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Blue Triangle DN185 (Y185 RCR) Dart/Caetano Nimbus is seen at Lakeside Bus Station in Winter 2003 on route 372, soon after the route started running. This is one of the batch purchased in 2001 for route 368, but vehicles often stray from their correct routes in practice. Correct vehicles for the 372 are four single door Pointers.

Photo © Martin Hazel.

The route was introduced by Transport for London as a partial replacement for 324, a route created by Ensignbus, but latterly with Town & Country buses. TfL, before their current budgetary crisis, had a brief spell of taking responsibility for cross-border routes, and the 372 is one beneficiary. However the sections of 324 between Hornchurch and Romford and between Lakeside and Bluewater were not replaced, although Ensignbus has more recently re-launched this link as route X80.

Initial operation was on a temporary 18 month contract and the 4 Darts were obtained from dealer stock. This probably explains why they are single door, despite being longish (10.7m) versions, which is very unusual for a TfL route. A new 5 year contract was awarded to blue Triangle from March 2004, which apparently specified that the vehicles should be converted to dual door. This does not appear to have happened, which is just as well as I have to say that would have been rather a daft use of money!

The basic service is half hourly (hourly evenings and Sundays), but gets very busy in the run-up to Christmas when it is common for journeys to be duplicated and/or double decked at the weekend using buses spare off the 248. The schedule is not very efficient with large amounts of layover at most times of day – one extra bus would secure a 20 minute service on Mondays to Fridays and a half hourly evening and possibly Sunday service. Meanwhile, buses just have to spend a third of their time at the termini!

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