Day 144 An opportunity to try out the Elizabeth line, opened three days previously, in order to reach Ealing Broadway to ride the No 226.

 I invigilated GCSE Chemistry so was unable to start this journey until the 1205 train to London Bridge. I crossed to the Thameslink train to Peterborough at 1233 and alighted at Faringdon. The intention was then to catch the Elizabeth Line to Ealing Broadway. 

The entry at Faringdon

Approaching platform at Faringdon

Signal posts indicating platform destination 

No trains are going beyond Paddington though, so having boarded the train, 345011 at 1245 I arrived at Paddington at 1253. This was much quicker than by the Hammersmith and City, although Bond Street station is not open as yet so there was only one intermediate stop. I then had to cross over the concourse to reach platform 11 for the 1302 train to Heathrow Terminal 5 345052. This allowed me to arrive at Ealing Broadway at 1310 only 1 hour and 5 minutes since leaving my local station.

Metroline's DE1660 on a glorious day at Haven Green 

Not in a bad state for a thirteen year old bus

The bus starts from the Haven which is where the No 112 starts from as well. The bus stop suggested the bus would take 74 minutes and Metroline DE1660 was already waiting to leave as I left the station at 1313. However it didn't leave until 1322. I had looked at the map view on the TFL website and this route is very convoluted. It initially heads west down Castlebar Road before swinging north up Eaton Road and then east along Montpellier Road. The housing in this part of Ealing is a mixture of blocks of flats and late Victorian or Edwardian villas. The bus continues to wiggle right then left but eventually emerges onto the North Circular Road just south of the Hangar Lane Gyratory. The bus turns through around 260 degrees of the roundabout and in doing so it created an issue for a lorry driver on the inside who had to drive over the pavement and gave our driver a lot of cursing at the next set of traffic lights. Turning off the North Circular Road we took Twyford Abbey Road, the eastern end of which I had used very recently on the No 224. The bus turned right up Bodiam Way before I duplicated my steps and entered a new estate of corporate and residential units which according to my map used to be the Guinness Park Royal Brewery. After this, however, we reached Rainsford Road at its junction with Corporation Road and took this road to Acton Lane and then into the Central Middlesex Hospital.

As always on a single decker it is difficult to take photos, but here is the Central Middlesex Hospital with which I am getting quite familiar, with the outside at least!

We left the hospital at 1347 and took Acton Lane to Harlsden station and on to Harlesdon High Street where we took Park Parade as I had earlier this year on the No 206. The difference came after the Willesden health and community care centre when the bus headed left to go past Willesden bus garage. I next discovered the delights of Dollis Hill which required first heading north-west so as to be able to cross the Metropolitan, Jubilee and Aylesbury lines and then immediately east down Burnley Road. There were rows and rows of neat turn of the 20th century housing here and we worked our way north to Kendall Road and then east along Anson Road to reach Chichele Road which took us into Cricklewood. We crossed the A5 and went up Cricklewood Lane to turn left just after the railway station down Claremont Road, visited previously on the No 189 amongst others. Turning right up Pennine Way with its little roundabout in the middle we continued in a straight line to the A41 then it was a brief right with a No 102 behind us and left down The Vale to reach Golders Green at 1437. A very windy route which was almost exactly 74 minutes so well done to the driver.

We have arrived at Golders Green and its still sunny and warm

I then took the Northern line to London Bridge by the now re-opened City line from King's Cross to London Bridge, an Uckfield train to East Croydon and a No 407 bus home. This journey took an hour and a half but 25 minutes of this was the traffic in Croydon because Waddon Road is shut for sewer works.

Day 143 a short trip in SE London the No 225

 I expected this to be quite a short couple of hours 'work' as I only had to get to Hither Green, take the bus to Canada Water and then back on the London Overground to Croydon. However, to get to Hither Green I thought I'd get the tram to Elmers End, then a train to Lewisham and then back one stop to Hither Green. On arrival at Wandle Park at 1120 the indicator said a Beckenham Junction tram would arrive in 4 minutes and then following that the Elmers End one. At 1135 a lady on the platform who had rung up control told us the Beckenham tram was being repaired at Therapia Lane, the indicator still stating 4 minutes until arrival at this time. It finally arrived at 1142 with the Elmers End tram right behind it. The disruption had of course messed up the sequence of trams crossing the single line flyover between Wandle Park and Reeves Corner so it was 1147, almost half an hour after my arrival, that we were under way. At Elmers End we arrived just a  minute before the 1209 to London Bridge came in from Hayes. I realised my plan to change trains at Lewisham was thwarted though, as this train takes the main line at Parks Bridge junction thereby going straight from Ladywell to St John's thus missing out Lewisham. So Plan B was initiated, I got out at Catford Bridge at 1220 and boarded a No 202 to Hither Green at 1229. This bus doesn't pass the railway station though, it goes under the line where the depot, mainline and marshalling yard lines meet. It was a walk down Hither Green Lane and then Springbank Road to reach the starting point for the No 225.

Walking down Springbank Road with bus in distance

I arrived at 1245 and there was already a bus waiting, No 743 an AD Enviro 200 which was Metrobus originally but is now a Go Ahead vehicle based at Morden Wharf Greenwich (MG).

Go Ahead 743 awaiting departure

The bus shelter was set well back from the road amidst a very prolific garden display

 I had arrived half way through the driver's break as it is a twenty minute frequency service and it was duly 1255 that I was allowed to board and headed south for Canada Water which is almost due north of where the bus began its journey! It soon turned to the right into Torridon Road and then right again into Hither Green Lane which meant we were heading in the general direction of north. As soon as we turned into Hither Green Lane the bus is following the same route as the No 181 and this persists as we run down to the A21 just to the south of Lewisham High Street. So after fifteen minutes at 1310 we were at the Lewisham Clock Tower. The bus from here ran into Lewisham bus station but as there were no customers we didn't stop and turned right under the railway and later right into Jerrard Street. This follows the route of the No 47 which took us to Deptford. We passed a park on the right with an arch saying Ravensbourne Park 1953 but with Brookmill Park signs underneath this. It appears from Wikipaedia the park was originally named Brookmill Park, was renamed Ravensbourne Park after the war when it was enlarged with bomb damaged housing but reverted to its previous name when the Borough of Lewisham was created in 1965.

Broadway fields with DLR train descending from Deptford bridge to Elverson Road

Interesting detail as we approached Deptford Broadway

The bus turned left into Deptford Broadway and although the next stop was announced as New Cross station the bus went over the station bridge and then around the one way system before stopping at the station stop as if heading back eastwards to Deptford. Once it took off again, before the station was reached the bus turned left down Pagnell Street, an area I remember as a kid being rows of dilapidated Victorian housing. There was now a park here, Fordham Park, and a school with increasingly large amounts of modern housing or blocks of flats as we move onwards to Surrey Canal Road. All this part of the route was unique to the No 225 but as we reach Surrey Quays station other bus routes join us and approaching Canada Water I was actually on the same road as bus route No 1. Arrival at Canada Water bus station was at 1339, 44 minutes from departure. The initial bus stop suggested 46 minutes so a good run to time had been effected.

Arrival at Canada Water

To return home I caught the next London Overground South which was going to Crystal Palace at 1347, so alighted at Sydenham and caught the 1411 to West Croydon. This meant I got home at 10 minutes to three, so almost four hours after leaving home.

Day 142 Back to NW London to do two single deck routes the No 223 and No 224.

 I caught the 1135 to London Bridge in order to utilise the Jubilee line to Finchley Road so as to transfer to the Metropolitan line which led to my arrival at Harrow on the Hill station at1237- not much more than an hour after leaving from South London. 

Inside Harrow Bus Station at stop E

London United 30270 awaiting
departure from lay over point

Arrival at bus station

The next bus, the route the No 223, starts from the bus station adjacent to Harrow on the Hill station. The route is expected to take 45 minutes according to the timetable and the next bus was due to leave at 1251. I found my bus was resting down a nearby side road and like many buses operated by London United was an Alexander Dennis Enviro 200H MMC no 30270. It arrived at 1249 and actually departed from position E at the bus station at 1250. The bus turned right down College Road then right into Station Road and right again at Kenton Road to the large roundabout over the Metropolitan tube and Aylesbury line. First we went around three quarters of the roundabout and down the A404 and into Northwick Park Hospital. After a quick stop we retraced our steps to the roundabout and then did another three quarter turn and headed down Kenton Road to reach Kenton station at 1300. This road I had ridden down on the Nos 114 and 183 but after about five furlongs we turned right into Woodcock Hill. This road typified much of the route comprising of 1930s or 1950s built semi-detached houses which made for little reason to take photographs. The bus briefly took Draycott Avenue before turning left into Windermere Avenue and running down to South Kenton station. From here we took Carlton Avenue East and arrived at the Preston Pub and passed Preston Road where the bairns and I had walked to after the England v Cote D'Ivoire match in order to get on the tube instead of waiting in the queues at Wembley Park. The Drive took us to Forty Avenue and then down the Empire Way past Wembley Park at 1324 and on into Wembley to reach Wembley Central station. I nearly got off the bus here but as the bus hadn't made an announcement that it was the last stop I asked the driver and he said "oh do you want to go around the corner" to which I obviously replied "yes I need to do the entire route" and told him about the quest. This done I disembarked at 1334.

Around the back of Wembley Central station

The next bus starts at St Raphael's estate and I had been there before when I did the No 92 and since this passes Wembley Central it was the 'obvious' way to go. The timetable said it should take 17 minutes to get there and that the service was every 8-12 minutes. However a bus didn't arrive until 1353, almost a twenty minute wait. The next issue was that I was told to get off at Brent Ikea at 1414 as this was now the final stop. When I rode the No 92 the start point was St Raphael's estate North. Luckily there was a map nearby where I could ascertain where Mitchell Way was, the start point for the  No 224. It seemed like the best way was to walk down the North Circular Road to a point where I could access Mitchell Way.

London United 30271 having to park on pavement

Two No 232s at the bus stop blocking access for the No 224

On arrival I found there were two No 232s waiting and that was all the space allowed such that when a No 224 arrived-which soon it did, it had to park on the pavement. The driver had his break from about 1428 until 1436 and then we were on our way back to Brent Ikea and then also to do a circuit of Tesco's. On departure it really was a circuit but this time we headed straight on and under the North Circular to rejoin it on the opposite side.

Looking back across the North Circular to the entry point to the St Raphael's Estate

It wasn't long before we reached the opposite side of the road to Brent Ikea and here we turned away from the North Circular down Brentfield Road which becomes Knatchbull Road, and then on to Acton Lane where we turned right and stopped at Harlesden station at 1455. Continuing on down Acton Lane we turned down a bus only road into the Central Middlesex Hospital. From here the bus left the residential streets and for quite a while was running past industrial units in Park Royal. We left the industrial scenery briefly to do a little trip down Twyford Abbey Road, before doing a turn around a semicircular roundabout and back the way we came alongside the Grand Union Canal. Abbey Road then took us over the North Circular.

Crossing the North Circular on Abbey Road with St Raphael's Estate beyond the high rise building

It was then Beresford Avenue and Mount Pleasant which conveyed us to Ealing Road Alperton and then once past the station we turned right then left and arrived at Alperton Sainsbury's at 1531. A 55 minute journey which was much as expected.

Arrival at Alperton Sainsbury's

Alperton garage being demolished

I then took the Piccadilly line to Earls Court, District line to West Brompton, London Overground to Clapham Junction and then the 1654 home from there.

Day 141 A trip on a Monday to Hounslow for the No 222 to Uxbridge

 Transport from home to Hounslow was surprisingly efficient compared to my six years commuting to Heathrow. The 1100 to Victoria caused us to arrive at Clapham Junction at 1130 just 3 minutes before the arrival of the 1132 to Weybridge which deposited us at Hounslow railway station at 1201. It is 15 minute walk from there to bus stop C where the bus departs from, this being the self same spot where earlier in the year I had caught the No 203 to Staines.

Timetable suggests journey should
take just under an hour

Metroline's VWH2168 based at Uxbridge garage.

After a perusal of some shops we boarded Metroline's VWH2168 at 1239 and followed the usual route around the Treaty Centre and stopped at The Bell. The bus then took the Bath Road and followed exactly the route of this to the slip road for the tunnel to Heathrow Airport. However this is where the bus diverges from travelling straight westwards and does a little loop so it can cross the A4 and head towards Sipson. This process led to the bus taking roads only the No 222 traverses for much of the time through Sipson and on into West Drayton. The bus reached the Plough just before turning right into Holloway Lane at 1311, about half an hour since departure.

The Approach to Harlington Corner by Heathrow, so much quieter than pre-pandemic

Foliage trying to subsume bus stop in Sipson

The bus seemed to be colliding with foliage constantly, so perhaps there are no open top buses that do tree clipping at present. Holloway Lane took the bus under the M4 before it next turned left into Cherry Lane to regain Sipson Road before running into the shopping streets of West Drayton and then Yiewsley. As we turned into West Drayton station we very nearly hit a lorry that wasn't intending to give way.  

The small entrance road for West Drayton station looking back at Yiewsley High Street

At 1320 we returned back to the shopping streets to head north towards Cowley. Once over the cross roads and passing Tesco' s again the bus took a route no other bus proceeds along. This road was followed through Cowley and on to Uxbridge passing a strangely named road on the way  Benbow WayE, and we terminated in Belmont Road at 1335.

Disembarkation at Belmont Road with a U4 ahead of us. I saw U1 to U10 whilst in Uxbridge which I will not reach until many many years to come

VwH2168 heads into bus station to lay over before returning to Hounslow

The Metropolitan line to Finchley Road was taken changing there for the Jubilee to Green Park, where  the Victoria line took us to Victoria and then train home to East Croydon, followed by tram and bus which took us just over 2 hours.