Does every London bus service need to run end-to-end?
28 November 2021
ABOVE: The busy bus stand at Putney Bridge Underground station, as seen from the northbound platform. Go-Ahead London Streetlite DF WS 69 (SK66 HSG) on route 39 to Clapham Junction, and Abellio London ADL Enviro400 MMC 2034 (SK20 BAO) on route 270 to Mitcham, are visible here. Photo taken on Sunday 17th October 2021.
A previous post commented on the prospect of further cuts to London Bus services in the near-future. TfL tends to follow the same route (no pun intended) whenever cuts are needed – cut a whole route, or reduce the frequency at all times of day.
But this isn’t always the answer. Some routes and corridors are over-bussed at certain times of the day, but not at others. Yet TfL seems wedded to the idea that a service must be exactly the same seven days a week, from first bus to last bus, with all buses covering the whole route at one set frequency for Monday to Saturday daytimes, and another for evenings and Sundays.
Some services have inflated frequencies on quiet sections so that the demand on the busier bits can be covered. I took a 208 (Lewisham to Orpington) from Catford Garage on a Saturday morning in the summer. It was extremely busy until Bromley, then virtually empty for the rest of the journey to Orpington. An enhanced service from Lewisham to Bromley – that section barely coped on my trip – with perhaps every other bus continuing to Orpington, might cover demand better. There are numerous other examples like that across the capital.
There are some very busy single-decker services that are perfectly suitable, physically, for double-decker operation. Route 70 (South Kensington to Chiswick Business Park) runs every 10 minutes using single-decker buses and suffers significantly from a lack of capacity. A double-decker service every 12 minutes would provide more capacity and still save buses and drivers. Route 195 (Charville Lane Estate to Brentford) is another example of a route that should have double-deckers; maybe with only half the service going beyond Ealing Hospital to Brentford.
Most London bus services have the same frequencies in peak and off-peak periods. I took a ride on route 332 (Brent Park Tesco to Paddington) late on a Thursday morning last month, and there were very few people travelling. I’m sure that the full frequency is needed in peak hours, but a couple more minutes’ wait at this time of the day would not have been noticed much by passengers. It may not be appropriate to cut frequencies throughout, but reducing frequencies by one step (10 mins becomes 12; 12 becomes 15, etc) in just the quiet off-peak period (say 10.30am to 1.30pm) might generate some savings.
It would also be worth consolidating some late evening services, perhaps with an extension of certain routes to cover the ground of others in the late evenings (say from 9pm). During the day, routes 207 (White City to Hayes By-Pass) and 427 (Acton to Uxbridge) are both very busy and justify their frequencies. But in the late evening, there is an over-bussing on their common section between Acton and Hayes. If every other 207 was to be extended to Uxbridge in the late evening, the 427 would not be needed at that time. Again, people would get used to it.
I know this is controversial, and I know that anything that reduces frequencies makes a service less attractive. But we have to be realistic, and a few individual route changes like this might make a difference.
Apparently some passengers get confused when some buses turn short, or different buses on the same route do different things. But passengers have to cope with unscheduled curtailments anyway, which can be far more confusing. Letting go of the idea that all buses must run the full route, varying frequencies according to demand, and making late evening route variations, could reap major benefits.
A previous post commented on the prospect of further cuts to London Bus services in the near-future. TfL tends to follow the same route (no pun intended) whenever cuts are needed – cut a whole route, or reduce the frequency at all times of day.
But this isn’t always the answer. Some routes and corridors are over-bussed at certain times of the day, but not at others. Yet TfL seems wedded to the idea that a service must be exactly the same seven days a week, from first bus to last bus, with all buses covering the whole route at one set frequency for Monday to Saturday daytimes, and another for evenings and Sundays.
Some services have inflated frequencies on quiet sections so that the demand on the busier bits can be covered. I took a 208 (Lewisham to Orpington) from Catford Garage on a Saturday morning in the summer. It was extremely busy until Bromley, then virtually empty for the rest of the journey to Orpington. An enhanced service from Lewisham to Bromley – that section barely coped on my trip – with perhaps every other bus continuing to Orpington, might cover demand better. There are numerous other examples like that across the capital.
There are some very busy single-decker services that are perfectly suitable, physically, for double-decker operation. Route 70 (South Kensington to Chiswick Business Park) runs every 10 minutes using single-decker buses and suffers significantly from a lack of capacity. A double-decker service every 12 minutes would provide more capacity and still save buses and drivers. Route 195 (Charville Lane Estate to Brentford) is another example of a route that should have double-deckers; maybe with only half the service going beyond Ealing Hospital to Brentford.
Most London bus services have the same frequencies in peak and off-peak periods. I took a ride on route 332 (Brent Park Tesco to Paddington) late on a Thursday morning last month, and there were very few people travelling. I’m sure that the full frequency is needed in peak hours, but a couple more minutes’ wait at this time of the day would not have been noticed much by passengers. It may not be appropriate to cut frequencies throughout, but reducing frequencies by one step (10 mins becomes 12; 12 becomes 15, etc) in just the quiet off-peak period (say 10.30am to 1.30pm) might generate some savings.
It would also be worth consolidating some late evening services, perhaps with an extension of certain routes to cover the ground of others in the late evenings (say from 9pm). During the day, routes 207 (White City to Hayes By-Pass) and 427 (Acton to Uxbridge) are both very busy and justify their frequencies. But in the late evening, there is an over-bussing on their common section between Acton and Hayes. If every other 207 was to be extended to Uxbridge in the late evening, the 427 would not be needed at that time. Again, people would get used to it.
I know this is controversial, and I know that anything that reduces frequencies makes a service less attractive. But we have to be realistic, and a few individual route changes like this might make a difference.
Apparently some passengers get confused when some buses turn short, or different buses on the same route do different things. But passengers have to cope with unscheduled curtailments anyway, which can be far more confusing. Letting go of the idea that all buses must run the full route, varying frequencies according to demand, and making late evening route variations, could reap major benefits.
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