Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Transport for London are consulting on their plans to abolish 22 entire bus routes across London.
Shockingly, Pimlico's historic and iconic route 24 is under threat.
Route 11, connecting Fulham, Chelsea, Victoria and the City of London also faces Khan's axe.
Further, route 211, connecting Pimlico, Victoria and Westminster to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital, Royal Marsden Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital is set to be changed. The Mayor is proposing the route starts at Battersea Power Station, cutting out Pimlico, Victoria and Westminster altogether. This will have a detrimental impact on everyone living in St James's, Vincent Square, Pimlico North and Knightsbridge & Belgravia wards as well as nearby communities like Pimlico South ward who rely on the route to get to our nearby hospitals for their own appointment, to support friends and relatives at their appointment, or to visit a loved one at the hospital.
Route 14, another pivotal route to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Royal Brompton Hospital and Royal Marsden Hospital, is set to be scrapped entirely.
All routes at risk of being withdrawn entirely or no longer serving the Cities of London & Westminster include: 4, 11, 12, 14, 16, 24, 74, 78, 113, 189, 205, 211, 242, 521, N11, N16, N74, N205 and N242.
Routes being changed in the Cities of London & Westminster include: 3, 6, 15, 23, 43, 47, 88, 98, 133, 343, 507, C10, N98 and N133.
Many local people rely on these buses to get to work, to medical appointments, to school, to college or to the shops. The disruption to these established routes means forcing people back to using cars, expensive taxis and private hire vehicles, or cause massively increased travel times using busier buses, with day-to-day commuters, disabled people and parents with pushchairs vying for limited space.
The Mayor claims this is about money. It isn’t. Transport for London has already received support throughout the pandemic totalling £5 billion, the largest single recipient of pandemic support across the transport sector.
Whilst the Mayor professes he wants a long-term funding deal for TfL, his actions have often proved to the contrary. In November 2021, the Mayor was supposed to send the Government a detailed plan for making TfL financially sustainable. This plan was not received until December, at which point it was over three weeks late. While the Mayor should have been coming up with a plan to cut costs, he was instead issuing press releases threatening to scrap bus routes and close Tube Lines.
The Government has been clear that it would cover the cost of Covid, but not the cost of Khan. The Mayor has repeatedly been warned that his decisions would put Transport for London on a less secure financial footing and inevitably lead to undesirable cuts and delays. Shamefully, the Mayor’s actions have resulted in him cancelling or delaying 22 out of 26 major infrastructure projects during his first four years as Mayor of our fantastic city.
Local Member of Parliament for the Cities of London & Westminster, Nickie Aiken, has joined forces with community activists, local councillors, neighbouring MPs Felicity Buchan (Kensington) and Greg Hands (Chelsea and Fulham) and London Assembly Member for West Central, Tony Devenish AM, to put a halt to the plans. But they need your help.
Tell Mayor Khan to save our buses. Respond to Transport for London's consultation by 7 August here and sign Nickie's petition below.
