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Post by southlondon413 on Aug 12, 2023 7:31:02 GMT
But Grant Shapps didn’t instigate the ULEZ expansion, that’s an entirely false narrative with zero evidence to suggest otherwise. First nowhere in the funding agreements did it mention expanding the ULEZ only to reintroduce it, second it was always and has been openly admitted by Kahn to be his policy and third it was specifically mentioned in the final funding letter that the bailout money couldn’t be used to expand ULEZ and anything related to it had to come from within TfL/City Hall budgets. Any potential Labour government will likely have to make reality decisions which will likely involve further budget cuts across the country. Whatever money is left would likely be distributed to areas outside London. Hello - in this letter dated 14 May 2020 from Secretary of State for Transport to Mayor of London para 'H' states [TfL agrees to] "The immediate reintroduction of the London Congestion Charge, LEZ and ULEZ and urgently bring forward proposals to widen the scope and levels of these charges, in accordance with the relevant legal powers and decision-making processes."Have I misinterpreted this? i.e. "Widen the scope and levels of these charges"Sorry but you’re wrong, it refers to he already agreed expansion to the north/south circular roads which Khan had already committed to by 2020, the mayors own office confirmed this as the fact. The reality is the government never asked for it and Khan has publicly admitted he alone decided to expand the ULEZ zone. Nobody dictated it to him. Why make reference to not using bailout money to expand it if the government demanded it as part of the bailout conditions, that makes zero sense to do. fullfact.org/online/ulez-expansion-letter/ |
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Post by borneobus on Aug 12, 2023 7:43:38 GMT
content.tfl.gov.uk/extraordinary-funding-and-financing-agreement-may-2020.pdfHello - in this letter dated 14 May 2020 from Secretary of State for Transport to Mayor of London para 'H' states [TfL agrees to] "The immediate reintroduction of the London Congestion Charge, LEZ and ULEZ and urgently bring forward proposals to widen the scope and levels of these charges, in accordance with the relevant legal powers and decision-making processes."Have I misinterpreted this? i.e. "Widen the scope and levels of these charges" Sorry but you’re wrong, it refers to he already agreed expansion to the north/south circular roads which Khan had already committed to by 2020, the mayors own office confirmed this as the fact. The reality is the government never asked for it and Khan has publicly admitted he alone decided to expand the ULEZ zone. Nobody dictated it to him. Why make reference to not using bailout money to expand it if the government demanded it as part of the bailout conditions, that makes zero sense to do. fullfact.org/online/ulez-expansion-letter/OK, so the May 2020 letter was referencing expansion of ULEZ to North & South circulars... |
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Post by evergreenadam on Aug 12, 2023 7:49:08 GMT
Good to see some improvements to the 86 which has long been a very busy route without parallel for a lot of its length. When AP ran it with RTs back in the 1970s you might wait for three or even four to go past with three-bell loads before being able to board. If you happened to be at the western end the 25 might help you out but that, too, was often carrying full loads at the time. The N9 really should be 3bph in order to be considered as a serious travel option for the night staff it probably aims to cater for beyond the central area. Some nighters have recovered well from Covid, others not so. I use the N22 most weeks and find the outbound trips from the west end to often be carrying single-digit loads all the way to Fulwell but the inbound trips do rather better. The boost to all-night services with the 123 and 158 is very welcome; those serve very busy areas with plenty of night-time economy to offer traffic the length of the routes. The X26 (as it presently is) also requires the enhancement to become a credible option for travel to and from Heathrow and those other centres it serves. Traffic had been falling but in part this can be attributed to it not being run at a "turn-up-and-go" frequency. Uplifting to every 15 minutes / 4bph should go a long way to address this. Similar considerations apply to the Uxbridge Road routes; traffic between the major centres and stops is sufficient to justify the improvement which will hopefully attract more business. It might come at a cost of reduced headways on the 207 / 427 in the longer term but let's see how they hold up because both are quite busy as they are. Interesting to hear about the loadings in past decades, I can’t imagine that today’s passengers would put up with having to let so many buses go by because they were full. |
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Post by TB123 on Aug 12, 2023 9:18:21 GMT
I really don't see anything of those improvements just as a political gain, in reality a lot of those new changes are pretty much long overdue like the 24-hour daily service on the 123, late evening/sunday morning service on the 607/SL8, X26/SL7 running at a higher frequency just to name a few, which all of them should have already been in place many years ago. It isn't just a political stunt, everyone is almost unanimous when agreeing these changes should have happened a long time ago. You'd be rather gullible though to believe the Mayor won't use this to his political advantage. Two questions need to be asked as to why this feels fishy: 1. Where did the money come from to fund this? TfL are supposedly still Super broke, yet they suddenly have the resources to fund ex-weekend 24 hour routes into nightly services. 2. Why isn't there any press for this? It's a good news story involving investment that TfL have been shy on since the pandemic. The Son of a Bus Driver cannot miss a good transport PR opportunity. I'm 100% certain he's going to use these recent 24 hour routes with his Superloop spin come August 29th. The finances of TfL have recovered markedly in the last year or so. Tube ridership is in many cases above pre-Covid levels and Elizabeth Line usage is running above expectations. The estimate is for an operating surplus this 23/24 financial year. A far cry from a couple of years ago with Covid-battered figures. The good thing is that allows for some improvements to buses amongst other things to start flowing through, slowly but surely. |
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Post by JUNIOR26 on Aug 12, 2023 11:37:50 GMT
I don't really think an E1 night service is needed and I don't think one is needed for the 120 either. Why not? Don't see it being value for money. |
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Post by wirewiper on Aug 12, 2023 12:26:54 GMT
It isn't just a political stunt, everyone is almost unanimous when agreeing these changes should have happened a long time ago. You'd be rather gullible though to believe the Mayor won't use this to his political advantage. Two questions need to be asked as to why this feels fishy: 1. Where did the money come from to fund this? TfL are supposedly still Super broke, yet they suddenly have the resources to fund ex-weekend 24 hour routes into nightly services. 2. Why isn't there any press for this? It's a good news story involving investment that TfL have been shy on since the pandemic. The Son of a Bus Driver cannot miss a good transport PR opportunity. I'm 100% certain he's going to use these recent 24 hour routes with his Superloop spin come August 29th. The finances of TfL have recovered markedly in the last year or so. Tube ridership is in many cases above pre-Covid levels and Elizabeth Line usage is running above expectations. The estimate is for an operating surplus this 23/24 financial year. A far cry from a couple of years ago with Covid-battered figures. The good thing is that allows for some improvements to buses amongst other things to start flowing through, slowly but surely. This, and that TfL now has a funding settlement in place with the DfT that allows for some growth in bus mileage in Outer London. Too many people are still stuck in the "covid handouts" mentality. |
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Post by DE20106 on Aug 12, 2023 15:05:59 GMT
It isn't just a political stunt, everyone is almost unanimous when agreeing these changes should have happened a long time ago. You'd be rather gullible though to believe the Mayor won't use this to his political advantage. Two questions need to be asked as to why this feels fishy: 1. Where did the money come from to fund this? TfL are supposedly still Super broke, yet they suddenly have the resources to fund ex-weekend 24 hour routes into nightly services. 2. Why isn't there any press for this? It's a good news story involving investment that TfL have been shy on since the pandemic. The Son of a Bus Driver cannot miss a good transport PR opportunity. I'm 100% certain he's going to use these recent 24 hour routes with his Superloop spin come August 29th. The finances of TfL have recovered markedly in the last year or so. Tube ridership is in many cases above pre-Covid levels and Elizabeth Line usage is running above expectations. The estimate is for an operating surplus this 23/24 financial year. A far cry from a couple of years ago with Covid-battered figures. The good thing is that allows for some improvements to buses amongst other things to start flowing through, slowly but surely. Its only really above pre covid levels at weekends though isn’t it with leisure travels? Rush hours are still very noticeably quieter than pre covid imo, although a passenger shift to the Liz will have contributed to that rather than just WFH sucking passengers away. Oxo has got very much quieter while TCR has got very much busier imo. It’s good that the Liz line is doing great business for London |
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Post by gwiwer on Aug 12, 2023 21:05:15 GMT
Whether or not they are still "super-broke" I have yet to find any justification for the costly renumbering of the existing express routes. Timetable notices, stop tiles, livery and branding all cost money as do new blinds (or reprogramming electronic ones) and the sending of emails and all the other electronic media which is used to advise of changes.
People know the numbers 607, X26 and X68. They have come to know the X140 quite quickly too because it is fundamentally a limited-stop 140. Suddenly everything changes to suit the Mayor and we have fleets of red and white buses (what happened to "100% red"?) and all this re-branding. I know it has confused a number of X26 users in the Teddington area - which is local to me - who thought the X26 had suddenly been withdrawn. Some are still not sure if they can use their bus pass on the "new route".
Preaching to the choir here, perhaps, but I have never supported change for its own sake. And not usually for political advantage either.
Wait until the real "Superloop" is ready to go and then re-brand if you must.
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djs76
Conductor
Posts: 109
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Post by djs76 on Aug 14, 2023 7:38:10 GMT
Intalink website reporting that Route 84B will start operating between Potters Bar and New Barnet on 3rd September, operated by Galleon Travel. Doesn't appear to be any further details available yet.
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Post by secretbu5dude on Aug 14, 2023 14:05:08 GMT
Just seen the new SL8 timetable/evening enhancement 😄
Looks like the 427 reroute wasn't too much a bad idea after all 😎
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Post by jrussa on Aug 14, 2023 21:21:54 GMT
According to my reliable source (Cousin who works at AR) - Route 123 will become a 24 hour route in late august 2023. This is GREAT news!
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Post by southlondon413 on Aug 14, 2023 21:25:25 GMT
According to my reliable source (Cousin who works at AR) - Route 123 will become a 24 hour route in late august 2023. This is GREAT news! TfL have this confirmed on their bus changes page on their site. The 158 goes 24 hour on August 26th as well. |
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Post by sam97 on Aug 14, 2023 22:03:26 GMT
According to my reliable source (Cousin who works at AR) - Route 123 will become a 24 hour route in late august 2023. This is GREAT news! TfL have this confirmed on their bus changes page on their site. The 158 goes 24 hour on August 26th as well. Speaking of which, the 158 tiles have already been updated to include the “24 hr Daily” on them, only on the southbound. |
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Post by cardinal on Aug 15, 2023 9:44:18 GMT
Hopefully some NW & West London routes will follow
H37 183 would be useful
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Post by aaron1 on Aug 15, 2023 16:41:00 GMT
I wish more routes go 24 hour like 245 would be a good like give Cricklewood to Golders Green a night link
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