Central London Bus Review Consultation

The Committee held two evidence sessions, with London TravelWatch, Bus Users UK, Transport for All, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Campaign for Better Transport, a retired bus driver and TfL officers.

The London Assembly Transport Committee has today published its response to the Central London Bus Review consultation.^[1]

The Committee believes that overall, any reduction in bus services driven by cost savings will be counterproductive and therefore asks TfL to reconsider these proposals as a whole.

Other recommendations include:

• The impact of the changes on Londoners is disproportionately large, compared with the amount of money which will be saved by making them and remains unconvinced over the need for these cuts to bus services. The Committee suggests that TfL carries out more work to find alternative, less damaging ways to save this level of revenue, if savings are still required subsequent to any new funding arrangements with the Government.
• TfL should ensure that, where a change of bus is unavoidable, it can be made at the same bus stop. We do not believe that the 88 new interchanges in the proposals requiring a change of bus stop are acceptable. The Committee recommends that no change of bus is required on night buses, due to the risk to safety.
• TfL should set out in its consultation report and decision documents how it will make specific improvements to facilities at bus stops where passengers will in future need to change buses, including improvements to real-time journey information, bus shelters and seating areas.
• The Committee does not consider that increasing frequencies on remaining routes could fully mitigate for the loss of routes in these proposals. However, if service changes do go ahead the Committee recommends that TfL sets out how they will increase frequencies on associated routes.
• If TfL goes ahead with any of the proposals under consultation, it should make simultaneous improvements to its communications in order to ensure that people are well informed of any changes, and that this information is clear about alternative routes and accessible to all users.

Siân Berry AM, Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee said:



"The Transport Committee has heard evidence from the Londoners who rely most on bus services and believes that TfL should reconsider these cuts.



The Committee is concerned about the disproportionate impact of these proposals on the poorest Londoners. One third of all bus journeys are made by people in households earning less than £20,000 per year. We are also concerned about the disproportionate impact of the proposals on disabled Londoners, considering that 10 per cent of daytime bus passengers are disabled.



"Another longstanding concern is the extent to which a diverse range of transport users and user groups have been engaged during TfL consultations. It is clear that change in itself can be a barrier to using public transport for some disabled people if they have built up their confidence around using a particular journey.



"We look forward to learning what the next steps are and hope that disruption to bus passengers can be kept to an absolute minimum given the importance of this particular form of public transport to Londoners, on a daily basis."