Via my Bus industry friend: Seems to make very pragmatic sense and a very low cost fix.:Scotch Common terminus ( Argyle road end) is just under a mile and was used latterly & primarily as a relief for congestion at Ealing Broadway far longer than it was intended. The 273 was the replacement for the daily 65 extension which became a peak hours only as the 36ft E buses and all later driver only buses with blind exits could only park and alight on the left at E.B. Loadings from Brentford to Argyle road remained higher than anticipated so it was left unchanged M-F peaks, but passenger use was not the primary reason, it was bus congestion relief. This worked well. After all this affected crew breaks and the knock on delays along several routes all log jammed by what was, at the end of the day, badly designed buses not fitting the road space that exists and with limited manoeuvrability than previous.This is why very, very few 207 and 83 services were turned at Ealing whatever the circumstances except on Sundays and why some 65 services were turned at South Ealing Station - now pared right back to The A4. Simply to prevent the log jams which affected the E1, E2 and 273 and latterly most of the local services the worst.65 used the most direct routing - so the shortest and fastest route to Scotch Common - where to this day space for 4 X 36ft buses remains plus a space for a rest trailer ( Then because the route went from Ealing to Leatherhead ). It's now far shorter. This remains a designated TfL bus standing area and in LT days had brass Plates in the ground marking the extent of the area. They may well still be there.The 65 now suffers a lot of delays and the electric vehicles are having to be curtailed en route to avoid power drain failure and recharging means a trip to Fulwell. - The loss of Garages from selling off sites ( Turnham Green, Kingston, Norbiton, Hanwell, Alperton, Acton and Southall has severely restricted and limited options for alternative power sources and now with EV use fuelled an even bigger dead mileage issue. A booster charging point at Argyle road would allow a marked increase for service reliability . Rest facilities are lacking but during the final decade of operation, a short break was permitted at Ealing Broadway for crews and latterly drivers in either direction as the congestion relief allowed a space for a short layover ( usually across the Haven Green diagonal)A bit of history based thinking could resolve this with an updated portable facility acceptable to local environs. Far cheaper than Tow truck and engineering call outs which are stretching resources.
Raymond Havelock ● 515d