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Ever since lockdown in 2020, the number of Londoners taking the city’s buses has been dropping. Part of that has been put down to the fact that the buses have been getting slower, now running at an average of 9.17mph – much of the time, you’re better off walking.
In response to the falling number of passengers, TfL has been making adjustments to its bus network. At the start of the year, it unveiled proposals to either axe or reduce a bunch of London’s busiest bus routes. And over the next two weeks, it’ll implement changes to around a dozen routes across the city, designed to ‘better reflect current traffic levels’.
From Saturday March 28 the number 13 between North Finchley and Victoria will be reduced to one bus every 10 minutes while the 32 between Kilburn and Edgware will temporarily be cut to one every 11 minutes.
There will be revisions to the timetables of routes 60 (between Old Coulsdon and Streatham Station), 278 (Ruislip Station to Heathrow Central) and 372 (Hornchurch Town Centre and Lakeside Bus Station). The 320 (Biggin Hill Valley and Catford Bridge Station) is being temporarily reduced to run once every 14 minutes during weekday peak times.
People who normally rely on the 493 between Richmond Bus Station and St George’s Hospital in Tooting, the E6, E7 or E10 will notice that services have been reduced to just four an hour. The D3 between Leamouth and Bonner Road in Bethnal Green will only run every 17 minutes during the days on Monday to Saturdays.
The following weekend (Saturday April 4), the 207 from White City to Hayes Bypass will have its daytime frequency reduced to a bus every seven to eight minutes. TfL also confirmed that proposed changes to the 38 bus route between Clapton Pond and Victoria Bus Station would halve the number of buses on Graham Road in Hackney from 12 to six an hour during the day.
ICYMI: This ‘nationally important’ London tube station is finally getting a major upgrade.
Plus: Full list of tube and train disruptions this weekend.
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