Central Shake-Up, Part 1

Saturday 15th June 2019 saw a number of changes to bus routes in the Central London area, attempting to 'simplify' the network and 'match capacity with demand.' The other modifications will occur in October, but a considerable number of services were fiddled with recently, leading to lots of confusion on the following Monday. This post will attempt to give you a factual insight into each change and the extent to which its implementation has been successful so far. Of course, it is still early days and it could all change... Rather than going through the intricacies of each individual proposal, this is more about my personal observations on the very last day, as well as examining the aftermath of the changes. For more details about how each route has been affected and the interdependence of the service amendments, click here.

I'm not actually sure if the 3 usually stood here when Trafalgar Square was its Northern terminus.

Curtailing the number 3 to Whitehall, Horse Guards only shaves off one bus from the total peak vehicle requirement, but every little helps. After its removal from Regent Street the 3 wasn't particularly well-used in Central London, so not too many passengers should be inconvenienced by the cut. It's probably quicker to walk from Whitehall to Trafalgar Square and beyond anyway. On the last day before the changes, June 14th, buses were picking up a few passengers North of the Horse Guards, but there shouldn't be too much of a problem with switching to the 159, which a lot of ex-3 users have already had to familiarise themselves with over the years.

Somehow three number 4s managed to turn up in a single photo. This doesn't happen very often!

One of the bigger alterations is the diversion of route 4 to Blackfriars. Although sending the service away from Fleet Street and Waterloo sounds like it would affect lots of passengers, buses were almost always disappointingly empty whenever I used it, with demand only really picking up beyond Barbican. Two buses have been saved as a result of this particular change, whilst the number of angry tweets after June 14th has been low. There weren't any tiles incorrectly displaying the 4 on the withdrawn section of route, although there were some issues with timetables along Queen Victoria Street. Announcements were put in place promoting the same-stop interchange available at St Paul's with the diverted route 76, but most people on my vehicle ignored this and were then bemused when the bus turned in the opposite direction. The route is so far seldom used to Blackfriars and I don't think it'll pick up either ; the terminus really is a dead end. Nonetheless, this is probably one of the smoothest changes I've seen - some people may not like it, but the available alternatives have been made claer.

TfL bus services no longer go past St James' Palace. It's been a good seven years.

The 9's re-routing is quite funny as it effectively reverses a change TfL introduced seven years ago. When Pall Mall became a two-way street, it was decided that a bus should serve it, which meant routes 9/N9 were diverted away from Piccadilly Circus. This sped up journey times considerably for people travelling from Aldwych/Trafalgar Square to West London and also meant the offices and St James' Palace would be serviced better. However, once the 9 started running down Pall Mall 2500 passenger trips per day were lost, so TfL have tried to correct their mistake and send it back to Picacdilly Circus, leaving Pall Mall without a bus once again. However, this change actually received a very large number of angry tweets, because one key difference between 2012 and now is that congestion along Piccadilly has increased exponentially, so no one is going to bother using the bus to get there, whilst any through trips are now heavily disrupted. I do suspect, however, that the night service will do quite well along the new routeing. The bus stops along Pall Mall correctly had any information about still being served by the 9 removed before the change, but there weren't any notices to tell people where they could catch the bus along Piccadilly, so I don't doubt there were still people waiting along there on Saturday. Back to Pall Mall in seven years time, maybe?

Perks of the driver forgetting to change the blind display ; saved myself 10 minutes!

Sending the 14 away from Warren Street, with its new terminus being Russell Square, somehow adds an extra three buses to the PVR, but any attempt to remove buses from the traffic-filled two-way Tottenham Court Road will be greatly appreciated by everyone else attempting to use it. This change also restores a bus service to the British Museum and Bloomsbury Place, which were left abandoned after the withdrawal of route 10. On the last day, a few people were using the 14s all the way to the end, with University College Hospital being the main source of traffic, but I don't doubt that the new routeing will be just as popular with its own crowd. Since this is a 24-hour service, the change happened a few hours earlier than the rest and was one of the first to be covered by lots of enthusiasts (for me, it was actually the last). I genuinely think it could do quite well ; the 14 does mirror the Piccadilly Line, but the new route will connect a lot of tourist attractions at street level, with the convenience of bus travel being appealing to those naive to the woeful traffic along its route (the 14 is, on average, one of the slowest bus services in London). However, on day one there was hardly any indication that Bloomsbury is indeed served by a bus route again. Whilst a timetable for the 14 was present, the yellow bus stop closed signs were still in place, which makes me wonder why on earth this wasn't removed when the TfL employee made the trip. There are still notices about the withdrawal of the 10, which happened in November. The bus stops still seem defunct, so it's unsurprising that I only saw one 14 which had passengers (two together) on board. I hope that this is sorted soon, as otherwise the change will be a complete waste.

Poor Fenchurch Street, the only London terminus to lack direct tube access. Now, there's not even a bus service...

The biggest re-route is probably the diversion of the 40 at Elephant & Castle, to go up Blackfriars Road and terminate at Clerkenwell Green, instead of Aldgate. It has also generated the largest number of dissatisfied customers on twitter. TfL's justification for such a radical change is that this restores the link between Camberwell and Farringdon once the 45 is curtailed to the Elephant, but it also removes the popular one between Dulwich and the City. It also means Fenchurch Street Station has lost its only bus service, meaning anyone unfamiliar to the area arriving by c2c will be a tad confused when they find no onward public transport connections. The iBus announcement regarding the change is very detailed, but the bus stops haven't been done so well. Only two out of four along Fenchurch Street give any indication that the 40 has been sent away, whilst along Blackfriars Road there are a couple of odd ones which still have 45 and 388 tiles, but don't display the 40. They're not at the ends either, so I'm left to question why they were left out and if TfL have any intention of coming back to them. Given that both the 40 to Aldgate and 45 to King's Cross (which it partially replaces) were pretty well-loaded during the evening peak on June 14th, this change was never going to be easy. It seems that the already rammed number 35, which did receive a modest frequency increase, is now overwhelmed with ex-40 passengers and no one is able to get on beyond Walworth Road. Additionally, TfL's prediction that everyone from Brixton and Camberwell Road would switch to the 40 has turned out to be completely wrong so far. Commuters are still taking the 45 until it dumps them at Elephant (there's no denying that old habits die hard), but they seem to prefer the 63 to continue their journey because it's well-established and, unlike the 40, takes them through to King's Cross, where the 45 used to terminate. During the evening peak on Friday 14th the 63s I saw were carrying standing loads, so I can only imagine how oversubscribed this service is now. In summary, no one's using the 40, whilst the 35 and 63 need help immediately. It'll be interesting to see if this change is modified at all.

Snapping this route in Central London was stupidly difficult due to the cycle superhighway. Oh well, no need to anymore...

One of the largest curtailments (-8 from the PVR) is the removal of route 45 from all of Central London, so it now only runs between Elephant & Castle and Clapham Park. The Southern end of the route has always been the busier part, so I don't doubt that it'll continue to be used for local trips to King's College Hospital and Brixton, but in rush hour it did well all the way to King's Cross. During the day there's no denying it was dead, but on Friday 14th at around 6pm 45s were leaving Blackfriars with around 50 people on board, which is hardly overprovided for, given that more will join at Elephant & Castle. As I said earlier, no one is really bothering with the 40 as a replacement, whilst people in Chancery Lane will probably just give up on using the bus altogether. They really haven't had it easy ; over the past two years alone the area has lost routes 25, 45, 242 and 341. Now, only four services still serve the area, with one of them being weekdays only. In terms of notice, iBus announcements were in place, but I didn't get to see whether they actively advertised the easy interchange onto the 40. Most 45 tiles were removed, but there were a couple of interlopers on Blackfriars Road. Overall, pretty poorly done.

Blackheath may be affluent, but locals still used the bus.

TfL have tried to permanently curtail route 53 to Lambeth North several times, usually by elongating a temporary cut, but until now they've never quite managed to get away with it. Although the old terminus at the Horse Guards is only a few stops further, TfL don't seem to appreciate that so many offices are accessible from here via a 10-15 minute walk, which locals would much rather undertake than have to change onto a 453 earlier into their long journey. The cutback also removes a direct link to St Thomas' Hospital for people who live beyond Deptford. For this relatively short curtailment, the tiles seemed to all be removed beforehand, whilst an iBus announcement was in place, but does not mention the available same-stop interchange available with routes like the 12 and 453. There is also some ambiguity in regards to the new destination ; most buses display Lambeth North, but the actual last stop is slightly further up at Lower Marsh. Additionally, iBus seems to have chosen County Hall, but this is even more incorrect as buses don't actually pick up passengers there in service. A new N53 service has been introduced which means the night link to the Horse Guards can be maintained, but it'd be much better if this continued for a couple of hours into the morning rush hour. In short, another poorly executed change which almost everyone is unhappy about.

A curtailment within a curtailment... let me explain

This cutback has turned out to be much more complicated than we first assumed. Bar the removal of the direct Waterloo to King's Cross link, hacking back the 59 to Euston shouldn't have been much of a big deal, saving three buses because the route is pretty frequent. However, Euston Bus Station has been flooded for quite some time now due to a burst water main, so until changeover day the 59 was forced to undertake an excessively long diversion via Warren Street, as vehicles can't turn right from Upper Woburn Place onto Euston Road. After June 15th, it should've started and finished at Euston Bus Station, but at the moment it's temporarily terminating early at Russell Square, making this change slightly more significant and giving the 91 a fair bit of responsibility. I can only imagine that the stand here is pretty overwhelmed, with the addition of three new bus routes in only a few days (the 68 is also calling it a day here, whilst the 14 was re-routed as part of the changes) and I can only hope that the area is cleared up soon, as it's causing chaos. A few people will be inconvenienced by the removal of the King's Cross link, but overall it's a pretty minor modification.

Due to all the cuts, the once deserted Dalston Junction Bus Station is now pretty bustling.

Cutting the 67 hasn't gone down too well with hipsters, who loved using this route as it took them to the heart of Shoreditch from Stoke Newington and Dalston, but was also much faster than the 243 for accessing the edge of the City from Wood Green. Nonetheless, the 'spare capacity' along Kingsland Road has led to the curtailment of the 67 to Dalston Junction Bus Station, saving five buses altogether and making it a pretty short route. The drivers were receiving a fair bit of harassment on June 15th when the bus terminated early, whilst the 149 seems to have been pretty overwhelmed as it is now the only route linking Liverpool Street and Dalston. This is because the 242 has been sent to Aldgate so Commercial Street can continue to have a bus service, but hardly anyone is using it so far. I wasn't able to assess the quality of the iBus announcements, but all the tiles were correctly updated apart from at one stop along Commercial Street, which will probably remain incorrect for ages. Interestingly, Stamford Hill (SF) garage decided to throw out a couple of New Routemaster vehicles on the 67 just days before the cutback, so their time along Commercial Street and at Aldgate Bus Station on this route was very short-lived. It's rumoured that the 67 will convert fully once the 48 is withdrawn, which would make the garage the first to become fully LT-operated. Dark times.

Pedways are great for obtaining shots from above, which express the 76s new routeing via the Museum Of London.

This minor re-routing doesn't affect the 76s PVR, but is in compensation for the loss of a direct link from Barbican/St Paul's Station to Fleet Street/Waterloo and also means one can travel further than around the corner along London Wall. It also removes another bus service from the notorious Bank Junction, but the large number of people who commute to the offices around there now face a longer walk from Moorgate. To my amazement, quite a few people were using the bus stops along London Wall along day one and in general I think this change will be'passenger neutral, since the number lost from the diversion away from Bank should equal the amount of people displaced from the 4 at St Paul's, or even attracted to the 76 due to the new journey opportunities. Another tiny modification that hasn't altered the PVR is the round-the-corner extension of route 100 from the Museum Of London to St Paul's Station, but apparently people are forced to walk to Little Britain to actually board one, making the change useless.

Highgate no longer has a direct link to the West End.

Although the 134 curtailment is pretty short, it completely cuts off North London from the West End as the route now terminates at Warren Street, rather than Tottenham Court Road. It's quite funny that this will be the second route in London to receive a full allocation of electric double deckers, yet now it barely serves the most polluted part of the capital. Three buses have been saved as a result of the cut and I don't doubt that many commuters will switch to the Northern Line, rather than having to faff around at Warren Street and change onto an already rammed 24 or 29. Again, I haven't been on any 134s to sample the iBus announcements, but I'm hoping they emphasise the convenience of the same-stop interchange if TfL want the previous popularity of the service to continue.

This popular spot at Waterloo Bridge is pretty scary as the lorries fly past you on the island. I got what I wanted at least.

The 171 is another route to receive quite a hefty chop, completely cutting off a large part of South-East London from zone 1. Its new destination is Elephant & Castle, which means buses no longer serve Waterloo and Holborn, since the corridor which runs through these locations is allegedly overbussed. The curtailment saves four buses and I'll be honest, most of the time 171s were completely dead running into Central London, but at rush hour I've seen them leaving Waterloo Station rammed. Fortunately, same-stop interchange is available with route 172 early on at Brockley Rise and with the 68 along Camberwell Road, but I don't know whether TfL have used this to their advantage or not. All the bus stops I saw on the old section lacked 171 tiles, which is a positive, so on the whole TfL have managed to pull off this change, even if the commuters aren't so convinced. I'd be pretty hacked off too, it's not like South-East London is full of reliable railway lines.

Typically the sun came out in the afternoon on the last day, which meant snapping the 172 along Fleet Street wasn't going to happen...

Three buses have been shaved off the 172s PVR as a result of its curtailment to Aldwych. The short-lived diversion to Clerkenwell Green, which commenced in 2017, wasn't as popular as TfL were anticipating. I certainly didn't see any buses along that stretch carrying more than 5 passengers at a time, including at rush hour, as anyone going beyond Waterloo will just take the 63 as it's so much quicker. Aldwych isn't a bad terminus in Central London, so I haven't seen any angry tweets about this curtailment, whilst all the tiles on the withdrawn section were updated, so I'd go as far as saying this was the best major change to a bus route, as not many people are inconvenienced and all the information was updated on time. I don't know if TfL bothered advertising that the 341 offers a direct replacement for the withdrawn section of the 172, but I'm not sure many people will bother making the change, plus if you live in Brockley it's quite possible that the hopper fare time window will have expired anyway.

If you squint at the tiny piece of paper you'll be able to tell that this is a 205!

One of the smallest changes that involves a re-routing is the diversion of the 205 away from Marylebone Station, so buses now run direct along Marylebone Road. This is great news for those using the route to get to and from Paddington, as the previous line of route took around 10 minutes longer to complete than the quick 27 due to all the traffic, so now they have a choice of both bus routes. However, it does mean that a much longer walk is required for people using the 205 from Marylebone Station, which is especially unfair for those with mobility issues as the previous arrangement was so convenient for them. From a completely selfish point of view, this change is a wonderful addition, but it really is a 50/50 split in regards to it being beneficial or unaccommodating. The two tiles which required removal were done in advance.

I don't think the 343 was supposed to be here, but it did mean I could tick off two (or technically three, see later) changes in one go!

To compensate for the brutal curtailment of the 67 to Dalston Junction, the ever-changing 242 has now migrated to Aldgate Bus Station for its Southern terminus, running along Commercial Street at a reduced frequency. So far this has proved unpopular, but ever since the 242 was sent away from Tottenham Court Road (TCR) passenger loadings in the central section have been poor. Even so, those that did use the service through to St Paul's now have to force themselves onto the already heaving routes 8 and 149, which isn't ideal. A new bus route, the N242, has been created which restores the link to TCR albeit at night only, which could imply that realised hacking back the 242 24/7 probably wasn't the best idea. It means the TCR to Bank corridor now has three bus routes at night but only one during the day, which is a bit of a joke as it's full of offices.

In contrast to the empty 242s, the extension of route 343 to Aldgate Bus Station has already proven popular, with buses carrying healthy loads from day one. This means that there's no longer a bus which stands at City Hall, but it means the Elephant to Aldgate link lost by the diversion of the 40 can be maintained. The extension also compensates for the RV1s withdrawal and means a higher frequency of buses are available for passengers along Tooley Street wanting to access Tower Gateway (and now Aldgate, which is two stops further on). There is some confusion about where the 343 is supposed to be standing at Aldgate - I've seen them in the bus station, like above, but also at Houndsditch (where the 40 used to terminate). Overall though, this genuine improvement seems to be paying off and I hope that this already busy service can continue to thrive and become even more of an asset to inner South-East London.

Another inconsistency here, since the iBus says 'Liverpool Street Station.'

Like the 242, route 388 seems to change its Central London terminus on a worryingly regular basis ; over the past seven years we've had Embankment, Blackfriars, Elephant & Castle and Liverpool Street, and in October it'll be sent to London Bridge to compensate for the withdrawal of route 48. The 388 was never really as successful in Central London as expected ; buses did get quite busy in rush hour but other than that it was quiet, with the only genuinely useful alteration actually happening at the Eastern end, when it was extended from Hackney Wick to Westfield Stratford City. However, the re-route to Elephant & Castle (replacing the 100 on this section) bucked the previous trend and was actually pretty successful by the end ; on the last day I saw one with almost all seats taken crossing Blackfriars Bridge and lots of people even started to ride it end-to-end, all the way from Elephant to Stratford. However, the useful round-the-corner links between the Southern terminus and Liverpool Street have now been decimated, which effectively renders the route useless for travelling into the City ; I'd say around 70% of 388 commuters will be affected by this change and they'll just switch onto the 8 instead. What's even worse is that due to a lack of stand space at Liverpool Street, 388s have to run light to Aldgate Bus Station, which must add another couple of buses to PVR. Running them in service would be slightly useless as it doesn't open up any new journey opportunities, but not utilising the vacant London Wall stand, which is closer and on the previous line of route, is very questionable. Some tiles along Blackfriars Road still claim the 388 runs there, whilst the iBus announcements before the changeover did not make any reference to alternative travel arrangements (because they're all stupidly overcomplicated). In conclusion, a very poorly handled change, which I hope TfL rectify soon!

Back in the iPhone days, when I thought snapping so close to the bus was a good idea!

This was easily the most frustrating change for enthusiasts as it actually occurred a few days before June 15th, without much advance warning. The burst water main outside Euston Bus Station meant that the 476 couldn't access its stand, so the only sensible option was to curtail it to King's Cross as per the Central London consultation, so people like myself who'd left snapping a 476 at the bus station until the last minute weren't able to do so, which should hopefully teach us an important lesson for the future! For the permanent cutback it was agreed that buses would depart King's Cross via Pancras Road, which would give a common stop outside the station with the 73 for those travelling along the Albion Road corridor to use. That said, whilst the route was 'temporarily' at King's Cross, buses departed via Wharfdale Road which isn't really useful to anyone, but is a lot quicker. The latter arrangement seems to have continued after June 15th, which makes the 476 change a scam and just puts more pressure on the already busy 73. I have no clue whether iBus announcements were in place and if the tiles were updated before or after the flood took place. Either way, what should've been a pretty tame curtailment has escalated in something more serious.

Viewing the tanks from above was always fun...

Last, but certainly not least, is the most significant change implemented on June 15th. The RV1, which survived for seventeen years, has ceased to exist. It ran from Covent Garden to Tower Gateway via the South Bank and was incredibly useful for tourists and commuters, opening up parts of Central London previously inaccessible by bus and creating some nice new links, like Waterloo to Tower Gateway and Aldwych to London Bridge. Usage peaked in 2008 and at this point the route urgently needed double deckers, but after this point a series of roadworks, diversions and never-ending congestion saw the RV1 decline. Instead of a constant stream of healthy loads, some buses would be randomly crowded, but most of the time it was completely empty and in 2018, TfL decided to reduce its frequency to every 20 minutes. This rendered the route practically unusable, but ignorant tourists meant buses were still busy sometimes and some sense of recovery from the record-low levels could be seen on the very last day, where some journeys were standing room only.

Part of the reason why route RV1 was loss-making is the fact that hydrogen buses were used, which are incredibly expensive. The Wrightbus examples can now be found on the 444, even if they're not entirely appropriate for that route, whilst the newer VanHool ones are still having their fate decided. Apart from a random protest on the last day, which I would consider a bit too late, not much fuss was made over the RV1s withdrawal. Lots of enthusiasts did turn up at just after midnight on Saturday June 15th to ride the last ever scheduled RV1 (to their disappointment, the penultimate journey ran so late that it actually became the last RV1 to run in service), but I imagine soon enough the route will be forgotten since it didn't really have any regular commuters, which is pretty sad considering how popular it used to be. The 381 and 343 will indemnify most passengers, but there will be a couple of streets now unserved and a few direct links broken. I will always miss the RV1 for offering such a unique viewpoint of Central London, but I can understand TfL's decision given how uneconomical it was by the end. It's just a shame that it got into such a bad way in the first place...

Thanks for reading and stay safe!