Streatham High Road (and Norwood Road): 1912 to 2022

pre-Victoria Line
PDF link

A post in the making since 2021, sat on the project a few times. Took a total of many weeks of completely researching and putting into a cohesive script to then make the good eye-catchy maps of artwork. Enjoy, stay safe and well.

ULEZ done better

A Conservative initiative during the time Boris was Mayor, though since then Labour's Khan has been the face of it's execution on three occasions (in central 2019; inside North/South Circular Roads 2021; now London-wide 2023).

Now that the court ruling has meant Khan can push through with ULEZ, (and as of publishing this post, ULEZ a few days from enacting), let's review the gist of the process.


Minimum Euro4 petrol cars are allowed in ULEZ, 

Euro3 for motorbikes and the like.

Diesels however: Euro6.

So, not many would have to replace their personal vehicles as much as people have blown it out of proportion (clickbaits, misconceptions, God forbid any nefarious reasons), unless they're unfortunate to have gotten diesel. My condolences to van/minibus drivers minding their business.

Some would say only we would do this type of slap-on-the-wrist on road users, Congestion Charge and now Ultra Low Emission Zone.

What others do however would be more drastic. Roads banned to cars inside cities anyone? Bans on cars on certain days of the week based on your registration number?

What about Carbon Tax? Canada & Trudeau to London & Khan. Both upset people and hit middle-income people. 

All in all if you fail you have to pay £12.50 a day, contrast that with Congestion Charge which is currently a £15 daily fee... which itself was also a sticking point in the early mayoral career of Ken Livingstone at the turn of the century.

Though back when Congestion Charge was being brought in, three benefits were brought in directly visible by road users of all types.

Of course, we know it's not really to tackle pollution, but to have an extra income stream. Not really tackling traffic either. No extra transport links being done by the date of 29 August (even if some bus consultations were touting their addressing of ULEZ, likewise Superloop).

Now we not only have a £110 million scrappage scheme for Londoners, but some boroughs adding a £1000 grant per vehicle to those without good public transport.

For those without good public transport.

There's the issue.

Bus lanes 

Speeding up buses by a decent margin, with around 9% growth attributed to it

New bus routes 

(148 205 360 388, as well as splits like 363[63], 390[10], 430[74], 432[2], 436[36], 453[53] 460?[260] etcetera)

Tramlink 

though a few years in the making, it did reduce congestion in Croydon dramatically, allowing not just a reduction of car traffic but also an efficient upgrade from powerhouse bus route 130 - into trams. Also utilising a half-hourly railway between Wimbledon and Croydon into a frequent service.

You can support me by donating to me, buying from my store, or perhaps order from my Fiverr!

Super(not)Loops & the new Superloops

As you may have heard, or even seen the TV ad/YouTube video, the 607 (White City to Uxbridge), a number used for the past 30 years (as well as between 1939 and 1961 for Trolleybus 607) has ceased to exist.

It is now SL8, with no changes at all currently (besides stop renamings). Come 29 August it will have earlier and later journeys added. Why they couldn't have done both simultaneously and score a little more brownie points is beyond my armchair comprehension.

The X26 will join also in August with a frequency increase from every 30 to every 15, christened the number SL7.

   Buses start and finish at West Croydon Bus Station instead of Delta Point.

   East Croydon, Wallington Green and Teddington (northbound) stops to have new shelters.

   New Malden The Fountain stop renamed New Malden Fountain Roundabout.

   An extra last bus out of Heathrow.

   1 journey starts at Wallington Green to Heathrow

   (4 weekday, 2 Saturday, 1 Sunday) journeys starting from New Malden to Heathrow

The X68 will change earlier, next week 29 July. No changes at all (Disappointed as a local).

  Addendum edit: It's buses (EH213/214/215-224) to receive USB charging.

   Branding a little tacky with the advert frame still in situ, which can't be used as a revenue stream.

   ^ in addition to above, buses can't be used on other routes - another revenue stream gone (e.g Rail Replacement).

Best of all: 

- no route number (when it was 607, maybe will receive it as SL8)

- it's branding omits Acton and Southall, larger towns than Hayes is.

- Don't mention it's frequency (yet Hayes and Barkingside brandings did).

- Superloop mentioned in large twice (in text and the roundel)

- "express bus service" capitalised but relatively small underneath the large Superloop text

- Why have an asterisk "at the tailpipe" as if combustion vehicles spout emissions elsewhere

The idea of orbital bus routes isn't new, if you read the Superloop wikipedia article, but in short, the last time they flirted with the idea, the X26 went from hourly to half-hourly and Boris Johnson halted plans for new routes as apparently he was told there was no need. We know the kind of man he is, who also stopped plans of a new crossing from Thamesmead to Beckton on the grounds of cost.

Map link.

Now we have new routes, the X123, X269 and X119 respectively.

SL2 consultation, SL3 consultation, SL5 consultation.

Every 12 M-Sat, every 15 Sunday/evenings
for all three routes (and SL1/X34, SL10/X183, SL9/X140)

You can support me by donating to me, buying from my store, or perhaps order from my Fiverr!

Walthamstow12, Wanstead13, Woodford14

In short the 549 is to be withdrawn... or is it? Cue the V-sauce music.

I'll lay my opinion first before delving on to stuff, it is a mixed bag, as many in the enthusiast space have also said to varying degrees. Some users of the current W12 benefit whilst some users of W12 get the back hand treatment. In the end, the current 549 userbase also gets a benefit by going back to a frequency they once had.

The only no-strings-attached improvement is W13's weekend and evening frequency enhancements.

You can support me by donating to me, buying from my store, or perhaps order from my Fiverr!

Red Arrow replacements

Red Arrow: April 1966 - April 2023.

As you'd have known, the last two died on 29 April 2023; routes 507 and 521.

Red Arrow, an experiment; flat fare limited stop feeder services; that started in the 1960s with only route 500 (Victoria - Marble Arch - Oxford Circus [off-peak]).

With it's success, more services sprawled from 1968. Routes had frequencies of every 2-3 minutes during the peaks, though were mostly quiet during the off-peak, effectively wasted resources. 

Attempts tried in the 1980s to address this problem, by giving routes weekend services and the like, to some success one could optimistically say (looking at 507).

   Which partly explains how most died off before the end of the 20th century, with only three surviving in the 21st.

As the British economy changed, some workplaces moving elsewhere, we found ourselves in the mid 90s with only the 501 505 507 521.

The 507 and 521 were still very strong, right until 2020.

Covid.

More now than ever, a complete change of balance with working. Work from home is commonplace, though not an end-all-be-all. It has heavily impacted many. For our relevance, this resulted in heavy drops in frequency on our remaining 507 and 521.

All in all:

Routes 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 513 521 existed.

Now: none.

Their sections live on under daily routes.

Who killed them...?

You can support me by donating to me, buying from my store, or perhaps order from my Fiverr!

Unormtrepeneur

Firstly, Eid Mubarak, to Muslims brothers and sisters.

On to my main point, 

You may have noticed slight changes on the blog.

Additions of a link to donate and a link to a shop. 

Fiverr gig link too!

I have refrained from doing these out of pride, though as I've gotten sick a few times of the past few years, in addition with the Cost of Living Crisis those of us in Great Britain are going through, I've dropped my pride.

Even knowing that yes, with Cost of Living Crisis means there is less income to spend on non-necessities, I've still decided that if you could support me financially to reduce my burdens, it would be genuinely appreciated.

You don't have to donate, you don't have to buy from my shop.

I will continue to write sporadically, even reading them is support. Until the next one, peace upon you, stay safe!

ULEZ bus consultations

A face of things to come...

Includes four new consultations, touted as the solution to the increased regulation Ultra Low Emission Zone brings for your average Joe and Jenny car and van user who rely on them to get around London, since their areas have poor or no transport, in and around or across London borders.

- 315 extension to Springfield Hospital

- 79 extension to Stonebridge Park

- Brent Cross West

- 346 347 497 restructure

- Wembley Park

I'll write my overall thoughts now. It is disappointing.

With Congestion Charge in the early 2000s, you had many new bus routes (think 148 205 360 RV1) as well as splits of day routes (2 into 2/432, 36 into 36/436, etcetera) to increase capacity in the network.

In this round of four consultations, bearing in mind the early 2000-2005 era saw plethora of improvements, there's 2 semi-long extensions and 2 short extensions, with 2 routes withdrawn. Yes, routes are withdrawn.

Whilst not part of the Congestion Charge changes, cross-border London travel saw improvements, mainly as routes 405 and 498 saw the potential of withdrawal if TfL didn't step in to protect the London sections of those routes, which meant serving the counties. Same couldn't be said for the many lost cross-London routes such as 310 in Enfield and 402 in Bromley, with many more lost. The 505 lost from Chingford due to Low Emission Zone.

So without further ado, my first impressions on each consultation.

Lack of upload

Lately I've been sick so I haven't written anything for a February upload. I have stuff in the works but still in the Work in Progress stage. I've also had a waning interest in the enthusiast space, though lately there's been new tenders and developments to spice up my nearly nonexistent drive for writing bus content.

So I guess for now, February and March, perhaps even April, will be lull moments for this blog in the short term.

I apologise to you and myself, as I usually was enthusiastic writing posts at least monthly. I usually averaged 11-12 posts a year, with 2022 being my peak with 16 posts published.

Until the next one stay safe, and bless you.