Every Wednesday at 11.17 precisely, a Rail Replacement bus leaves West Ealing station at Argyle Road bus stop, and travels to West Ruislip station.

The bus has no number but if you wait at the E7 and E11 bus stop, the Ghost Bus – as it is fondly known – will arrive at the exact time.

It started out life to replace the Chiltern line train on the same route i.e. West Ealing to West Ruislip, which provided a passenger service over a short section of track known as the Acton to Northolt Line.

If a (train) passenger service is no longer going to be provided, an Act of Parliament, which costs time and money to create, pass, consult on and enact the legislation, would be required to formally close it. So it was decided to run a token train per week, also known as a ‘parliamentary train’, which was cheaper than the long-winded closure process. This Chiltern train has now itself been replaced by the Ghost Bus.

Why is it called the Ghost Bus? The token nature of the service means this random bus is often empty, hence commonly referred to as a ‘ghost bus’, although needless to say, it’s popular with bus enthusiasts.

And so last Wednesday dawned and I made my way to West Ealing to find out what it was all about. I had no idea if I’d be the sole passenger. At first there were just two of us waiting at the bus stop, then another couple of people arrived and a small party, including the dad of Terry, the bus driver.

By 11.17, there were probably around 25-30 of us, all excited to be clambering aboard. Just about all of us went upstairs and I was lucky enough to have a front seat so could better enjoy the journey.

As soon as we started off, Terry made an announcement over the tannoy, welcoming us aboard the bus and telling us that it was the 11.17 from West Ealing to West Ruislip, stopping at … West Ruislip. No interim stops en route. The passengers applauded and cheered with this information.

And so the journey started and the bus was full of chatter and laughter and temporary friendships were formed. One of the passengers took a video of the whole journey, though when asked, admitted he didn’t know what he would do with it once he got home.

But it didn’t matter because the bus journey was the thing! West Ruislip soon loomed into sight and we all reluctantly piled off the bus, taking photos of Terry and the 11.17.

The popularity of the bus these days is largely due to some publicity gained when the BBC found out about the service and ran an article about it. There is some talk of bringing back the train service and a decision may be reached as early as May this year (2024). When I spoke to Terry once we’d arrived at our destination, he was keen to attract as many passengers as possible, in order to keep the service going.

So if this random bus service takes your fancy, take yourself off to the Argyle Road bus stop at West Ealing and be pleasantly surprised at what is in store! And just so you know, there is no return journey – so you’ll have to find your way home from West Ruislip.

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@londonroutemistress