Route 469

Route 469
7 April 2007

The 469 is a dreadfully convoluted route from Bexleyheath to Woolwich, being a mishmash of various local links strung together into one implausibly long route.

It all started with the 98 tram, which started from Abbey Wood and ran via Abbey Road, Belvedere, Erith and Bexley Road to Bexleyheath. When trams in this area were replaced by trolleybuses this one became the 698 and was extended from Abbey Wood to Woolwich via McLeod Road, Woolwich being a more obvious focal terminus than Abbey Wood. The route was further extended to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Woolwich common; although a number of routes now run there since a major redevelopment and expansion to replace Greenwich District Hospital, for many years the 469 was the only route.

The 698 in turn was replaced by extending the rapidly lengthening 229 route, which therefore ran from Orpington to Woolwich via a rather indirect route! The time came for the 229 to be split and the Woolwich to Bexleyheath section was transferred to the 269. Later the 269 was itself split at Bexleyheath, and thus was born the 469; but the legacy of the 269 lived on as, inexplicably, one early morning journey from Abbey Wood to Bexleyheath on Mondays to Fridays was numbered as a 269!

The present routing was created on 23 January 1999 in a far reaching reorganisation of bus routes in Bexleyheath and Woolwich. The route was increased from 3 Titans an hour to 4 Darts, and changes were made to the route increasing through journey times quite considerably. Between Woolwich and Abbey Wood buses were diverted via the Abbey Estate (Church Manorway and Sewell Road) in replacement for route 177, albeit representing a reduction from 5 to 4 buses an hour on that section. This enabled the 177 to revert to the more direct routing via McLeod Road and thus to revert to double deck operation to relieve overcrowding further down the route. And between Erith and Bexleyheath buses were diverted via Manor Road, Slade Green, Parkside Avenue and Barnehurst in replacement for the B13, which was being cut back to improve reliability.

Unexpectedly the Darts for the 469 conversion turned out to be new, low floor, ones. London Central had "on paper" acquired 15 of the notorious Marshall Minibuses from London General ("Minibus" being actually the name of the type) for certain routes in the Bexleyheath scheme, but a deal had been struck with Marshall to replace these unreliable integral buses with an equal number of Marshall bodied Dennis Darts of the same size, while Marshall would rebuild the disastrous Minibuses for re-sale. But in addition to the 15 DMSs, as the replacements were classified, 29 DMLs were purchased to oust all remaining Optare Metroriders. Not that they are very long; London Northern had some identical buses classified DMS, S for short!

However London Central has now found itself with more low floor Darts than it needed, and so has decided to standardise on the more numerous Plaxton bodied vehicles and dispose of the Marshall examples. As a result some early LDP class Darts have been drafted in from sister company London General – these are some three years older than the vehicles they replace!

LDP4 (P504 RYM) was one of 4 refurbished early LDPs allocated to Bexleyheath garage earlier on – note how it still retains its London General fleetnames. The bus was photographed on a short working in Woolwich last June. Anyone wanting a 469 to/from the hospital will have had a long wait!

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Chronologically 152 486

Numerically 468 471
See also routes 269, 229, B13, 177

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