This is one of my bugbears. I often use the 165, 193 or 294 to get
from where I live (Brentwood Rd area) to Romford station, generally at
off-peak times. It's 12 mins by foot but about 3 by bus, so if I'm in
a hurry (or can't be bothered to walk), I'll take a bus.

Now I know that buses have to await right time to avoid bunching and
maintain roughly-even service intervals. I also know there are
clipboard-wielding inspectors at Romford 'bus station' - such as it is
- outside the railway station.

However it drives me mad that the bus will quite often trundle along
at 5mph, stop and open and close doors at empty (request) stops, and
often sit in South Street for 2 or 3 mins 'awaiting right time'. 193s
are the worst for this, but 294s and 165s can do it as well.

My gripes a

1. During the day, Mondays to Saturdays, all 3 of these routes are
'high-frequency' and so no exact timetable is shown on bus stops.
Therefore no potential passenger will be expecting a bus to show up at
a particular minute past the hour. Loadings are not so huge that one
gap of 4 or 5 minutes longer than (secretly) 'timetabled' would cause
problems.
2. The 165 and 193 terminate at Romford anyway. They are approaching
the end of their routes. 99.5% of the routes' passengers have already
travelled or are on the bus and will be alighting in the next few
stops. All 'awaiting time' is doing is wasting the time of the people
on the bus. It achieves nothing [1]. The 0.5% of passengers who have
still to board these routes have a choice of many buses for the last
few stops round the ring road. If they are going to the Queen's
Hospital from the station (the most likely journey at the end of the
193 route), they can take a 496 instead, or a southbound 175 or 365
from the other side of the road.
3. Even on the 294, which continues across Romford to Collier Row,
awaiting time AT the station, rather than 400m before it, would allow
those of us who want to get to Romford station/town centre ASAP (most
of us on the bus) to get where we want to go, while allowing Collier
Row-bound passengers the privilege of having the bus leave at the
correct (secret, unadvertised) departure time.

[1] Yes, I know the driver would be in line for a b*llocking if s/he
arrived at the station early. But that's a reason to change the
system, not to waste cumulative hours of people's time every day.

Whew, rant over!

--
Ken