Typifying current route 229 stock is London Central’s PVL 42 W442 WGH, a Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President, the route having progressed via RT and RM types to more recent Titans and finally these low floor buses. This was shot opposite Bexleyheath Garage on 17th May 2000.

Photo by John Gillespie.

The 229 has changed much over the years, and currently serves just a few hundred yards of its original route, in Station Road, Sidcup! The route number broke the general rule in force at that time, in that single deck routes were numbered 2xx and double deck routes generally had numbers lower than 200, whereas the 229 has always been double deck. Not a very pointful rule, but LT did have its odd ways then!

It started soon after the war as a local service in Orpington, running essentially via what is now route R11 between Orpington Station, St. Paul’s Cray, Foots Cray, and Sidcup to Faraday Avenue, terminating at the junction with Wren Road. But great change was to follow, and within a few years it had been extended to Bexleyheath via Murchison Avenue and Townley Road, terminating at the above location. This territory had not previously been served; indeed there had been no link at all between Sidcup and Bexleyheath, contrasting with the two routes today!

At this time the service apparently ran with 7 buses every 19-19-20-19-19-19-20 minutes — because on the one hand union regulations barred cutting the stand times below five minutes, but on the other hand LT Central Buses did not want to waste resources by making unnecessarily long stand times! So instead of a neat 20 minute frequency, the timetable was so designed that people could not work out when buses were due, and probably did not use them as a result. Such nonsenses have not completely vanished; route P4 currently has an irregular 16-17 minute frequency during peak hours.

In the next change, as was mentioned on the 469 page, the route got too long for its own good by running to Erith, Belvedere, Abbey Wood and Woolwich in replacement for the 698 trolleybus — and still running through to Sidcup and Orpington. The extension was soon retracted, with the 269 taking over. Meanwhile the Orpington service became the R11, so that the 229 ran just between Foots Cray and Erith, and served little purpose other than to supplement the 269 and 469 via the same roads. Buses were also diverted via Bexley Station by serving more of Hurst Road, and the late evening and Sunday service was dropped. Then, in 1991, at Sidcup the route was diverted to serve Queen Mary’s Hospital rather than running down Sidcup Hill to Foots Cray.

The route survived for about five years in this form, but a scheme to provide more services to the rapidly expanding Thamesmead area north of Woolwich resulted in the 229 being extended back to Abbey Wood via its old routing! From there buses continued via Crossway to Thamesmead Town Centre, and evening and Sunday services were restored.

Then, at last, in the big scheme of January 1999 affecting Bexleyheath and Woolwich area routes, came the big improvement. The route took on the primary role between Sidcup and Erith from the 269 and 469, and was therefore improved from the long-standing 3 buses per hour frequency to 5. In addition buses were diverted more directly between Bexley and Bexleyheath, via Bourne Road and Gravel Hill instead of Townley Road.

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See also routes R11, 269, 469