Sadiq Khan ‘seems just to be steadily getting rid of bus transport altogether’

• ASSEMBLY Member Tony Devenish says Sadiq Khan “is intending to cut the bus network in central London…”, (Sadiq Khan is out to cut the bus network in the capital, August 10). I could not agree more with his view on this.

On August 10 Transport for London also announced the decision to remove several more bus routes from Oxford Street: these cuts leave anyone needing overground transport towards Notting Hill and some other locations with only the expensive options of taxis or unregulated pedicabs to get them to their destinations.

Bus routes along Oxford Street are already severely cut. Only four routes will be running on this stretch. Will less able residents or visitors be left fighting shoppers for seats on the few remaining buses serving Oxford Street “west”?

The Central line tube is on most occasions an unpleasant experience because of the horrendous air conditions.

According to The Evening Standard of August 17, “Dozens of London buses face axe after fall in use”. This affects around 21 roads including Old Kent Road, Farringdon Road and Kensington High Street.

It is not true that demand for bus services is falling. Rather people have no choice but to use other, faster, transport particularly when rushing to and from their work, as TfL’s road changes have made the buses very slow indeed.

One of the causes of this situation is the hotchpotch of very expensive attempts to retrofit London for cyclists; this is just not working, not for pedestrians, not for cyclists, not for anyone.

Instead of reducing car use, TfL’s strategies may be making bus journeys too slow, thus perhaps causing a shift from bus service use back to the car (to also drive through narrow residential streets).

London is a big city requiring a variety of safe fast transport including buses and the Underground.

To improve bus services, TfL should deal with unregulated, noisy, pedicabs that obstruct the traffic and the pavement, at least on Oxford Street.

It could also reduce the access of private cars (including those super cars racing along it at night). Unfortunately TfL and Sadiq Khan seem to promote disorder instead.

Residents are wondering if these cuts in Oxford Street bus routes are the start of pedestrianisation by stealth, or if this is revenge on the residents who do not want pedestrianisation. It particularly targets the less able who rely on these routes to reach essential services.

The fact is that London has no luck when it comes to the issue of transport, from the bendy buses – good in the London outskirts, but disastrous in the centre – to Boris Johnson’s ridiculous double-deckers, in which you can feel as if in a cage without oxygen. Sadiq Khan, though, seems just to be steadily getting rid of bus transport altogether.

One serious impact of Dr Richard Beeching’s 1960s rail cuts, made in the name of efficiency, was that they cut off so many communities from efficient public transport.

Subsequent cuts in bus subsidies have driven up car use outside towns and cities. A major advantage of buses is that they reach parts that rail transport does not.

Is Sadiq Khan in danger of being the Beeching of London buses? Cuts may leave many areas without enough public transport into the West End. This risks disadvantaging the less able who cannot use the Underground, and less wealthy areas with lower car ownership.

A LOESCH
W1