Day 253 Two buses again which are very short routes but on the opposite sides of London, the No 378 and 379.

 I walked to Wandle Park tram stop to catch a tram to Wimbledon which left at 1141. At Wimbledon I changed to the District line train at platform 1 to take me to Putney bridge station where I arrived at 1219. The No 378 starts from Putney Bridge but not the Underground station like most of the terminating buses hereabouts but on the northern bridge approach. Indeed I saw a No 378 arrive turning into the same bus station road and thing it swung left before reaching it. 

Journey of only 14 minutes every 15 minutes

Still two more buses to do after this one

My bus hiding behind the one not in service

I duly found the starting point and the timetable suggested it was a 15 minute interval service which took only 14 minutes total. London General's SE294 soon arrived hiding behind one of the newer electric versions and at 1228 we were crossing Putney Bridge.

Crossing Putney Bridge

At the southern end of the bridge the bus turned right along Lower Richmond Road and we followed this road as it ran into Putney Common and then Barnes. At the first set of traffic lights at Mill Hill Road the bus turned right towards Barnes and then after a while we went left into Church Road and stopped at the Red Lion stop at 1237. 

Approaching Barnes railway bridge

From here we continued past the pond and along the High Street to intercept the river Thames again near to Barnes Bridge railway station. Shortly after crossing under the railway line and moving away from the river the bus announced it was terminating and so at 1244 I alighted. 

Stop V where the bus terminated

SE294 headed to places unknown

The Old Power station

Walking from here to Mortlake bus station where it was supposed to terminate I could see why it could go no further, the access road was closed and the bus station was undergoing refurbishment. 

The road the bus would use to the bus station is shut

The bus stop to get off of the No 378

Bus stop where you would board the No 378

From here I walked parallel to the railway track to reach Mortlake railway station at 1300 where I found the next train to Waterloo was not until 1323. I rang Tim in case I could meet him for the next bus as it started at Chingford station, but he was in Woolwich. Thus I would plan to meet him on the No 385 or perhaps the No 397. Arriving at Waterloo at 1349  I took a Northern line train at 1357 to Warren Street where I changed for a Victoria line to Walthamstow Central. Here I caught the 1433 London Overground train to Chingford which delivered me there at 1444 with ten minutes to wait for the next No 379 at 1455. When I checked on the timing earlier of the bus it suggested it was having problems with parked cars and in fact the bus didn't arrive to pick me up until 1510 whereupon another arrived as well.

A quarter hourly service billed as taking 9 minutes!!

At Chingford station where I had previously
got the No 313 to Potters Bar

The No 379 arriving

Two No 379s arrived together

My mount was Stagecoach electric 45005 and this immediately turned left and headed down Chingford High Street to reach The Green at the end after passing the erratic running route No 385 going the other way. The bus turned right at The Green to go past the Police station and headed down Kings head hill which is surprisingly 1 in 8 in this otherwise fairly gentle area of rises and falls. By this time there were many schoolkids at the bus stops but they didn't ever overwhelm the bus. Once we were at the bottom of the hill the bus took the right turn of Drysdale Avenue and became Hail and Ride for much of the remainder of the route. Here we passed the end of Tim's road, hence my thinking he might have been able to meet me. At the end of Drysdale Road the left was taken at the 'T' junction Hawkswood Crescent which took us down to Sewardstone Road where we joined with another bus route done along time ago the No 215.

Nice advert in Chingford High Street

Joining Sewardstone Road

The bus continued down Sewardstone Road to the bus turn around, reached at 1527 where the bus was able to go up the hill into the Yardley Lane Estate along Antlers Hill.

The bus turn around at Yardley Lane Estate, where the
No 215 going North passes the No 215 going South
on the left!

 Running around the estate the driver did an exceptionally good job driving down roads very tightly narrowed by parked cars. However, at the junction with Boardman Avenue we found there was a motorcycle on its side and a police car blocked our progress at 1534. 

A motorbike on its side in front of the bus

Police car barring our progress

The next No 379 behind

We then had to wait for two youths to be captured and more police vehicles to arrive to convey these people to the police station and we were on our way at 1557. We made our way back to Sewardstone Road, turned left and then left again back up Hawkswood Crescent and down Drysdale Avenue returning back the way we had come to arrive back at Chingford railway station at 1611.

Finally back an hour after departure

I then climbed aboard the 1625 to Liverpool Street with a Latte and sausage roll and alighted at Hackney Downs. I then caught a train from Hackney Central the two stops to Canonbury where I took the 1704 to West Croydon which took almost an hour. I finally caught the 1805 home so had taken 7 hours to do two buses whose combined journeys should have amounted to 21 minutes!!