users.
JBC Prestatyn
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Looking at the previous route from Harlow mentioned in blog given the on board fares were £7 downwards and it was still covid in the air hardly surprising it carried very few. Govt fares at £3/£2 and a more confident travel climate and maybe there would be some (enough?) patronage.
JBC Prestatyn
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All-too-familiar story – introduce a new route but don’t publicise it! How can bus companies be so incompetent about such a basic essential?! Graham L.
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Central Connect certainly seem to be opening up roads that have been devoid of any regular bus services for several decades. In this area alone, Cuffley-Potters Bar (which bizarrely only had a Sunday service for years), the road through High Wych and Gilston, Hastingwood and now this. Sadly, the residents of Ongar are unlikely to be flocking to use it, particularly now they have a much improved service directly to Epping and recently, competition on the Brentwood road. The 19 would of course stand to have much more success if it travelled south to link Ongar and Romford once more, replacing TfLs somewhat useless 375. Fat chance of anything sensible like that occurring!
Going back into the mists of time when the road was served by LT Central buses 123, it even had short workings between Ongar and Stanford Rivers, although I never recall standing loads. But good luck and enjoy the 19 while we can.
Terence Uden
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When the 247B was withdrawn in 1982, its replacement was London Country’s 339 (Harlow <> Ongar) which was extended to Romford via Passingford Bridge.
This was quite an uplift in service. The 247B had dwindled to just three journeys a day on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays only (those being Romford market days), starting and finishing at the Romford end. So, from Ongar, it was effectively two round trips, three days a week. The replacement 339 offered an hourly service, six days a week, albeit only between around 10:00 and 15:00 (M-F)/17:00 (Sat).
The 339 was renumbered 501 in 1984. The service level was clearly proving over-optimistic as in 1985, the 501 was reduced to three round trips (four on Saturdays) at two-hourly intervals, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday only, between North Weald and Romford via Ongar.
By 1989 the 501 had dwindled further, to just one round trip Wed/Fri/Sat, the outward journey starting from Harlow via Epping, the return journey extending to Epping (it was later extended to Harlow). The link between Ongar and Passingford Bridge was abandoned at some point in the early/mid 1990s.
Malc M
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Central Connect have some route changes from 30th August 2026 and are updating roadside publicity this week. Mainly in Norfolk and Suffolk with general improvements increases and in Essex a bit of taking on odd bits of First minor route operations. One route ceased but local alternatives exist and a couple of Saturday routes dropped to two hours. Maybe of interest is the HL1 route High Leigh, Hoddesdon, Broxbourne Station is extended north in High Leigh as the roads and houses are completed there to the next available roundabout to turn.
JBC Prestatyn
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New routes need to be advertised. As said above local newspapers aren’t read as much, although they usually have online versions. Operators need to have an up to date website, and active social media to direct people to the website. Active social media includes regular posting on community Facebook pages with links back to the operator website.
Pete
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No mention of other classic LT route numbers which operated in this area: the 201 or 339.
The 201 was an odd case as there was a ticketing “bar” at Epping for a time. After this “bar” was lifted my first attempt at getting to Ongar using a One Day Travelcard had an amusing side. On boarding at Loughton Station, the driver was adamant that the Epping “bar” still remained so I insisted we both got off at Loughton Garage to check with the Inspector ensconced in his booth. The Inspector backed me so I got to Ongar after all. A brief visit to the Post Office then back to London by the same Route 201 bus.
There were exceptional ticketing anomalies in this area after Loughton Garage was closed: all the replacement services by independent operators continued for about another year accepting Bus Passes and Travelcards: Eastern National, Sampson’s and West’s. Indeed, I did Ongar on a West’s 201 the very last day of such ticket acceptance.
The 339 has a celebrity claim to fame: Griff Rhys Jones used it as an Epping resident yet on the roll of Brentwood School.
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The annoying thing is that coming from North Weald, you miss a 375 into London by a few minutes. Better co-ordination with the TFL timetable should’ve been done.
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It depends whether that connection is viewed as important…
The 19 is designed first and foremost around a school journey to/from Epping St Johns from Abridge and Little End.
After that the route was designed to enhance the frequency between North Weald and Epping and Epping and Abridge so it dovetails the 18 in both cases and sits in even gaps, also opening up Epping Tesco to those in Abridge and Theydon Bois (as the 18 goes via Ivy Chimneys).
Making the timetable more complicated and uneven for the sake of a TfL connection likely to be lightly used given the tube connections at Theydon Bois and Epping wouldn’t have been prudent.
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Probably easier to adjust the 375 if that is considered useful as connections in Romford are more frequent
JBC Prestatyn
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Thank you for this, Roger. Back in the mid 1960s in my plane spotting days, I visited Stapleford aerodrome, located south of the Abridge – Passingford Bridge road. A Twin Rover ticket, Central Line to Theydon Bois and a short ride on a 250 bus – red RF at the time – and an hour or so collecting registrations.
A couple of minor corrections, below the 19 timetable, 2nd paragraph, Abrudge to Abridge and 3rd paragraph, happen to happens.
Anthony H.
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Many thanks for the memories, Tony. Typos now corrected – thanks.
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