Although it does serve in Ilford city centre (The one with many shops).
Well, it serves the *edge* of Ilford town centre, but really isn't that convenient for the shops or the station - certainly not for anyone with luggage. Indeed, in that regard it is much *less* useful that the three bus routes it replaced that ran directly between Barking and Ilford, one of which (the 179) stopped right outside the station, and the other two of which (169 and 369) did go right into the main shopping area. The EL1 and EL2 do neither, although the 169 still exists and goes through to Barking.
Probably the best way to explain is to look on Google maps (and streetview)
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=ilf...ford,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=17
The first and last stop the EL1/2 reach in Ilford is on Ilford Hill (just above where Ilford Conservative Club is shown on the map). Previously the buses from Barking either stopped directly outside the station (on Cranbrook Road) or went into the shopping area to the right (High Road/Clements Road)
So bus lane specifically for that particular bus route is not all the way? For example, there is no bus lane along between Ilford and Barking section? So it means I can just take other normal bus from Ilford to Barking and it will still take same amount of time?
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No,there's not a bus lane all the way. Not even most of the way. The roads are too narrow for that in many places. One thing that was done when the EL1/EL2 was introduced was to try and improve (reduce) on-street parking problems along Ilford Lane - which is a very busy shopping and eating (South Asian cafes and restaurants) street. There were a few other things done like this at a few places on the route, but nothing very major,really.
The 169 takes the same route between Ilford and Barking station, and takes the same amount of time as the EL1/2. There is also the 366 route, which takes a longer route, through very quiet residential streets mostly. In theory that would take longer than the 169/EL1/EL2 (over 20 minutes in the daytime, according to the timetable, instead of 12 mins or so), but if Ilford Lane were very congested, as it sometimes is, it might just be quicker.
Really, it's an ill-thought through experiment. The need to make deep budget cuts were the reason why it ended up this way.