Central London bus consultation

Hello people and welcome to a consultation by TfL that was rumoured long ago, when Oxford Street was in the pipelines of being closed, a consultation about Central London changes started to trend. Then on route 242's contract award which stated a possible curtailment to St Paul's, something turned fishy. Before that, speculations of 25 getting split to run Ilford to Aldgate and Stratford to Oxford Circus or so, now without further ado let's see the changes involved.

If you'd like me not to spoil it for you or want to read it on your own, link is here. However if you don't care, then read as follows.

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3/N3 Crystal Palace/Bromley North (N3) to Oxford Circus (Regent Street due to TfL). Rerouted at Trafalgar Square via Charing Cross, Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road and British Musuem to terminate at Russel Square.
137 Streatham Hill Telford Avenue to Oxford Circus. Withdrawn between Marble Arch and Oxford Circus.
No change to frequencies on any routes and N137 remains Crystal Palace to Oxford Circus.
See 3 137 N3 consultation segment. 

6 Rerouted between Piccadilly Circus and Marble Arch via Green Park, Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane instead of Regent Street and Oxford Street. Temporary frequency of every 7-8 on Mondays-Saturdays instead of 6-7 mins kept permanent.
15 Blackwall to Trafalgar Square. Permanently cut at Trafalgar Square.
N15 Romford Market to Trafalgar Square. Extended to Oxford Circus as original routing prior to roadworks in 2013.
No change to frequencies on 15/N15.
See 6 15 N15 consultation segment. 

8 Permanently cut at Tottenham Court Road.
172 Brockley Rise to St Paul's. Rerouted at City Thameslink to Clerkenwell via Farringdon Station.
242 Homerton Hospital to Tottenham Court Road. Withdrawn between Tottenham Court Road and St Paul's.
No change to frequencies on any routes.
See 8 172 242 consultation segment. 

22/N22 Rerouted at Green Park via Berkeley Street/Square and Conduit Street to Oxford Circus.
C2 Permanently cut at Regent Street Conduit Street
No change to frequencies on any routes.
See 22 C2 N22 consultation segment. 

23 Liverpool Street to Westbourne Park. Modified to run between Wembley Stadium and Lancaster Gate via Brent Park, Harlesden, Willesden Junction, Kensal Green, Ladbroke Grove and Paddington.
46 St Bartholomew's Hospital to Lancaster Gate. Withdrawn between Lancaster Gate and Paddington.
332 Paddington to Brent Park. Rerouted at Kilburn High Road via Cambridge Avenue, Kilburn Park Road, Shirland Road and Warwick Avenue but extended from Paddington to Lancaster Gate.
452 Vauxhall to Kensal Rise. Rerouted at Ladbroke Grove Sainsbury's via Kensal Road, Golborne Road, Elkstone Road, Westbourne Park Station to Harrow Road.
No change to frequencies on any routes.
See 23 46 332 452 consultation segment. 

73 Stoke Newington to Victoria. Withdrawn between Victoria and Oxford Circus. Frequencies changed from current 3-4 mins (Monday-Friday peak), 5 mins Monday-Friday, 5-6 Saturdays, and 6 mins Sunday/evenings to every 5 mins Monday-Saturdays (buses every 4 mins towards Oxford Circus on Monday-Friday mornings) and 7 mins Sundays.
390 Archway to Notting Hill Gate. Rerouted at Marble Arch to Victora via Park Lane, Hyde Park Corner and Grosvenor Place. Frequency increased from every 8 mins Monday-Saturday (7-8 Monday-Friday peaks), 12 mins Sundays and 10-12 evenings to every 6 mins Monday-Saturday and 10 mins Sundays/evenings.
See 73 390 consultation segment. 

25 Ilford-Mile End-Oxford Circus. Short journeys between Ilford and Mile End on Monday-Saturdays withdrawn. Frequency reduced from every 3-4 mins Monday-Saturdays (6-7 mins Mile End-Oxford Circus) and 6 mins Sundays/evenings to every 6 mins whole route Monday-Saturdays and 7-8 mins Sundays/evenings.
425 Clapton Nightingale Road to Stratford Bus Station. Extended to Ilford via 25. Frequency increased from current every 12 mins Monday-Saturday, 15 mins Sunday and 20 mins evening to 10 mins Monday-Saturdays and 12 mins Sundays/evenings.
N2 Whitehall Horse Guards to Crystal Palace. Rerouted at Victoria to Marylebone via 2.
No change to frequencies on route N2.
See 25 425 consultation segment. See N2 consultation segment. 
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Whilst that's all there is to it, that's going to be a lot of changes for the commoner public to understand! Well I hope you do, I'm looking forward to 3 going to Russell Square to be frankly honest. As you can see a lot of Central London routes get twinkered here and there and their former history of a consistent routing (such as Aldwych to Oxford Circus on 23 or Oxford Circus to Crystal Palace on 3) get changed drastically in just one consultation split into a lot.

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My opinions.

3/N3 - Sad to see the Oxford Circus link lost, especially on the N3 but hopefully the Hopper TfL are making holy is of use if people need to switch onto an N3 from say Oxford Circus or Piccadilly which is relatively short to Trafalgar Square but the opposite direction won't do any good. Furthermore 3 going Russell Square is an interesting fairy tale for the worst come especially traffic wise, despite the weird thoughts TfL had this creates interesting new links, but overbussing the section 10 has been rerouted via Russell Square. Overall not a bad change which has negatives.

6 - Nothing much to say as Oxford Street will be pedestrianised so might as well permanent the change via Green Partk and Piccadilly.

15/N15 - Sad to see 15 get the permanent cut to Trafalgar Square as it always was bustling when it used to go Paddington Basin via Oxford Circus and Marble Arch, however when it got cut short to Regent Street in 2010 in swap for 159, it's patronage decreased and even further when Haymarket works occurred making the route cut short to Trafalgar Square even though there was no plans to re-extend it back to Regent Street. As for N15, good to see it return to Oxford Circus at least linking with the main hub excluding Trafalgar Square.

22/N22 - To some it may seem TfL just did it because why not, but it's not the worst TfL could've come up with, an Oxford Circus link via the posh parts of Chelsea and Knightsbridge as well as Sloane Square, from the Putney and Parson Green areas. Not bad. However push comes to shove...as 22 simply displaces C2 to Oxford Circus to reduce Oxford Street flows but whilst at it, Regent Street flows.

23 - This change is more of making a new route and in my opinion violates the 23 as it already was marked for a cut from Liverpool Street to Aldwych, fair enough TfL wanting to save money but relying on false Oyster readings as people probably fare evade on 11 (minus the business people) meaning there's no definitely accurate result of capacity. With that in mind there's too much traffic on 11/23 but withdrawing 23 from Liverpool Street to Aldwych creates an extended strain on 11/15. However the complete removal all the way to Paddington makes it far worse as it was stated in that Liverpool Street consultation that the busiest part of 23 was Marble Arch to Westbourne Park, but in this consultation that previous fact has been completely disregarded in favour to the endless complaints of a needed relief for the second busiest route in London, the 18. The 23's new route would obviously be of some help to 18 whilst providing alternative route and links around the Wembley, Harlesden and Ladbroke Grove areas and so on so forth, but sending it from Paddington to Lancaster Gate was a very odd choice considering what possibly useful interchanges could be made there? Is 23 getting cut all the way to Paddington simply so people are forced to exchange on the Crossrail?

46 - At least that's reliability part solved, doesn't seem like there'd be an uproar, section also replaced by 23/332. Always thought this bit would be relatively less used so I think replacing that section with two routes is overbussing.

73 - Yet again, reliability issue solved, however the frequency cut back is more for saving buses for TfL's funds, I wonder how the route would cope with that cut back and slight frequency decrease.

137 - The route has once before been cut to Marble Arch but only temporary, people can walk along Oxford Street so no main loss and Oxford Street is due to be pedestrianised anyways so again, sad to think of the old people and physically disabled to have a longer path for taking their relevant routes.

172 - I see making stand space for 242 but I don't get making 172 go through a far more trafficated path than the one now, though it's an interesting reroute but I think the reliability will only drop down from here, 0 to 100 reeeaall quick.

242 - I don't know whether cutting it back to St Paul's is for self-convenience or just to muck about with London but making 8/25 pick up more of the slack is a erm an interesting idea...?

332 - I don't know this route so I can't say much about it except for the parallel with 16 losing a service and perhaps their direct link to Paddington without the need of exchanging? Though there's always possible alternative but to TfL this is probably the most cost-saving one.

390 - At least 390's purpose of going to Notting Hill Gate was not only to replace 12 but to relieve 94/148 which has served it's purpose until whenever it gets changed. In sacrifice for demand increase on 94/148, it's chosen for 73 to be helped by making 390 go Victoria instead, once again another interesting move but it'd obviously be cost-efficient.

425 - Seems TfL thought that replacing 25's Ilford-Mile End shorts is to batter 425 but an extra route was needed along Mile End-Ilford, particularly Stratford eastwards to relieve both 25/86 along the most dire times as they both are the only routes along Romford Road to carry people from needed place whilst East London is generally cheap and like to avoid trains by going on the cheapest alternative, 25. I have suggested this idea before and it seems to come true, I wonder how many jumps 425 will make in it's climb due to picking up 25/86's slack and sharing with them.

452 - Intriguing to have to reroute the route again having taken so long to get the Vauxhall extension going, it was supposed to be extended on the 21st January at first but changed to 19 November. Obviously Abellio have another one coming, good thing they didn't order new blinds beforehand (for side blinds on the power blinded 56reg). But I guess for 23's journey to Wembley it's efficient to retain a bus route along the roads 23 serves.

C2 - An interesting midibus route now a double decker, replacing the Parliament Hill Fields to Oxford Circus section on 53 which was served by 3, C2 was extended in 2010 to Victoria to replace 8/N8 as well as making them more reliable by cutting them shorter. Now it seems C2 is going back to Oxford Circus virtually (not completely as it takes the Regent Street stand vacant by 3) and getting replaced by the south western posh route 22/N22. Right when I suggested an idea to extend C2 south of Victoria to Vauxhall to fill in for 436 this happens.....
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Here are my predictions on Peak Vehicle Requirement changes:
3 - PVR 21 to ~23. N3 PVR 13 to 14
137 PVR from 31 to 28
Net PVR change: -1 (decrease)

6 PVR 24 to 22.
15 PVR stays 23. N15 PVR 29 to 30.
Net PVR change: -2 (decrease)
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8 PVR 30 to 27
172 PVR 17 to 18
242 PVR 25 to 20
Net PVR change: -7 (decrease)

23 PVR from 30 to 21 (day) and 5 to 3 (night)
46 PVR stay 19
332 PVR 15 to 14
452 PVR 23 to 24
Net PVR change: -9 (decrease)

25 PVR from 64 to 49 (day). No change to night service.
425 PVR from 11 to 18
Net PVR change: -8 (decrease)

73 PVR from 53 to 29
390 PVR from 23 to 27
Net PVR change: -20 (decrease)

22 PVR 22 to 26. N22 PVR 8.
C2 PVR 19 to 16 (day), 4 to 3 or 4 (night)
Net PVR change: 1 (increase)
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Well, there was my thoughts on this consultation, at the moment I have not submitted a survey reply but I will later on. Anways I hope you got this revelation and enjoyed this post as well as to get used to the changes that would go on if it affects you, as always, have a good day!