Travelling around London with public transport and my adventures onboard: September 2021

Welcome to Autumn! Let me finish off part 2 of the trip that I did on the London Bus Route 173 on the 11th October 2020 - pretty much a year ago as of publishing this. Time files!

As a heads up may I recommend reading part 1 so that you, the reader have an idea of the journey. Of course you can read part 2 before part 1 if you want to, I am not forcing you. Anyways let me get into it, I don't want to waste your time.

Disclaimer: The journey was ridden a few weeks before Lockdown #2 was in place.

In Beckton

Beckton Bus Station

After having lunch in Beckton, I walked back over to the bus station to decide how to go on my way back. I missed a 173 but I saw another one at the bus stand so I waited... for 14 minutes. Well it is a Sunday after all and buses take alot longer than on a weekday, so as annoying as it was I had to do it. Even if it was 12C in this British weather. During that time I saw a few routes pass by this included; 101 (in both directions), 262, 366 and 474.

Here they are:

Two 101s heading to Wanstead and Gallions Reach Shopping Park. Nice horses too.
WVL479 (LJ61NWN) and WVL480 (LJ61NWO).

(WH31113) SK19FDD on route 262 towards East Beckton Sainsburys.

That was a 366, the roadworks blocked the shot.

11026 (YX68UKL) on route 474 towards Manor Park.

Heading Back

(T182) LJ60AUL, the bus I waited 14mins for is seen on stand.

As more people came along from small shopping centre, the bus finally arrives. It became partly full leaving the bus station but we must return back regardless of the load. We joined the A13 heading towards Dagenham where we managed to go quick on this occasion. No traffic thankfully as the A13 can sometimes halt to a standstill. Anyway we were briefly still in Beckton before speeding along towards Barking Bus Garage (DX), where the driver didn't changeover but we waited at the stop regardless because bus drivers are supposed to keep on schedule. Returning to Merrleands Retail Park in Dagenham a few people boarded and alighted - the weather cloudy as ever.

T199 (SN08AAE)
at Dagenham Heathway on route 173 towards
Beckton Station.

With the fastest section of the route over with we stayed residential for bit. Taking left heading towards Dagenham Heathway, routes 174 and 175 passed in the other direction. Approaching Dagenham Heathway now and I managed to see (T199) SN08AAE in it's older "Arriva serving London" livery heading towards Beckton Station which was something I wasn't really expecting to see
since it was a Sunday but yeah. Continuing down the straight road with endless houses known as Heathway, Becontree Heath would be the next area we would pass. In this instance we took a right past the Morrisons and I saw another 173 heading in the other direction. Staying straight onto Whalebone Lane South and there was traffic as I expected when I did it towards Beckton in the other post. Entering Chadwell Heath the sun shined bright on this Sunday afternoon - in the meantime I wondered whether to alight and take a bus home or continue on.... I decided to stay to the end it didn't matter either way. Coming back we had to take a left and loop around to serve the Chadwell Heath Lane bus stop which I mentioned before in part 1 (if you can remember).

Onto Chadwell Heath Lane, pretty much the final stretch of the route. At this point we were pretty much near the end and I was the only one upstairs past Little Heath and King George Hospital. As I alighted it felt cold (being mid-October this is to be expected) and I saw another 173 on stand so I decided to take a picture of both of them together.

I took the one behind - both are seen on stand here.
T189 (LJ60ATO) and T182 (LJ60AUL).

Start time: 2:37pm

End time: 3:29pm

Went at a good time for both journeys, and drivers didn't do too bad on both occasions. My general experiences of the 173 bus route has been alright. Arriva did a decent operation on the route, of course there were times that it went a bit rocky but it's inevitable anyways. It is my favourite route in London as it goes on A13 and the buses I got on that day really went for it but that said it's time for a change - nothing can stay the same forever.

The route changed operators to Stagecoach London on the 18th October 2020 as of typing. I wish them well for the next 5 or if possible 7 years of operation.

And that my friends brings another blog post to a close. Thanks for reading!

Take care, stay safe and happy riding! :)

Bonus pictures

All leaving Beckton. 101 (towards Wanstead), 173 (towards King George Hospital), 474 (towards Canning Town, Barking Road) and 300 (towards Canning Town).