Day 136 A more local trip than the last few, the No 213 from Sutton to Kingston.

For once I didn't need to take a train anywhere but caught the No 407 bus at 1125 to Marshall Road in Sutton and walked from there to the starting point of the No 213 in Bushey Road. As I was walking down Bushey Road a No 213 emerged; so as usual I missed the first one I could potentially have caught.

London General's DOE49 reposing before our trip to Kingston.

Bus stop flag parallel with the road rather than
sticking out across it which was why I walked past it.

After discovering that the bus does not start at the stop next to the bus garage I was directed by a member of staff on a break to a stop I had walked straight past because it was not pointed across the street but parallel with it.

DOE49 about to turn right to approach my position.
The bus is currently in Bushey Road as the road does a
dog-leg around the bus garage.

I boarded London General's DOE49 at 1204 and returned back the way I had walked to Marshall Road and then up Throwley Way parallel with Sutton High Street. Despite not stopping until the top of this road to pick someone up it took seven minutes to reach the stop called Sutton Police Station. The roadworks at the roundabout at Gander Green Lane caused a hold up for a while but by 1221 we were in Cheam Broadway. From here it only took four minutes to reach North Cheam and then it was on to Worcester Park where there was the usual crawl down the High Street.

Ford Anglia being worked on betwixt North Cheam
and Worcester Park

The London Borough of Kingston was entered at 1232, so almost half an hour after leaving Sutton, but nevertheless the bus was running to time and travelled quite briskly from here through Old Malden, across the Kingston Bypass and into New Malden. At 1241 we had reached the northern end of New Malden High Street at the railway station. 

New Malden High Street

Wright bodied Volvo in Langley Grove, another bus type and indeed this route
 often sports the three Volvo Enduros that London General own.

Thereafter the bus turned left down Langley Grove which is an estate mostly built in the 1950s and 60s by the look of it. At the end of this road the bus swung right into Gloucester Road to stop outside Kingston Hospital. This was achieved at 1251 and once it had turned right into Kingston Hill the bus continued into Kingston to halt at the Fairfield bus station at 1257. A journey time of 53 minutes as opposed to the booked time of 56 minutes so despite some hold ups a good run.

Arrival at Kingston

Fairfield bus station alighting point

I had expected to get a train to Wimbledon and tram home from there but as I was crossing the road a No X26 hove into view, so I walked swiftly to the Cromwell Road bus station and boarded that service at 1304. This got me home an hour later, which was probably quicker than train and tram, although there wouldn't have been much betwixt them.