Although routes tend to stay with the same operator on re-tendering, one that reacently didn't was the 369, which passed from First Capital back to its previous operator, Stagecoach East London; Capital got the 364 and 499 in exchange. This time Dennis Tridents are specified, and all sorts turn out on the 369, including TA 70 (T670 KPU) in Ilford High Road on 2 August, which was part of Stagecoach’s first Trident order, for 98 long wheelbase, low height, versions, and one of 17 allocated to Barking for route 5.

Photo by Martin Hazel.

The 369 is not an old route, but its origins go back to the postwar housing boom when the Thames View Estate was constructed south of the Alfreds Way, with the inherent need to provide a public transport link into nearby Barking, Ilford also being reached fairly soon. The first attempt was to extend peak hours only route 23B (Becontree to Barking) to the Estate, with an all-day service introduced between Barking and Thames View (but no Sunday service). However, that only lasted a few years: in a re-shuffle the eastern end of the 23B became daily route 238 (to Canning Town) while new route trolleybus replacement route 193 replaced the section to Thames View.

Change was again not far off however, and again a new route featured a section to Thames View, this time the 179 which was introduced in 1964, mainly to replace the 145 north of Ilford. This arrangement lasted slightly longer, until in 1972 the 179 was split on Mondays to Saturdays, with a new 199 running a shuttle between Thames View and Barking. Except during Saturday shopping hours and on Sundays, the 179 now terminated at Barking. In 1977 the 199 was merged with the 291 (Barking to Ilford via South Park Drive), restoring the link from Thames View to Ilford Broadway, albeit via a somewhat roundabout route.

The September 1982 service changes inevitably had an effect on this story, and indeed the 199 was withdrawn with replacement by an odd bifurcation on the 148 along South Park Drive, and extension of the 169 (Clayhall to Barking) to Thames View on a daily basis, the previous Sunday extension of the 169 to Gascoigne Estate being withdrawn to facilitate this. Consequently, the 179 weekend extension to Thames View was withdrawn.

However there is one more step to this story before the 369 appears on the scene. One of the shortest-lived local route networks using letter prefixes must have been that at Barking, which lasted from 14 September 1991 until 19 March 1993. As far as Thames View is concerned, the 169 was cut back to Barking, while route B1 and B2 both served Thames View. The B1 ran daily and ran to Little Heath, while the B2 ran Mon-Sat and ran to Mayesbrook Park. The scheme was a flop however, and after just 18 months the B routes were replaced by conventional routes, the 369 replacing the B1/B2 from Thames View to Barking and the short-lived extension of the 287 to Ilford.

This coincided with London Transport’s sudden re-found enthusiasm for full size single deckers, and the 369 (along with 169) received a batch of new Optare Deltas, Darts being used on Sundays. However, although pleasant buses to travel on, they could not cope with loadings, and older Titan double deckers were re-introduced to the area from the end of 1996, shortly before the route passed to Capital Citybus in July 1997. Capital used some unusual buses on the 369, in the shape of East Lancs Pyoneer bodied Dennis Arrows, although there never seemed to be quite enough to go round and their numbers were further diluted by a service enhancement three years later.

Navigation

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Chronologically	43	106
Numerically	368	370

See also routes 364, 499, 5, 238, 193, 145, 179, 169, 62, 287