London’s bus network should be rethought to take services out of the capital’s congested centre and provide better connectivity for outer areas, the London Assembly’s Transport Committee is recommending.

 

In a new report the committee urges Transport for London to redistribute bus capacity to the outer boroughs and provide more orbital routes while taking action to tackle congestion.

 

Congestion has led to deterioration in the performance of the bus network which in turn has seen the number of passenger journeys fall by 6% since 2014/15 according to the report.

 

The Mayor has set out ways in which TfL will attempt to reverse this trend, including introducing new bus lanes, but the committee questions whether such measures will be radical enough.

 

“London’s bus network needs to change as the city grows and evolves,” the report says. The area most in need of additional bus capacity is outer London, where much of the capital’s growth is expected to take place and there is the greatest potential for mode shift from cars to public transport, it adds.

 

But this would require buses currently operating in central or inner London to be redistributed to outer areas, as TfL is not planning to increase the overall capacity of its bus network. “There are currently too many buses in central London, so there is scope to redistribute buses to improve services elsewhere,” the report says.

 

It also urges TfL to move towards a more efficient network design based on the principles of the ‘feeder/trunk’ model, which could include use of ‘bendy buses’ to increase capacity.

 

The committee’s deputy chair Caroline Pidgeon added: “There’s a huge demand for more buses in outer London, but at the same time we need to make bus travel more attractive to passengers. Express buses, orbital routes and Wi-Fi will help to give buses a much needed boost.”

 

TfL’s managing director of surface transport Leon Daniels said: “We welcome this report and are actively taking many of the approaches recommended. Changes to the bus network, alongside the other measures in the draft Mayor’s Transport Strategy, will enable us to address congestion and create a London where more people choose to use public transport, walk or cycle.”

 

♦ TfL has announced plans to test new safety technology on London buses including autonomous emergency braking systems and features to alert vulnerable road users to the presence of buses.

 

The technology will receive an independent trial at the Transport Research Laboratory before results feed into a new Bus Safety Standard that will be incorporated into London’s bus operator contracts from the end of 2018.

 

(Photo: Alastair Lloyd)