Day 173 A short trip around SW London on the No 265

 After all the long journeys recently to get to the start point of a route the trip to Putney Bridge for the No 265 was fairly quick and straightforward. I walked to Wandle Park tram stop and caught a tram to Wimbledon and then crossed to platform 3 for a District line train to Putney Bridge. So having departed Wandle Park at 1127, I was at Putney Bridge at 1205.

Bus layover point around the corner from Putney Bridge station forecourt

London United's DLE30139

Descending for the platform high on a viaduct I found the bus stop directly outside the station with a No 265 waiting  just around the corner. This arrived at 1208 and was London United's 30139, now 7 years old, but had a different number originally before the company was taken over by RATP. The bus turned left onto Putney Bridge itself and then turned right along the riverbank toward Barnes. The Tames water's super sewer was being worked on here.

Work on the 'Super Sewer' adjacent to the river Thames

It had been dry up to this point during the morning but outbreaks of rain started to occur as we crossed Putney Heath and on to Barnes Common where we turned left and went over the bridge at Barnes railway station.

Barnes Common starting to come to life
with light green shoots everywhere

At the South Circular the bus crossed straight over passing Roehampton University and Queen Mary's Hospital as it climbed the hill towards Wimbledon Common reaching the shops at 1230. At Alton Road the bus turned right and then did a complete circuit of an estate before emerging back onto the road it started from. 

Awaiting exit from Alton Road where we turned
 left so we could travel right

Then presumably because of the habitual large traffic density the bus turned initially left then soon right to do a 180 degree turn around the fountain to return again to be heading in the direction of the A3 and Wimbledon Common. At the A3 the bus turned right and soon sped up stopping briefly at the Roehampton Vale ASDA, sometimes thereafter it left the A3 onto a parallel road to service a bus stop but then returned to the A3 until we had reached Shannon Corner where the bus left the vicinity of the A3 and turned into New Malden.

Here we have left the A3 in order to access
Shannon Corner so as to enter New Malden

 We turned right at The Fountain Pub though, and so returned back to the A3 and turned right along this road in the direction of Tolworth again using parallel roads to allow passengers to board or alight. At the Tolworth roundabout the bus did a 180 degree turn and then took the first left up Ewell Road. It turned left at the end of this road and soon terminated. This was not where the TFL website said the bus route finished but the driver told me it had been doing so for the last year owing to roadworks on Tolworth Broadway. I thus finished the journey at 1308 exactly an hour after leaving Putney Bridge Underground station. 

Arrival at current termination point just around corner from
Tolworth Broadway in  Ewell Road

From here I walked to Tolworth station and caught the 1339 train to Wimbledon and then a tram to Wandle Park and a No 410 bus home.

Inside Southwest Trains Class 455 5911 on my way from Tolworth to Wimbledon. How much longer will these Electric Multiple units survive; Southern having already sent all of theirs for scrap.