http://foston.net/blog/2010/01/travelling-in-london-avoid-buses/
At the start of the year I decided to swap from the bus and train to just the bus in an effort to save some money and to see if my journey would be any easier.
Whilst the bus from Hampton (R70) to Richmond has seemed to be fairly consistent, it’s just too slow, taking anything up to an hour and fifteen minutes to cover the 6-8 miles.
Coming home though is far worse. The bus from Richmond (490) to Feltham seems the most unreliable of all, tonight for example I waited over 30 mons for one to arrive. It then never takes less than 45 minutes to get to Feltham but for some reason attracts some on the least customer friendly and aggressive drivers. I guess it could be the buses at fault but you can feel the driver pushing the bus to accellerate and brake far too hard. Probably because they are always late.
Maybe in Central London things are better but out here in West London I will be back on the train this week.
Sorry Boris it still needs a lot of work to make it a viable option!