Reduced central London bus services, more underground - changes in demand

[whole diary]

[grahame]

from Transport for London

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^» (Transport for London - about)) today 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.

People are travelling more by underground in the centre so ...

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.

... and if you ever felt the prices for using London's public transport was high, perhaps the reason is

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.

[ellendune]

... and if you ever felt the prices for using London's public transport was high.....

Comparing them to the public transport prices around here that is something that never occurred to me. 

[Lee]

When grahame, myself and others put forward our Option 24/7 proposal for Bus Franchising in Wiltshire in 2016, one of the key elements was the concept of fanning out bus services on routes where they were over-provided and using some of those resources to provide better services where justified on routes where they were under-provided, while creating a more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable overall network in a climate of disappearing subsidy.

Opponents of our strategy would often cite London as an example of why our proposal wouldn't work, despite London at the time choosing to pursue a strategy that was the opposite of what Option 24/7 proposed for Wiltshire, meaning such comparisons were akin to comparing chalk and cheese. As Geoff Hobbs, TfL^» (Transport for London - about)'s Director of Public Transport Service Planning, explains in the article:

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.

However, Geoff then goes on to say:

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.

I'm sure both us and our opponents will be united in our fascination that London is about to implement a similar strategy to that proposed by Option 24/7 in 2016 for Wiltshire, and we will all be watching with great interest to see how it turns out.

[ChrisB]

hmmm.....not every change is good for the passenger.

The bus 205 that currently runs from Paddington along the Marylobone Road diverts into Marylebone station as that station is only directly connected to the Bakerloo Line & not the Cirrle & Hammersmith & City Line. Now he are removing the diversion off thye Marylebone Road and will run directly along it, leaving those with ability issues to have to walk 400 yards to the new bus stop.

Many people & CHiltern made representations to no avail.

[Lee]

hmmm.....not every change is good for the passenger.

The bus 205 that currently runs from Paddington along the Marylobone Road diverts into Marylebone station as that station is only directly connected to the Bakerloo Line & not the Cirrle & Hammersmith & City Line. Now he are removing the diversion off thye Marylebone Road and will run directly along it, leaving those with ability issues to have to walk 400 yards to the new bus stop.

Many people & CHiltern made representations to no avail.

I think that's a fair point - In our proposed Option 24/7 Pilot Area Network, we had a focus on creating bus/rail integrated links where they didn't already exist.

[grahame]

Declaration of interest - have been a regular user of the 205 from Paddington and rolled my eyes as we roll around Marylebone. But the passenger numbers picked up at Marylebone can be significant.

Routes should not be considered in isolation - look too at the 18 which shares the 205 route from the Edgware Road area to Euston, and the 30 which shares the route from Baker Street to the Angel. Then there's the 27, from the same stop at Paddington and running along past Baker Street almost all the way to Euston Square.

[mjones]

The underlying problem, as in many other cities,  is that congestion caused by other traffic makes bus travel uncompetitive in journey times. Journey times have worsened in London in recent years,  despite the congestion charge.  Uber doesn't help. Cities aren't to get efficient bus services unless they do more to restrict car use.