please empty your brain below
I was a little later than you, but my bus was still packed when it left Waterloo at 10:15. Goodness knows how all those people will manage to fit on the 59 next week (which arrives at Waterloo already full and standing). I suspect most people will find it quicker to walk to Holborn - and that's a lot of add-on travelcard revenue TfL will lose: people will just buy a point to point ticket (season or whatever) from Surrey to Waterloo.
London Bridge passengers to the Holborn area now have Thameslink, but the extension of the Aldwych shuttle to Waterloo never happened, (the 501 was introduced as a stopgap pending its construction, rather like the 500 and the Victoria Line)
I tried to consult the spider map displayed by the stop at Waterloo, only to realise that it was dated July 2013.
At the Waterloo end the 171 was stripped out back in 2019 and the 1/168 change sees another route taken out between Waterloo and Holborn later this year, the 26 is also lost between Aldwych and Waterloo (the 4 having gone in 2019). In my view the 172 should have been extended from Aldwych as well, rather than just relying in the 59.
At London Bridge, as you've pointed out northbound 133's don't serve the forecourt, this is another route on permanent diversion - this time since 2011 for Crossrail, never got reinstated.
This leaves the bus station at Liverpool Street with just the 153, 344 and N133.
dg writes:... and the 17, if you read to the bottom of the list of changes. I suspect a lot of 521 passengers will switch to the 17, which goes roughly the same way.
TfL have made the decision but the disapprobation of all those affected (whether regular users or simple nostalgists) ought to be directed squarely at central Government.
Leyland Nationals took over in 1981, and were "upgraded" to "Greenway" Nationals in the early nineties.
The bendies took over on Golden Jubilee weekend, which also saw the demise of the 501, whose route included some tight corners the bendies couldn't manage.
As the first route to have bendies, it was also the first to lose them when the contract expired in 2009 (although of all the routes in London they were the ones best suited to them, with their three-door loading just able to keep up with the queues at Waterloo)
The rigids which replaced them never did quite cope. They were in turn replaced by electric buses in 2016, shortly before I retired.
Meanwhile, the trains that have taken took me to and from Waterloo ever since 1983 are still going.
TfL were probably sabre-rattling, and later rolled back on the vast majority of the changes claiming they'd found some cash.
So yes, the fact we're losing four routes this weekend is the government's fault, but which four routes they are is TfL's choice.
The interview was in Woolwich (yes, I got the job) and I got train back to central London. As I'd started that morning from London Bridge, I assumed I had to get off at London Bridge.
But I wanted to get to Waterloo to see an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. So I got a 513 that slowly took me along the wrong side of the river.
It was only when I started work in September that I learned about tickets being valid to mainline terminals. And that it's quicker to walk from London Bridge station to the Hayward than get a bus via Holborn.
Averaging out the passenger count over the day, and averaging it out over the day, will show a lot of air being moved around - but the peaks are where it counts.
I was really really surprised though when the 507/521 services were extended a decade ago to run later than 7pm and over weekends - but there's definitely a steady state of demand there, the services are used (albeit not needing people to stand).
A real shame this unique services have been lost, the replacements just don't work for most of the current commuters.
If the cost of the buses and the garage comes out of a different budget, it will look like a saving for TfL but I assume Go Ahead London General are losing out big time.
A shame they couldn't retain the two Red Arrows during peaks and say... use the buses off-peak to restore RV1.
Part of the fleet is heading to the 108 along with another route apparently. Some of the original Red Arrow batch of electrics are already on the 360 or the HereEast shuttle from previous cuts.
What is particularly disappointing about the changes now being implemented though is their detrimental effects on the convenience and comfort of Central London bus passengers. This current policy of cutting routes in half or cutting them out completely, and cutting service frequency for the “replacement routes”, makes passengers lives considerably more difficult.
This is particularly so for those who are least able to cope with them. Those with mobility issues where even a short walk from one stop to another, can prove can prove difficult and physically challenging. In such cases such distances as shown on the “maps’ for the replacement routes are not trivial, being over 100 metres in length.
Having to get off one bus, walk to another stop and then wait in all weathers to start the next part of the journey, whereas previously you stayed on the one bus, is hardly convenient or comfortable.
There is also the extra wasted passengers time to consider. A great pity passengers can’t seek financial compensation from the transport authority for that wasted time. But alas for now such changes can be made with impunity, though who knows what the long-term consequences of such changes on bus ridership numbers and revenue might be, as passengers who are able to do so, seek more convenient, less time-consuming alternatives for their travel arrangements.
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