Aviation Specials – June 2018

(ff) #1

80 The London Bus


Country introduced two routes
linking Chertsey and the airport
and Alder Valley extended its
Reading-Windsor service there.
A major boost occurred from
the late 1990s when the airport
started to fund local bus routes
as part of a drive to increase
the proportion of people —
passengers and employees —
using public transport.
This brought a comprehensive
network serving the Heathrow-
Slough-Maidenhead corridor in
addition to better links with High
Wycombe, Staines and Windsor.
This funding helped provide
new vehicles, many initially in a
silver-based livery with Heathrow
branding.
Subsidies from the airport and
local authorities have since been
scaled back, reducing service
levels. The commercial challenge
of competing with TfL services
means that none extends any
farther into London, and from
June 2018 Carousel Buses
curtails its High Wycombe-
Heathrow service to terminate at
Uxbridge.

Case by case
Local authorities stopped
funding TfL routes in their areas
by 2016. At the time, the Mayor
of London said that although

TfL is aware of the importance
of cross-boundary services,
their future would have to be
reviewed.
In 2017, TfL proposed
curtailing route 465 (Kingston-
Dorking) at Leatherhead.
Following intense pressure from
local residents, Surrey County
Council agreed to provide
£200,000 per year to support it.
It has since agreed to provide a
further £130,000 to ensure that
routes 166 (Croydon-Epsom) and
216 (Kingston-Staines) retain
their routes within the county.
Although cross-border buses
benefit residents on the London
side of the boundary as much
as those on the other side,
it is clear that TfL will look
closely at the levels of service
it provides. Nearly 20% of
London’s workforce lives outside
the Greater London area and
commuting is predicted to grow
sharply as London’s economy
outstrips its housing supply.
However, while car ownership
in London is relatively low and
has fallen, the surrounding
counties are among the most
affluent areas of the UK and
car ownership is high and
growing. In 1971, 29% of Surrey
households had no access to a
car, but by 2011 this had dropped

to 13%, compared with 26%
across England and 19% for the
south-east. The average number
of cars per household in the
county was 1.5.
Although bus use in London
has declined recently, it still
stands at over 250 journeys
per head per year. Across
England as a whole the figure
is 80 and in the surrounding
counties it ranges from 21 in
Buckinghamshire to 36 in Kent.
The Mayor of London’s
transport strategy sets out a
vision to ensure that 80% of all
trips in London are made on foot,
by bicycle or public transport
by 2041. It recognises that for
London to be less car dependent,
and to ensure that the wider city
region remains economically
successful, fully inclusive public
transport must not only be
provided within London, but
between London and the wider
south-east.
What is not clear is whether
better cross-border bus services
form part of a plan that spells out
the need for better rail services
and roads. Without concerted
action by local government
on both sides of the boundary,
it is difficult to see how their
decline can be arrested, let alone
reversed. ● ML

Beyond London


ABOVE: The
section of red bus
route 465 beyond
Leatherhead to
Dorking has been
kept going with
support from
Surrey County
Council. This 2015
view in Surbiton
is of an Optare
Versa operated
by Quality Line,
now part of
RATP London.
PAUL GODDING

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