Subsidies for London Bus Route 465 saved!

Surrey County Council were planning to cut subsidies for route 465 which would have shortened the route which runs from Kingston to Dorking, with the shorter route terminating at Leatherhead. Thankfully though, due to a campaign held by local residents who use the route, Surrey County Council announced they will continue to fund the route for the next 5 years.

Proposed changes to 23 London Bus Routes

Massive new proposals for London Bus Routes 3, 6, 8, 15, 22, 23, 25, 46, 73, 137, 172, 242, 332, 390, 425, 452, C2, N2, N3, N8, N15, N22 and N73.

Routes 3, 8, 15, 73, 137 and 390 use the three-door and two-staircase hybrid buses known as New Routemasters.

From TfL Press release

TfL has today launched a consultation on proposed changes to 23 central London bus routes to better match bus services with demand from passengers.

Express bus services in London

As there are over 600 regulated bus routes in the Greater London area it's understandable that not many commuters know about the existence of the express bus routes, so I thought I would write an article about these routes to help make Londoners aware of them.

Consultation for routes 108, 135, 277, D3, D7 & D8 and A Buses Bill

TFL has put forward proposals for changes to the London Bus Routes serving the Tower Hamlets borough.

From the TFL consultation

We have reviewed bus routes serving Canary Wharf, the Isle of Dogs and Bow, to make sure that services can match future travel demand in the best way possible.

Proposed changes for route EL2 goes ahead

On November 25th 2015 I did an article about the proposed changes to the East London Transit services. The proposed changes have now been given a green light and will occur on 19th March 2016.

TFL releases their 2014/15 Annual Report draft

On 9^th June 2015, TfL issued a press release regarding their new Annual report for 2014/15.

I'll give you my opinions as you read through the Annual Report, quoting from the press release.

“Transport for London (TfL) has published its draft Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31 March 2015, which will be considered by the TfL Board at its next meeting on 1 July.

2014/15 was another record year for TfL, with around half a billion more public transport journeys now taking place compared to five years ago. All parts of the TfLnetwork are seeing growing demand as London's population rose to its highest ever level, 8.6 million, this year and is predicted to rise to around 10 million by 2030”

London Buses were on the verge of being deregulated

During the early 1990’s, London bus services were being privatised, and came close to be

deregulated by the government.

What privatisation means:  London Buses was split into 12 business units, in preparation for sell-off. In late 1994 the separate London Buses' business units were sold off to private ownership which also meant that the routes were tendered off to private operating companies to operate under a concession for London Transport.

What deregulation means: the power to create and maintain

The private operating companies of Transport for London

Transport for London operate many services to enable people to travel around Greater London, but not all of their services are operated by Transport for London themselves. The only service which is owned and operated by Transport for London is the London Underground.

Not many people realise that most of the TFL services are operated by private companies which TFL contracted out.

In this article I will show the main services which are being operated by private companies, I'll name their parent companies and give a brief history of the company.