WIREDGOV

Changes to buses in central London will make the network more efficient while continuing to support the city.

Central London's streets will become more efficient and have less bus-on-bus congestion as Transport for London (TfL) recently (12 April 2019) confirmed its plans to modernise the central bus network. TfL has made a number of improvements to its original proposals after thorough analysis of consultation feedback, with the changes ensuring that central London remains well served by public transport.

There are currently more buses than needed in the centre of the capital as a result of changes to how people travel, with demand dropping by 12 per cent in three years. The changes to routes in central London will make journeys better for many by improving reliability and reducing bus-on-bus congestion. It also allows for increased services in outer London where public transport options are more limited.

Reallocating resources from central London can take time, so the Mayor has provided additional funding from London's business rates to speed up investment in outer London. TfL is now consulting on a new bus route for a growth area in outer London at Kidbrooke. This route was already in the planning, but TfL has been able to bring it forward thanks to the extra funding. The new route 335 will better connect new homes in Kidbrooke to a key transport hub at North Greenwich.

The route is an example of how an efficiently organised bus network, with buses serving areas of growth, can support outer London and drive its economy. As well as the proposed new route 335, TfL has reviewed bus services in parts of Croydon and Brent, and will be confirming improvements in Croydon shortly. 

TfL has carefully considered the responses from the central London bus changes consultation and its associated equality impact assessment, and analysis of this feedback highlighted areas where the proposals needed improvement.

Some of the proposed changes risked disproportionately affecting areas of London with fewer transport options, or where there were too many additional interchanges required to complete journeys. As a result, TfL has decided not to go ahead with proposed alterations to routes 11, 19, and 22.

The addition of new route 311, proposed to mitigate changes to these routes, will therefore now not be going ahead. The consultation process also highlighted how vital the 271 night service to the Whittington Hospital is, so TfL will not go ahead with its proposed plans to withdraw this service.

Additionally, routes 171, 388 and 476 will be amended to enable better interchanges. The proposed frequency reduction on route 242 will be less significant than originally proposed and its night services will be extended to Tottenham Court Road, providing better links into the West End.

TfL will go ahead with the other changes as proposed in the consultation. The changes will be delivered in two phases, in June and October this year. A full summary of the changes and the responses can be found at tfl.gov.uk/central-London-bus-consultation.

Geoff Hobbs, TfL's Director of Public Transport Service Planning, said: 

"London and the way people travel is always changing, but our bus network historically hasn't always adapted to this. Parts of our network have become inefficient and unreliable, with too many buses in the same places causing problems with congestion.

"We will tackle these inefficient central London pinch points and free up resources to allow for the growth of outer London's bus service with these changes, which are predominately minor route restructures or timetable adjustments. We're thankful for the feedback on our proposals, which has  helped to improve them and make them work better for Londoners."

To ease inefficient pinch points, some routes will be shortened, providing an interchange onto other services that will continue to serve final destinations. Passengers can now use the Mayor's Hopper Fare to change buses unlimited times within an hour for just £1.50. TfL has also put in place measures to ensure that passengers whose interchanges now fall outside of one hour as a result of these changes will ultimately not be charged an additional fare. TfL is keen to ensure that the impact of the changes is minimised, so will continue to work with local authorities and stakeholders to identify where improvements to the public realm or bus facilities would complement the changes.

TfL is also committed to ensuring its bus fleet modernises with its network. The ultimate aim is for an affordable, accessible, safe, zero-emission, simple-to-use network, which would increase public transport use and support key growth areas.

If no action is taken, GLA figures show that by 2041, three days would be lost per person every year due to congestion on London's roads, and 50,000 hours would be lost to slower bus speeds in the morning peak every day

• The central London bus changes consultation report can be found here: tfl.gov.uk/central-London-bus-consultation
• The consultation received 7,184 responses from the public
• The consultation on introducing a route 335 from Kidbrooke to North Greenwich can be found here: tfl.gov.uk/route-335  
• In Croydon TfL has consulted on extending both the 404 and 434 as well as increasing their frequency. This improves the public transport links in the growing Cane Hill residential area.
• Other planned improvements to outer London include:
• The extension of the 125 from Finchley to Colindale later this year
• The extension of the 440 from Stonebridge Park to Wembley later this year
• The introduction of a new express route X140 between Harrow and Heathrow later this year
• The introduction of a route 301 between Bexleyheath and Woolwich later this year
• The introduction of a new route 278 between Ruislip London Underground station and Heathrow Airport
• The changes to 29 routes, less than 4 per cent of the 750 routes in London, will mean only 0.5 per cent more daily journeys will require a change of bus.
• TfL has ensured that where any route will be curtailed or withdrawn, there are parallel routes with available capacity.
• TfL is working to improve real-time passenger information and will work with bus operators to ensure drivers are better able to assist customers where new changes are introduced.
• TfL's investment in the London Underground has resulted in significantly increased capacity. New modern trains and signalling on the Victoria line has created capacity for more than 10,000 extra passengers an hour while improvements to timetabling has almost doubled the length of the higher-frequency period on the Jubilee and Northern lines, increasing capacity when it is needed most. Further capacity enhancements are also due to be delivered on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines.
• In addition to capacity enhancements on the existing Tube and Overground network, the introduction of the Elizabeth line will add ten per cent to London's rail capacity and is estimated to lead to 40 million customers moving from buses to the railway.
• London is one of the only major cities in the world without a government subsidy covering the costs of operating its transport. Every year £700m of Tube fares and other commercial revenues used to fund the bus network and keep these vital services running. This makes it even more important to ensure that every bus in London is where it is really needed.
• Since September 2016, bus and tram customers have also been able to take advantage of the Mayor's Hopper fare, which allows unlimited bus and tram journeys within an hour for just £1.50. More than 300 million hops have been made since the fare launched