Riding the Routes: Day 197 To East London for the No 304 and then to west London; well in fact beyond London as TFL cancelled the No 305 from the first of September 2018. Some of the route was merged with the last bus I rode, the No 303.

I intended to catch the 1035 to London Bridge but was still buying two tickets to Southport when it arrived, so went around the corner to catch a No 154 to Fairfield Halls. This enabled me to catch the 1048 Peterborough bound train running one minute late to Farringdon. At Farringdon I changed to the Elizabeth line at 1114 to take to me to Custom House, where I arrived at 1130.

The No 304 with Custom House station behind

Custom House Elizabeth line station

London General's WHV80 arriving

The red TFL symbol I hadn't noticed before, unfortunately it stayed lit when it wasn't engaged!

Down below the station was the location where the No 304 starts from and London General's WHV80 arrived about 1145. The journey was forecast to take 37 minutes but the driver informed me the bus was on diversion and he arrived 9 minutes behind time but as he hadn't driven the other way was unsure what the delay might accumulate to. Almost immediately the bus goes 'off piste' and heads north up Freemans Road and then under the A13 and into New Barn Lane until we reached the Barking Road where the bus turned right. At no point did the bus stop but once we turned right into Prince Regent Lane the bus stopped just before The Greenway.

Heading up Freemans Road

Turning to go under the A13 into New Barn Lane

Turning left into Barking Road, still not on the correct route

The first stop heading South at the Greenway

Heading towards Newham University Hospital

The bus stopped again opposite a school before turning left into Glen Road and at this point rejoined its route which should have approached Glen Road from the opposite direction. The bus then ran through Newham University Hospital at 1202 and on through the bus gate at the end where we separated from the No 276 route but were still on the same road as the No 376 bus past Brampton Manor School. At the T junction at the end of this route the bus turned right into Lonsdale Avenue where the No 104 route joined us. We then followed the same route as the No 104 to the end of Lonsdale Avenue, then left up past East Ham Central Park where I started on the No 58 and No 115 before hitting roadworks which slowed our progress towards the town hall.

The bus then continued north along East Ham High Street and onwards to cross the Romford Road to Manor Park station where the bus initially heads left and then right to terminate at Gladding Road at 1234.

Journey's End at Manor Park

Gladding Road where the bus terminated

I now had to get to the far side of London so took the bus back to Manor Park station and caught the 1253 Elizabeth line train to Paddington. I then caught the next train, thankfully a semi-fast, to Hayes and Harlington. where I arrived at 1338. On the road above the next bus was a No H98 which I took to Harlington Corner where I waited but a short time for a No 81 to take me to Poyle. By this time it was 1410 but I thought the No 305 was at 1430.

Coleridge Crescent with only this bus

Clear sheet with no timetable for the bus

Ex Metroline Dart on the No 305

Bear Buses of Feltham

However, by 1415 a bus appeared across the road in Coleridge Crescent I had just seen the bus stop which was a different type to any I had seen before. I checked with bus driver and he said this was the originating stop and the No 305 route was the only bus route the company Bear Buses operate. It was an ex metroline bus LK58CTV which had been DE959. Surprisingly to me the bus started off at 1421 so it was a good job I had been early.

Ye Olde George

The only Bear bus ticket I am
likely to get

The bus headed west along the Old Bath Road which became Park Street and then High Street before we reached the 'new' A4 and headed for the M4 roundabout at Langley. At this roundabout we turned left into Majors Farm Road and this ran parallel with the M4 with the bus running at quite a rate before we seperated from the M4 and entered Datchet.

Reaching the A4 beyond Poyle

The bus needed to turn hard left as we passed the Red Deer pub into Horton Road but there were cars making some of these manoeuvres quite difficult to do but the driver did them expertly. He had previously been a driver for Hallmark before Covid caused such jobs to cease.

We continued into Horton with myself the only passenger but at Horton Parish Hall we picked up a second passenger and a little beyond Horton in Stanwell Road we picked up another traveller. Around this area there were the banks of large reservoirs which caused me so much grief forecasting fog for operations at Heathrow. The bus had to wait for lights to cross the bridge at Wraysbury station which is one way only. I would have thought a level crossing would have been preferable. Driving from here to Staines the houses were massive such a contrast to where I had been 2 to 3 hours earlier.

The Perserverance in Wraysbury

Ar 1452 we were queuing to enter Staines, next to the remains of Staines West station which used to be attached to the line I saw from the No 81 bus as we entered Poyle where there was a Class 66 with an oil train. At 1503 we entered Staines bus station and terminated.