Key London bus routes to be cut as passenger numbers fall - Ross Lydall explains - video Dailymotion

Evening Standard

Concerns have been raised about plans to shorten some of London’s busiest bus routes.Transport for London is proposing to alter a number of routes, including the 19, 38 and 279, in response to a “significant” fall in passenger numbers.TfL says it has too many buses - and not enough passengers - especially in central London, a situation The Standard found to be true when we took a ride on the 19 on Thursday afternoon.

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00:00The Red London Bus, known across the world as a symbol of the capital, but a long-term decline

00:09in passenger numbers has forced Transport for London to consider cutting or axing some of the

00:15best-known routes across the capital. Now the routes at risk include the 19 which comes down

00:21here to the south side of Battersea Bridge, the 38, the 259 and the 279, which is the 8th most popular route in London

00:31with about 8 or 9 million passengers a year. Now the crux of the problem is that TfL says it has too many

00:39buses and not enough passengers in central London and it says by making changes especially to the 19

00:45in the 38, that will make them more reliable. However, campaigners have warned that by shortening

00:52routes creates uncertainty for passengers, will mean many more having to change buses and wait at busy

00:59bus stops for another bus to arrive and it could actually deter people from using buses in the

01:04first place. So I've finally made it onto the 19 bus after waiting about 15 minutes at Cambridge Circus.

01:11Now this is one of the issues that TfL is trying to address, the lack of reliability of the bus,

01:16but the changes that it has in mind would mean that this bus would no longer go all the way to

01:21Battersea Bridge. It would get to Hyde Park Corner and then dive down to Victoria rather than going

01:26through Knightsbridge and Sloan Square and along the King's Road. This is the kind of problem that TfL faces.

01:32It's one o'clock in the afternoon, we're still in the King's Road and there's only one other

01:36passenger on the top deck with me there. The rest of the bus, all the seats are pretty much empty.

Key London bus routes to be cut as passenger numbers fall - Ross Lydall explains

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