The bus is hugely important to London. More Londoners use the bus than any other type of public transport. It is especially important to those on lower incomes, women, children, disabled people and ethnic minority Londoners. And one bus can take up to 75 cars off the road, helping improve air quality and fight climate change.
And yet things are not going well for the bus. Many journeys take a long time. In the 12 months before the pandemic hit, average bus speeds were only 9.3 miles per hour, the third successive year in which speeds were that low. And there could be more cuts to bus services so that Transport for London can save money.
London TravelWatch set up the Bus Alliance in 2021 to make the case for the importance of the bus to Londoners and reverse the decline in bus ridership.
The Alliance has three broad aims
It has called for the bus to be:
More reliable:
- The bus to be given more priority on London’s roads
More affordable:
- Fare levels to be kept as low as possible
More connected:
- The bus to receive fair funding to prevent cuts to services
If these things happen, more passengers will return to the bus.
The Alliance includes:
- Campaign for Better Transport
- Clean Cities Campaign
- Healthy Streets Scorecard Coalition
- BusinessLDN
- Go-Ahead London
- Sustrans
- Transport for All
- Unite
- representatives of London boroughs
- members of the London Assembly.
The Bus Alliance meets on a regular basis. It is a loose alliance. Members will not need to agree with every decision the Alliance makes, nor join the campaign on a specific matter if they feel it is one that they cannot support or is not applicable to their organisation.
If you would like to find out more about the Alliance or be interested in joining, please email us at info@londontravelwatch.org.uk and a member of the team will get back to you.
You can also find out more about London TravelWatch’s work to help improve bus services in London on our campaign page here.
