Newly non-political watchdog London Travelwatch are having a public meeting to discuss, amongst other things, the Route 38, 507 and 521 debendification proposals. They say:
We will also be looking at proposals on whether bus routes 38 (between Victoria and Clapton Pond), 521 (between Waterloo and London Bridge) and the 507 (between Waterloo and Victoria) should continue to use articulated buses, or should be replaced by other buses.
The next London TravelWatch meeting, open to all members of the press and public, will be held at London TravelWatch’s offices at 6 Middle St, London, EC1A 7JA, at 9.45. The discussion on the future of bendy buses will be held at 15.45.
I’d like to think I could get along and see what was up, but time is limited at the moment. It’s worth noting that approaching the bendy question from the point of view of overcrowding is going to come up with very different answers from those supplied by the cyclists and Policy Exchange wonks Boris is used to listening too. Let’s hope for a strong stand being made in favour of the bus user.
Update – added in the missing quote from LT, which gremlins ate.
(h/t to James Buller in our comments)
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4 responses so far ↓
You get a point for “debendification”!
As a bus user in South London I hope for the best but I’m well aware that poor (and predominantly black) people don’t generally decide the results of elections. There have been many middle class nimby campaigns against buses dressed up in environmental language. What would they like us to do? Walk? Drive, or just disappear?
The meeting date is Tuesday 23 September.
Balls – gremlins and my bad eyesight I think. Thanks.
Interesting observation in one of the London Travel Watch papers – http://www.londontravelwatch.org.uk/document/3526/get – de-bendifying these three routes will cost a total of an estimated £12.6m *per annum* in operational costs for the additional vehicles in the TfL service specification. Then multiply this by the number of bendy bus routes on the network. Not exactly “value for money.”