88 The London Bus
payment cards, and the decision
was taken to make the entire bus
network cashless.
The long-term decline in bus
passenger numbers was finally
arrested in 2000. Many factors
contributed to this including an
increase in London’s population
and significant enhancements
to bus services in the early years
of the century. More recently,
numbers have begun to decline,
falling by over 6% since 2014,
partly because lifestyle changes
mean many people travel less often.
This, combined with increasingfinancial pressures, has led to
demands for a review of the
capital’s bus network. In 2017
the Greater London Assembly’s
transport committee report
London’s Bus Network made
several recommendations
including moving towards a
more efficient network design
based on feeder and trunk
routes, an approach not that
dissimilar to the vision of the
reshaping plan half a century
earlier. It also suggested an
increase in orbital routes and
express buses.This year sees the opening of
the Elizabeth Line, which will
increase the capacity of London’s
rail network by around 10%.
This line will provide a key east-
west link across London and
beyond and many people in inner
and outer London are expected
to use a bus to reach it.
Transport hubs will be created
at Elizabeth Line stations in a
move that echoes the changes
brought in to coincide with the
opening of the Victoria Line in- The wheel appears to have
turned full circle.
However, there are far more
buses today. At the end of
1967, London Transport’s
Central Area bus fleet
numbered 5,911, of which
fewer than 200 were single-
deck. Today, of just over 9,500
buses in London, more than a
quarter are single-deck.
One thing that has changed
is the acceptability of longer
vehicles. The manoeuvrability
of Merlins may have been
criticised, but at 36ft 10in, the
New Routemaster double-decker
— of which there are 1,000 — is
longer and seems able to operate
through the heart of London
without difficulty. Even longer
three-axle double-deckers are
used on sightseeing tours in
central London and Transport for
London is to trial such buses on
its services too. ● ML
50 Years Ago
ABOVE: BYD/
Alexander Dennis
Enviro200EV
electric single-
deckers — at 12m
(39ft 4in) they
are more than
3ft longer than
the Merlins —
operate today’s
two surviving Red
Arrow services.
This is SEe24 in
the Go-Ahead
fleet. GAVIN BOOTH
RIGHT: New
Routemasters
also are nearly a
foot longer than
the supposedly
cumbersome
Merlins. Go-
Ahead-operated
LT942 is about
to negotiate a
tight turn on East
London Transit
route EL3 in
Barking.