please empty your brain below
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It's a shame this will mess up the 25's excellent timetable board: Every 4-8 minutes, all day, every day...
the orange one | 03.02.18 - 9:29 a.m. | #
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Khan is doing great eh?
Boxer | 03.02.18 - 9:54 a.m. | #
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@Boxer: In my opinion Khan is proving a much better mayor than Boris - e.g. I like the work he's going on Air Quality and he's brought in the hopper fare on buses which is v good, albeit originally an idea of the Lib Dems, though it remains to be seen over the longer term whether he has the long-term strategic vision that Livingstone had.
The cuts in buses are a result of several factors:
1. The Night Tube, as DG references. I think most people recognise the Night Tube as a 'good thing' with political support from all sides, but clearly it does impact on viability of some night bus services.
2. Congestion issues, making operating the bus network less efficient - caused by Crossrail and some other large construction sites in central and inner London.
3. Drop in passenger numbers, partly as consequence of the above - however I have read that passenger numbers across most/all modes in the capital are down. Clearly this loss on revenue affects the TfL business plan.
4. Cuts in Central Government funding, affecting TfL across the board. Not all of the savings can be made by 'back office' savings.
5. Impact of fares freeze pledge. Clearly this is something that Khan has influence on and has an obvious affect on the income TfL are receiving. I actually think it is a good idea in principle, though freezing the fares up to 2020 is probably pushing it a bit too far.
Bill | 03.02.18 - 10:38 a.m. | #
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Will there have been a similar number of frequency increases elsewhere?
dg writes: One route in Harrow had an increase in September.
cliffh | 03.02.18 - 11:13 a.m. | #
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I believe the Government grant that was given to TfL that covers operating costs is withdrawn from the start of this financial year, this is two years earlier than planned, no doubt the combination of a Labour Mayor who promised to freeze fares and a Tory Government that needs to give the DUP loads of dosh.
Although Tory run Northamptonshire has just run out of cash, so things must be getting serious.
Still Anon | 03.02.18 - 11:50 a.m. | #
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If they cut 230 in both months, how come the “frequency before” figure is still 12 mins in February? It should be 15.
dg writes: Because they didn't cut the 230 in both months, because my editing skills are appalling, because actually I meant 228 not 230, and I'm so sorry.
Greg S | 03.02.18 - 12:46 p.m. | #
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@Still Anon: I think you should blame the previous Mayor for that....
Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 03.02.18 - 2:31 p.m. | #
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Ah yes Labour the anti-austerity anti-cuts party continuing to cut bus services.
| 03.02.18 - 2:58 p.m. | #
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Southern Heights - wasn't the plan to axe the grant from 2020 instead of 2018?, I'm going on an article back in 2015, when the chancellor was some bloke called George Osbourne (so it may have gone the same way as the promise to have the deficit under control by 20xx, only to move it back again, plus the fixed term parliament would have resulted in an election in 2020).
Still Anon | 03.02.18 - 5:47 p.m. | #
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There are a number of night tube feeder services that have been extended to run all night, slightly offsetting the cuts in terms of overall provision. See the 307 Saturday service, for instance.
Steve | 04.02.18 - 10:00 a.m. | #
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South London getting hit hard there with the night bus cuts! How the hell is the night tube supposed to replace those buses?
DuttySouth | 04.02.18 - 10:42 a.m. | #
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More aspects of the bus cuts:
1 - each frequency cut takes buses off the road. In 2017, from a peak service in March, 174 buses have been withdrawn from service each day of Mon-Fri. As there's a driver shortage, some of those buses wouldn't have run anyway, but each bus off the road is two fewer drivers employed (allowing for integrated rosters), so it's a jobs cut (and ultimately in engineering and admin too)...
2 - we do not know if the drop in passenger numbers is universal across London - that's a 'secret'. The original 'plan' was that for each bus taken out of inner London, a balancing extra bus would be introduced in the suburbs where the real passenger growth was happening. Routes are being cut all over London.
3 - how much are bus cuts costing TfL? Routes are bid for on a number of buses for each route. Is TfL reimbursing operators for buses (no-one buys buses for London service, they're leased for the contract period) taken out of service prematurely?
4 - is TfL cutting the service or asking operators to offer service reduction ideas?
5 - fare evasion on the BorisBuses while a drop in the ocean is rife especially evenings, weekends (see routes 8 & 149 at Shoreditch) and where drivers change over [the 'readers' are dead in between drivers]. Observation suggests around 5% of boarders are not swiping in at those times. The best one I've heard for not swiping is "This is my second Hopper trip - I don't need to swipe".
Joel | 04.02.18 - 12:29 p.m. | #
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@ Still Anon - Boris was effectively forced by Osborne to bring forward the cut to the grant. There was some short term capital spending boost but overall the settlement was dire. The former Deputy Mayor for Transport, Ms Dedring, is on record in front of the Assembly Transport Cttee as saying the settlement was much less than the Mayor wanted but he couldn't get Osborne to cough up the money. The rot set in there IMO but the fares freeze has done no-one any favours. The utter mismanagement of major roadworks for cycle superhighways and gyratory removal due to politically imposed deadlines wrecked many bus services and left TfL struggling to deal with the consequences. The huge loss of patronage - the numbers are startling on some routes - has not been recovered and is now unlikely ever to be.
What is also concerning is that TfL are now cutting some of the routes that were introduced back in 2002/3 as part of Ken's big boost to services. The 148 is getting a frequency cut, the 228 is being hacked back as is the RV1. How long before the 205 and 360 have the axe taken to them?
One other Khan initiative that is likely to cause huge damage is the Hopper ticket. My offering "free" transfers then you fundamentally weaken the case for through services being retained or ever being introduced. The planners can just airily wave their hands and say "oh people can just change buses" while completely ignoring enforced waits of 20-30 minutes at quieter times. This fate is due to befall the 216 with people being forced to change onto a 203 to reach Staines. This despite the fact the 216 is very busy, has seen patronage growth in recent years and has run the same route for over 80 years. We're now at the point where the mad push to save money is overriding the needs of passengers and it has to stop. It's unacceptable.
PC | 04.02.18 - 1:16 p.m. | #
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@Joel
"Is TfL reimbursing operators for buses (no-one buys buses for London service, they're leased for the contract period) taken out of service prematurely? "
Or are all the cuts only happening when contracts expire and are renewed?
timbo again | Homepage | 04.02.18 - 2:19 p.m. | #
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@PC, well, the unlimited transfers in 70 minutes is likely to stay, but there is always the opportunity to increase bus services in the future.
John | 04.02.18 - 3:18 p.m. | #
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The cut in service on RV1 is brutal - decimated.
IslandDweller | 04.02.18 - 7:47 p.m. | #
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Brutal it may be, but decimated means kiling one in ten and this is worse, it's halving.
Tedious Pedant | 04.02.18 - 8:31 p.m. | #
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Annual passenger numbers on the RV1:
2014/15 - 1,785,798
2015/16 - 1,593,287
2016/17 - 876,682
This sharp decline in passengers is why the frequency has been halved, and this is mainly due to major roadworks around London Bridge
Doesn't make it a good cut, obviously...
diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.02.18 - 8:52 p.m. | #
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The RV1 may as well disappear. I don't see the point of a daytime bus going in circles around central London if it's only 3 times an hour. You can probably get to anywhere on the route by other means in 20 minutes.
On the other hand, the 39 has gone up in the world since I lived close to its route about 40 years ago. We used to call it "the annual bus" - whose moniker can now be passed to the RV1
NickW | Homepage | 05.02.18 - 12:10 a.m. | #
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'TfL 'can't pay the interest-only mortgage'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42975661
Bus cuts the least of it, perhaps.
Gordon | 07.02.18 - 2:36 p.m. | #
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Serious unrest in Walthamstow due to the W12 (a minibus route which serves many streets with no other bus service at all) being cut from 20 minutes to half-hourly.
Phil E | 09.02.18 - 11:54 a.m. | #
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The cuts to the RV1 in London is very bad, this is busy at the best of times, especially at weekends. The Mayors fare freeze has been a disaster, along with the hourly free ticket. When you cut the revenue, you cut the services. He said he was going to make it up from property sales, but failed to realise that the property portfolio has already been gone through and there's little left to sell off.
david s | 15.02.18 - 6:01 p.m. | #
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