Transport for LondonLondon Buses
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For London Buses, the division of TfL responsible for managing the capital's bus network, the primary task is to deliver more and better quality bus services.
In 2002/03, London Buses introduced the largest single programme of bus service improvements for the last fifty years, with changes being made across the whole of London. The development of London's bus network has been significant with substantial improvement in both quality and quantity aspects of service's across the whole of London.
These included the developments necessary to support the congestion charging scheme and provide an extra 11,000 spaces in the morning peak period, as well as major network improvements in the outer London areas of Ealing, Ilford, Kingston, Lea Bridge Road and Putney.
As part of the programme, more than 300 extra buses were brought into service so that many new areas could be covered and new links provided. 15 more Night bus routes were added, Sunday services were introduced on 20 new routes, and Sunday services or route extensions added to seven existing routes, increasing the number of '24/7' services. In total, service volume increased significantly with 397 million bus kilometres being operated in 2002/03 - the highest level since 1965. Many new routes began operation under Quality Incentive Contracts or had incentivised supervision schemes introduced, resulting in significant improvements in performance. In order to help provide a better bus service to our passengers a Business and Technical Education Council (BTEC) training programme was launched for drivers and conductors to raise standards of driving, customer care, disability/equality awareness and service control.
Vehicle standards have also continued to rise with 77 per cent of the bus fleet, (excluding Routemasters), now operating modern low floor buses with ramps. Cash fares have remained frozen and continue to represent excellent value for money. Articulated 'Bendy' buses with cashless and open boarding arrangements have been introduced on four routes to speed up boarding. Additional bus priority measures and increased bus lane enforcement have helped ensure faster and more reliable bus journeys. 2002/03 saw the previous record number of bus lane completions doubled, an expansion of bus priority at traffic signals and the roll out of camera-based enforcement. All necessary bus priority measures critical to congestion charging were successfully installed in advance of the scheme. There have also been significant improvements to the infrastructure by investment at both garages (new and refurbished), and bus stops (additional and replacement bus shelters).
To improve passenger access to simple and easy to use information, the roll out of stop specific timetables continues and is on target to cover the whole of the network by December 2003. Widespread distribution of spider maps across the network is also on course.
These significant improvements in London's bus service's have been the single most important achievement in the Government's 10 Year Transport Plan.
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