Southwark MP Neil Coyle has lent his voice to the bus cut debate on a visit to the Camberwell bus garage.
Transport for London (TfL) are proposing to cut sixteen bus routes and change or shorten many more. Four of the sixteen routes – the 12, 78, 45 and 521 – under threat run through Southwark.
Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP Coyle was joined on the visit by Camberwell and Peckham MP Harriet Harman and Southwark council leader Cllr Kieron Williams. The politicians met bus drivers to hear their views on the proposed cuts.
TfL are consulting on the changes until August 7. The transport agency, whose income was slashed by the pandemic, has been told by central government to make budget cuts in order to get a stable funding deal. Its current short-term deal runs out on Thursday (July 28).
Coyle said: “It was great to visit the biggest bus driver training centre in the country – in Southwark – to meet with local workers and trade union officials. Harriet Harman, the council leader and other local reps listened to the concerns about jobs and apprenticeships due to the Government denying a long term funding settlement for Transport for London, forcing potential cuts to local bus routes and services.
“This will affect passengers dramatically and impede London’s ability to rebuild after the damage of Covid, which will affect the national economy. But Tory Ministers are too busy promising more cuts and economic woes as they battle to replace their lawbreaking Prime Minister.”
The proposed cuts are to:
- The 78, which runs from Nunhead and Peckham through Bermondsey, over Tower Bridge to Liverpool Street
- The 521, which runs from Waterloo to London Bridge, via Holborn and the City of London
- The 45, which runs from Streatham through Camberwell and Walworth to Elephant and Castle
- The 12, which runs 24 hours from Dulwich through Peckham, Camberwell, Walworth and Elephant and Castle into Westminster
The 388, which currently terminates at London Bridge, would be extended through Bermondsey to Peckham to pick up the slack left if the 78 bus were scrapped, although it would not reach Camberwell. The 148, which currently terminates at Medlar Street in Camberwell, would instead go through Peckham before coming back to Camberwell. The 53 route would be changed to replace the 45.
TfL is unusual for a transport agency in a major city in that about half of its income comes from fares, rather than being subsidised centrally. Buses in London were loss-making and subsidised by other parts of TfL before the pandemic, to the tune of about £700 million in the 2019/2020 financial year. TfL said even before Covid that its bus network was “unsustainable”.
Take part in the consultation here.