Busageddon: Finchley Road Changes

Unfortunately, TFL now have a very limited amount of money to spend on improving the bus network, especially as bus patronage is decreasing, as a result of the relentless construction works all around Central London, which has forced passengers off the roads and into tunnels, with the tube being even busier than before. This has resulted in a number of cuts for bus services in the capital and a lot of frequency reductions, and in this case, route withdrawals. TFL thought that the Finchley Road corridor was over-provided in terms of buses per hour, and they have now decreased it from 22bph to 18bph in the off-peak. Here is how.

VH17 on the final day of the Aldwych-Golders Green variant of the 13.

At first, TFL released a consultation stating exactly what would happen. Click here for a link to the original consultation page, which also provides maps explaining the changes. The 13 and N13, running between Aldwych and Golders Green/North Finchley at night, would be withdrawn entirely, with the 82 gaining a frequency increase and a 24 hour service, running between North Finchley and Victoria, following the 13 between Golders Green and Portman Square. The 113 would be extended from Marble Arch to Oxford Circus and gain a significant frequency increase (partially compensating for the loss of the 13 on that section), whilst the 189 from Brent Cross would be curtailed to Marble Arch, with a new route N189 running between Brent Cross and Oxford Circus. Finally, the 139 would be extended to Golders Green from West Hampstead, providing the West End with a longer route to Child's Hill and Golders Green.

However, residents were angry with the loss of an iconic number, the "13", so TFL were forced to release a new consultation, where one minor change and some careful re-wording resulted in enough support so that the changes could go ahead. TFL stated that the 82 was being withdrawn, with the 13 being extended to North Finchley and re-routed from Portman Square-Victoria. However, what actually happened is that the old 13 (Golders Green-Aldwych) was withdrawn, and the 82 was re-numbered to 13. Additionally, the N189 to Oxford Circus proposal was scrapped, with a 24-hour 189 to Marble Arch.  I'll reveal my thoughts on the consultation at the end of the post.

Metroline TE1440 on the final day of operating route 82.

Eventually, the tender results came through, which confirmed that the changes were going ahead on April 1st, coinciding with new contract dates for some of the routes. The "new" 13, running from North Finchley-Victoria, was awarded to Tower Transit, with 31 brand new B5LH MCV EvoSeti vehicles from Westbourne Park (X) garage, bringing a brand new operator to parts of North London. The 113 was retained by Metroline, gaining a partial allocation of hybrid vehicles, as a result of the deserved frequency increase and extension to Oxford Circus. The 139 had its operation transferred to London Sovereign using the old 13 vehicles, as otherwise they would lose out on their only Central London route, despite the tender not coinciding with the Finchley Road changes. The 113 gained its hybrid vehicles from the 139's former allocation under Metroline. They are the only "loser" in the Finchley Road programme, although I think that their loss was fair, as they are the biggest company out of the three operators involved. As well as the changes to the "new" 13, 139 and 113, route 134 transferred from Holloway (HT) garage, to Potters Bar (PB), to fill in the void left by the loss of their only Central London route, allocated with the Enviro 400 vehicles formerly allocated to the 82. Route 168 also transferred from Cricklewood (W), to Holloway (HT) garage, to relieve the overcrowding at Cricklewood depot.

A brand new Tower Transit EvoSeti on the new 13.

Tower Transit have been struggling with the new 13 since they started operating the route 11 days ago. Almost every other vehicle has a curtailment (some which I've never seen before!) and large gaps are a common occurrence, some longer than 15 minutes, which is disgraceful for a route which runs every 5 minutes in the peak. As a result, lots of vehicles are bunching in groups of 3, 4 or even 5, as I saw when I rode the route last Thursday. On the first weekend, the 13 was disrupted by various roadworks and a demonstration march, although the service hasn't improved since then, and the locals are already fed up with their inadequate service levels. I also noticed that the 460, which runs alongside the 13 between Child's Hill and North Finchley, is much busier than usual. So far, the new 13 has been consistently busy throughout the day, although the vehicles aren't overcrowded unless there is a large gap in the peak, which is quite often! However, I'm concerned that buses will start leaving people behind once the Easter holidays are over, especially if Tower Transit don't up their game service-wise.

These two 13's were part of a group of 5 buses bunched, two of them curtailed!

I decided to sample the new service last week, although I was greeted with a 15 minute wait at Golders Green, despite being in the height of the evening peak. Every bus towards North Finchley was full, showing that the new 13 service is popular, although there is still some breathing room left for term time. After lots of buses passed in the other direction, my bunching finally emerged in Temple Fortune. The first bus was absolutely rammed, even though it was travelling against the peak flow and the second one was moderately busy, although there were a decent number of spare seats upstairs. The new EvoSeti vehicles are lovely buses, equipped with Tower Transit's colourful interior and comfortable seats, unlike the Go-Ahead examples. The ride was very relaxing and I'm sure the service will be wonderful if Tower Transit get used to operating the route, which should decrease the painfully long gaps in the service and make some of the buses slightly less busy, as at the moment buses are either rammed or completely empty, dependent on whether they are travelling solo, or near the back of a bunching.

DNH39127 works the 13 to North Finchley, allocated to route 23.

Westbourne Park have been fairly relaxed with the allocation of their new route, with the vehicles frequently swapping between the 23 and 13, resulting in the occasional Enviro 400 E40H vehicle running down the Finchley Road, with the old First interior. The garage is located right in the middle of the route, which could've made the route more reliable, although Metroline did a superb job before they lost the route, despite running the Central London route from a garage outside of the M25, in Potters Bar! Driver changeovers are lengthy and take place at Alpha Close, although with the brand new expansion of Westbourne Park garage, I can sense that Tower Transit will pick up lots of Central London routes in the near future, especially with the strategic position. I wish them luck for the next five years!

The new destination and hybrid allocation on the 113.

The 113 runs all the way to Edgware via Finchley Road and Hendon, using the A41 dual carriageway in the process. It linked many outer London suburbs to the West End and was ridiculously overcrowded before the changeover, partially due to the terrible frequency it had before the changes. It only ran every 20 minutes on a Sunday and buses were frequently leaving people behind! Thankfully, the route has received a PVR increase of 10 buses, which should be enough to sort out the capacity issues and the extension to Oxford Circus seems to be popular enough, even though I personally think it's not needed as the road will be pedestrianised soon anyway! This is one of the changes I'm actually happy with, especially as the route has now gained some lovely E400 Hybrids, which should be fun on the A41!

The London Sovereign 139, standing at Golders Green.

London Sovereign have been running the 139 remarkably well over the past couple of weeks, with a frequent and punctual service that is much better than the service Metroline used to provide! On the first day of the changeover, the route had to endure three separate diversions, although London Sovereign are trying their best and it is paying off. The 139 is now allocated a mixture of Gemini 2 B5LH vehicles, some Gemini 3s and a couple of two-door B5LH New Routemasters sometimes work the route, which will move to the 183 soon. The route is very similar to the old 13 now, although it crosses the River Thames and serves West Hampstead and Abbey Road rather than Swiss Cottage. The route is even more popular than it already was, with my bus having no seats upstairs after a 6 minute gap in the evening rush! However, I was delighted when a Gemini 2 turned up (they are my favourite batch in London) and I absolutely loved my ride to Golders Green, especially as I haven't been up Abbey Road for a couple of years now! The extension is already very popular, with well over a dozen people staying on past West Hampstead, which is remarkable for the first week of operation. In my eyes, this has been a very successful service change, and I look forward to using the route under London Sovereign in the future. The company even created a special schedule for the night of 31st March/1st April, so that the last 13's to arrive at Golders Green could morph into 139's, as that service is 24 hours.

LT793 on the curtailed 189.

The 189 has been relegated from Oxford Street and now terminates at Marble Arch instead of the 113, which should make the route slightly more reliable now. However, the 189 has almost no use to me and it uses New Routemasters, so I'm going to avoid it anyway. This is the one service change I really don't care about, so we're moving on already.

The new look of the 134. Taken at Warren Street.

The 134 used to be a Wrightbus route, running with Gemini 2s and not much else, although a couple of Enviro 400s did sneak out before the route moved out of Holloway. Now, the route is run from Potters Bar, with the old 82 vehicles, although any of the large batch of Enviro's found there can appear on the route; the bus in the picture is actually allocated to the W8. The 134 has an interesting schedule, a bit like the old 82 (which also terminated at North Finchley), which involves every vehicle starting service at the North end of the route, avoiding long dead-runs from Potters Bar to Tottenham Court Road. However, one problem with this is that the last bus heading down to TCR is also the same vehicle heading back up to North Finchley, which gives people heading into Central London a slight disadvantage! However, Potters Bar seem to be doing well on the route and I wish them luck in operating the route!

Another curtailed 13, what a surprise!

Loadings along the Finchley Road corridor are very inconsistent, with Sunday being one of the worst days for travel, where buses frequently left people behind before the changes took place. In the peaks, every route was well-used, including the withdrawn 13, along the section between Golders Green and Portman Square. I think that the 139 extension and 113 increase were both smart moves, although the decrease in the number of buses per hour along Finchley Road does concern me. The 13 carried fresh air for most of the day between Oxford Circus and Aldwych, which was wasteful and added to the ever-worsening congestion of Central London. I think that the withdrawal of the route in Central London was necessary, although the re-numbering of the 82 has confused many people and can be deemed unnecessary.

My solution would be to go-ahead with all of the proposed changes but additionally extend route 240 from Golders Green-Baker Street Station. This would make the route very long, taking 85 minutes e2e at peak times, although other routes manage fine with this amount of running time, and I can't think of another route to extend that would be suitable. As well as providing new links to the edge of Central London, the number of buses along the core of Finchley Road would remain the same, with the 240 providing 5bph to supplement the 22bph provided by the new 13 and 113. This would relieve congestion in Central London, but not result in a reduction in the number of buses per hour along Fnichley Road, ensuring that regular commuters don't lose out on seats, especially with the unreliable new 13 service.

139 to Golders Green.

However, the changes have gone ahead and all I can do is hope that the locals don't suffer as a result of these changes. I hope that the 113's crowding issues have been relieved (and the route doesn't get even busier as it's more attractive, this has happened before!) and that the 139 continues to provide a decent service to residents of Abbey Road and West Hampstead, with the beautiful London Sovereign Gemini 2 B5LH vehicles. Most importantly, I hope that Tower Transit can sort out their issues with running the 13 quickly, before it becomes unusable and the locals get fed up! I'm also secretly hoping that TFL read this and they love my 240 idea, even with their tight budget.

I'm sorry for rushing this post, but I have such a large backlog of change articles to publish that I can't afford to waste any time talking about things that aren't critical.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe!