page_title: London River Services
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: London River Services / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: The Victoria Embankment. Trams can also be seen. PS Pepys, built 1905 by Rennie at Greenwich, a subcontractor of J I Thornycroft of Southampton. Served London County Council's River Thames service from Greenwich to Hammersmith 1905-1907. Taken over by the City Steamboat co for the 1910 and 1912 seasons for continued use through London. Sold in 1913 to the Cie,. Lyonnaise de Navigatiuon et Remorquage at Lyon, France, and renamed Ville de Valence See paddlesteamers.info
context_page_description: London River Services Limited is a division of Transport for London, which manages passenger transport—leisure-oriented tourist services and commuter services—on the River Thames in London. It does not own or operate any boats itself, but licenses the services of operators.
  River service had been a common means of transport in London for centuries, but died off in the early 1900s, as transportation was enhanced with a proliferation of bridges and tunnels. With these numerous north-south crossings of the Thames, which is generally no more than 300m wide as it runs through central London, the revival of river boat services in London therefore mostly travel east or west along the Thames rather than across it; the only major cross-river ferry services are to be found further downstream where the river is wider, and there are far fewer bridge/tunnel crossings.
  The decision to revive London's river service network moved forward in 1997 with the launch of "Thames 2000", a £21-million project to regenerate the River Thames in time for the Millennium Celebrations and create new passenger transport services on the Thames.
context_section_description: In 1905 the London County Council (LCC) launched its own public river transport service to complement its new tram network, acquiring piers and investing in a large fleet of 30 paddle-steamers. Frequent services operated from Hammersmith to Greenwich. The LCC river service was not a success; in the first year it ran up debts of £30,000. It was shut down in 1907 after only two years' service.
  Numerous proposals for "river bus" services were considered throughout the 20th century, although the few that were realised were cancelled after a short time in service. During World War II, from 13 September 1940 to 2 November 1940, a temporary wartime river bus service was introduced, running every 20 minutes, between Westminster and Woolwich using converted pleasure cruisers provided by the Port of London Authority to replace train, tram and trolleybus services which were disrupted by the bombing of the Blitz. London Transport bus inspectors and conductors issued and checked the tickets on board the boats.
  With the move of the Port of London downstream in the 1960s, regular river transport was limited to a few sightseeing boats.
caption: Paddle-steamer Pepys used in the 1905-1907 service
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