TfL’s £18 million bus route bonanza

Sunday 1st September 2024

It wasn’t that long ago (2021-2023) TfL’s bus route planning department was all about frequency cuts and service withdrawals. Justification for cutting long standing routes habitually quoted the Hopper Fare allowing passengers to “seamlessly” change buses without incurring a fare penalty when their direct journey was no longer possible.

This period, documented on my London Bus Cuts Tracker webpage, helped keep TfL’s ailing finances in check particularly during and post Covid as well as reflecting the downturn in passengers, particularly in central London.

In more recent times despite unchanged financial pressures we’ve seen a complete U-turn with significant numbers of extra buses added to TfL’s network; something not seen since the Livingstone era to mitigate the implementation of the congestion charge.

Spearheading this trend has been the Mayor’s high profile Superloop network which has involved an additional 65 bus workings introduced between August 2023 and March 2024 (after netting off compensating reductions in parallel routes 34 [SL1] and 183 [SL1O]). I reckon this has increased operating costs by over £16 million per annum with relatively minimal overall revenue generation so far.

Today see’s the latest new bus route added to the network in the form of route 310. Despite paralleling existing routes and operating in an arc trajectory it’s not been made part of Superloop which might seem odd after the Mayor’s election tease pre May hinted at many more Superloop delights to come.

From Mike Harris’s Greater London Bus Map (with thanks)

Those with long memories will always associate route 310 with a well used country bus route between Hertford and Enfield (its successor still ploughs that furrow as far south as Waltham Cross) however this new 2024 version of route 310 runs every 20 minutes from Golders Green via Highgate Village, Archway, Finsbury Park and Manor House to Stamford Hill.

The reason I thought TfL might apply its new found love of limited stop/express status for new bus routes (if not the Superloop branding) for the 310 is the entire route is already well served by other frequent routes.

The section from Golders Green as far as Finsbury Park exactly duplicates long established route 210 running every 10 minutes and from Finsbury Park to Stamford Hill it exactly duplicates routes 253 and 254 which already provide a combined 15 buses per hour: an average of a bus every four minutes on that section. It seems odd to merely duplicate what’s already there, and frequent too.

It’s the first time a bus route (which for obvious reasons must be single deck operated) has run under the Stroud Green Road railway bridge at Finsbury Park and turned left on to Seven Sisters Road towards Manor House. Route 236 ran under the bridge on peak hour journeys between Stroud Green and Leytonstone until 1982 and in the distant past the 210 ran through on Sundays – in those halcyon crew operated RF days.

Photo courtesy Mike Harris. Leyland National LS165 passing under the Stroud Green railway bridges in July 1981.

Had it already existed prior to the cut back era earlier this decade, the 310 would have been a certain casualty, on the basis passengers wanting to make a journey across Finsbury Park could take advantage of the Hopper Fare between the 210 and 253/254.

But this is 2024 and introducing eight buses, operated by Stagecoach for TfL, at what must be an annual cost of around £2 million, is fair game, not least when an objective of this new route is to directly link the two communities of Golders Green and Stamford Hill, both of which are known for having many residents who follow the Jewish faith.

There are two more unusual traits about the new 310. Firstly its introduction today, on a Sunday, which must be a first for London. For as long as I can remember London Transport’s week has begun on a Saturday with changes to bus routes, rotas and pay weeks for staff all geared up that way. This is the first time I’ve known a daily bus route launched on a Sunday.

It can’t be a coincidence the Jewish Sabbath is observed on the seventh day of the week – a Saturday – when according to biblical tradition, it commemorates the original seventh day on which God rested after completing the creation. He wouldn’t want to be done with introducing new bus routes that day after all the hard creative work of the previous six days.

Secondly, and again unusually for TfL, it has introduced the route without any prior consultation, justifying that by saying it’s “a trial”. The formal consultation began yesterday “to help us assess how the trial service might best operate in the longer term” and is due to last for the route’s entire 12 months trial. A sort of running feedback trial I guess.

Another oddity is the timetable only operates between 07:00 and 19:00; whereas normally TfL throws everything at a new route including evening buses through until midnight.

The timetable is a bit all over the place but in the westbound direction, in the middle of the day, buses leave Crouch Hill Beaumont Rise at 11/31/51 towards Golders Green whereas buses on route 210 are timetabled to leave that same point at 00/10/20/30/40/50 so not ideal with the 310 following one minute behind. Eastbound buses on the 310 leave Golders Green at 16/36/56 during the same period which is two minutes after the 210 has gone through at 04/14/24/34/44/54. It’s a shame the 310 departures couldn’t have been adjusted to create a coordinated 5-5-10-5-5-10-5-5-10 frequency between the two routes especially as there’s plenty of stand time at each end of the route (18 minutes at Golders Green and 17 minutes at Stamford Hill).

When announced a month ago, TfL said the 310 would be introduced yesterday, which would have enabled me to conclude today’s blog with a write up of first day impressions on the road. But then I thought there was nothing to stop me travelling between Golders Green and Stamford Hill yesterday, as passengers have always done, to see whether the 310 really will make a difference.

So I did.

I arrived at Golders Green Underground station soon after 10:00 and, with previous knowledge the 210 departs from stop GJ in North End Road…

… made my way there noticing only one “Welcome” poster in the shelters in the bus station would have told me that – but they wouldn’t have told me the 310 departed there too, as that hasn’t been added yet.

But bus stop GJ has received a new 310 plate (as had all the bus stops along the route)…

… and a timetable too, all along the route.

The 210 was running very well yesterday morning…

… and within a few minutes at 10:11 a bus arrived from Brent Cross with five on board and we set off.

The 210 is one of my favourite London bus routes with many happy memories of Red Bus Rover trips on RFs in the 1960s. The first half of the route, as far as Highgate Village, includes some interesting things to see. Approaching Jack Straws Castle, North End Road narrows…

… for the incline up towards that busy junction…

… where buses turn sharp left…

… continuing on Spaniards Road on the north western boundary of Hampstead Heath…

… and we soon reach the famous pinch point by the Spaniards Inn, at one time the source of one of the myths in the 1960s that prevented the 210 from being operated with double deck buses; aside from the period when Sunday journeys continued beyond Finsbury Park to Leytonstone under that low bridge.

We passed through without any interruption yesterday morning and soon past the entrance to Kenwood House.

Highgate Village was next, where I noticed planters have now appeared where buses on route 271 stood for many years.

And then it was down Highgate Hill and past Whittington Hospital to wait time at Archway, where we arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule at 10:25, which was not surprising in that we’d only stopped four times with seven passengers alighting and three boarding.

I see the timetable for route 310 at around 10:00 on Saturdays gives 17 minutes to complete that half of the journey whereas we did it in just 14.

Onwards to Finsbury Park and we stopped more often with a slightly busier second half and had nine on board as we pulled into the alighting point in Clifton Terrace just before the bus station in Wells Terrace at 10:41…

… exactly half an hour after leaving Golders Green, having paused at Archway for three minutes.

Buses on the 310 won’t stop in Stroud Green Road close to the bus station (as shown above)…

… instead they’ll stop round the corner in Seven Sisters Road at the top of Blackstock Road…

… which won’t be so convenient for the station.

Neither will Rock Street towards Golders Green.

I noticed the Finsbury Park Spider Map hasn’t yet been updated…

… but I’m sure the Spider Map team are on to it.

It took me four minutes to walk to the busy stop under the railway bridges in Seven Sisters Road with the area thronging with Arsenal supporters getting ready for yesterday’s match against Brighton & Hove Albion kicking off at 12:30 (it was 1-1)…

… and on arrival just missed a 253…

… but was pleased to see a 254 arrive within two minutes.

I could have easily done it in three minutes if, rather than stopping to take photos and walked via Stroud Green Road and the front of the station, I’d used the subway under the railway lines. I also reckon it’ll take buses on the 310 a couple of minutes to pass under the railway and extricate themselves from Stroud Green Road into Seven Sisters Road meaning the time penalty for bus changing could easily be just three minutes.

The 254 made good progress alongside Finsbury Park itself towards Manor House…

…. and after the junction continued past Ivy House, once adorned with foliage befitting its name, and home to London Transport’s northern bus division…

… after which we almost caught the 253 in front up as it turned right ahead of us from Seven Sisters Road into Amhurst Park…

… and shortly after that, and 10 minutes after leaving Finsbury Park, I arrived at Stamford Hill.

It had taken 46 minutes from Golders Green.

Had the 310 been running yesterday it would have been scheduled to take 48 minutes.

Which left me with two imponderables. Who needs the 310? And, where’s the money coming from for this, and all the other new bus routes?

It’ll be an interesting ‘trial’.

Read Diamond Geezer’s report here.

Roger French

Blogging timetable now back on an autumn/winter schedule: 06:00 TThS

Comments on today’s blog are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.

77 thoughts on “TfL’s £18 million bus route bonanza”

  1. This new route 310 makes no economic sense as it duplicates the 210 to Finsbury Park and to get the 310 to Stamford Hill it has to do a detour in order to avoid the low bridge . It takes minutes to walk from Wells Terrace to Seven Sisters road to get a 253 to Stamford Hill

    I think TfL think there is some huge unmet demand from the Jewish communities in Golders Green and Stamford Hill. I doubt that demand exists

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      1. ’lvy House’ – aka Manor House Offices – was the site of LT’s ‘Eastern’ bus division. Historically there were 3 divisions – East (Manor House), West (Cricklewood) and South (Camberwell). I believe this went back to LGOC days. Post-war a fourth Central division was added.

        Kim

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    2. Personally I think the 310 is a very good idea as it provides a safe direct link to passengers in these very troubled times. Here the long standing high frequency on weekdays ; less so at the weekends; Service 1 between Five Ways & Acocks Green via Moseley which I use regularly is particularly well used by members of the small Jewish community here in Brum & Interchanges seamlessly & directly onto the very safe West Midlands Metro service at “Edgbaston Village ” as TfWM calls it.

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      1. When I worked in Edgbaston and Bennetts Hill I don’t recall a need for buses deemed “safe” on the basis of religious faith. When I make my visits to the area (mother still lives on Chester Road, Streetly) I don’t gain the impression of a religious enmity between different groups.

        The situation was different in Wood Lane, West Bromwich (the location of my most recent West Midlands employment). Less safe but that was drug related.

        It is a shame to hear the need for a “safe” bus. What on earth has happened to community cohesion up there? And, what happens when those who need it get of the transport having travelled from Edgbaston Village?

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  2. Interesting! – as you say, who is the 310 for? How will the degree of its success be evaluated? Will additional travel be generated on the 210/310 combined route? – and/or on other routes which they connect with (including underground/overground/other rail? If there is – for example – an increase in rail use from Finbury Park for the multitude of rail destinations available from there (Canbridge, Huntingdon etc.), will that be taken into account?

    Is the single deck nature of the route being used partly as an experiment to see whether single deck buses will travel faster (fewer passengers per bus, so quicker boarding/exiting) than double deckers? Is the strange timetable a test of how soon a single deck bus can overtake a doubledecker? – or is this just a badly thought out muddle?

    Thank you for this entertaining blog!

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  3. The route would make more sense as a Superloop service (serving all stops Stamford Hill to Manor House, Finsbury Park, fast to Archway and then all stops to Golders Green), as its main objective (according to Jewish Press outlets) is to alleviate the need for jewish users to change buses at Finsbury Park and avoid confrontation with mosque users.

    Extending the 210 will probably be the end result.

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    1. I am not convinced there is that demand, I have seen plenty of Jews on the 253 but almost none on the 210.

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    2. It is in fact already just an extension of the 210, albeit a single-deck one. Hence the different route number. I take back my comment above.

      Although a long standing single deck route, the 210 won’t revert back from D/D. The question is, do single deck journeys really require a separate route number?

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  4. From memory the 210 was probably the first London bus route to be converted to one person operation. The single deck RF’s on the 210 had no doors so the routed ended up using surplus London Country RF’s which did have doors so we had a London bus route being operated with Green buses for several months

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    1. The 210 was converted to OMO in Janaury 1970. The first Central area OMO conversions (201/206/216/250) were more than five years before that, in November 1964. Ian Armstrong’s excellent Lonodn Bus Routes website has all the data.

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    2. There WAS something odd about the OPO conversion of the 210.

      The 210 had been extended over the 236 to Leytonstone on Sundays (crew operated RFs) from 1963-1970. When converted to OPO RF it was cut back to Finsbury Park daily, but was also covered by a CREW RF operated 236 which was extended to Golders Green on Sundays. Crewed 236s & OPO 210s ran parallel on Sundays from January 1970 until April 1971 when there were enough SMS vehicles to replace the Sunday RFs and the 236 was cut back and converted to OPO.

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  5. The reason that the 210 used to be restricted to single-deck vehicles was extremely steep camber and rather solid infringing trees alongside the road near the entrance to Ken Wood – even with single-deckers drivers were warned on their duty cards of this hazard. But it still seems strange to see double-deckers passing along the route. I’m actually rather surprised the comfortably-off populace of the area haven’t objected to bus passengers being able to see over their high walls!

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    1. The residents would have been used to double deckers on the 210 on Bank Holidays as in Grey Green days deckers were used to help with loadings for the Hampstead Heath fair. Unfortunately, partly as both single and double deck Volvos looked similar in the cab, one driver forgot he had a doubke decker and drove into the Stroud Green Road low bridge

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    2. of course if they had not narrowed the roads off of Fonthill Road and banned the turn into it, then double deckers on the 210 could have been extended to Stamford Hill. I believe that is how the Grey Green double deckers on 210 got to and from their Stamford Hill garage

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  6. They have just saved six buses after reducing the peak hour frequency of the W7, so perhaps this is the excuse for what appears to be a needless new service. Who knows what TfL thinks these days.

    Terence Uden

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    1. It is a long time since I used the 210 but when I did it was not that busy. I cannot see how TfL cam justify pretty much doubling the service but a lot of what TfL do makes no sense such as the strange naming of Overground lines

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      1. The 210 was converted to double deck in order to be able to reduce the frequency, and thus number of buses and cost, yet still cope at school times. I guess that is still relevant

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  7. A bit peripheral, but I wonder why the Google map of Finsbury Park has an Overground roundel at the station. Which line could that possibly be?

    Mike M

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    2. Anticipating Khan’s takeover of GN Suburban rail services? Looks like that will never happen, even under Starmer.

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  8. A separate point to which I don’t have the technical answer: why have some low bridges been dealt with and not others? I think specificallly of the Sidcup station rail bridge, where the road was lowered decades ago, allowing an extension of the 51 to replace the old 241. Shortlands bridge still necessitates single-deck 227s. 

    Bruce Perkins

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    1. Although now more built up and thus less visible, I believe the River Ravensbourne runs by Shortlands bridge thus making road lowering difficult.

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    2. The road under the bridge at Shortlands cannot be lowered as the River Ravensbourne flows alongside the railway. I presume the roadway in Stroud Green has not been lowered due to the sheer width (multiple rail tracks) and the colossal expense of doing so. – Julian Walker

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      1. We have a notorious bridge in the Black Country that is constantly hit by lorries.

        The bridge on the A4034 Bromford Road, near to Sandwell and Dudley train station, has had ts height restriction recently reduced to 4 metres.

        This now prohibits National Express West Midlands from using Double Deckers on its trunk 3/3A/4/4H/4M which does cause capacity problems in the peaks.

        In the 1970s the previous 415 / 417 was the mainstay of Daimler Fleetlines & Volvo Alisas which cleared the bridge easily.

        Since Sandwell MBC lowered it’s height me & a mate have taken a normal height Double Decker under the bridge with no problems hence you wonder what the real height of the bridge actually is ?

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    1. I think you’ll find that both Victoria & Piccadilly lines run under the bridge and are not very far below the surface. I imagine that might be the reason that the road under the bridge has never been lowered.

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  10. the objective of the direct route is to allay fears of antisemitism as many members of the community are wary of changing buses at Finsbury Park. Making this a Superloop, however, seems like an excellent suggestion. It ought to use Double Deckers and route either via Fonthill Road or Holloway Road.

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    1. I doubt it’ll become a Superloop as that would raise its profile too much. The sole reason for the 310’s existence, as you point out, is to provide a safe, direct link between two sizeable Orthodox Jewish communities in the wake of the well-documented increase in antisemitic incidents since last October. So in a way, the fewer people outside those communities who know about it the better – although of course anyone can use it. A bit like the ‘600s’ for schoolkids.

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    2. It would be useful to make the 310 go a different way and avoid most of the 210 route so as to create new links. Going via Royal Free Hospital might have been a sensible move as an example.

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      1. Not sure the Royal Free is actually in “health catchment” for large parts of the route.

        I suspect that a detail cost analysis of the options available to address the problem may reveal that a dedicated 310 is the cheapest option in the short term, certainly quickest to implement by TfL (no need to consult on changing other bus routes, even for extensions/equipment changes).

        A year long trial of the 310 will gather real world data to work to inform the selection of potentially cheaper options or non-bus alternatives to address the problem. And the operating cost of a dedicated route provides a cost baseline for the business case of other options. Gathering high quality data does cost money but usually pay off in the end in terms of better decision making for the longer term

        Following the 210 will also tend to make the 310 quieter for those who specifically want the service (again improving data accuracy to an extent).

        The only other cheap/quick option I can think of would be for Mayor to part-fund & facilitate (stand access, Oyster machines) a dedicated midi bus service run by the community itself (maybe covering just a short segment either side of Finsbury park, although that would be 2 changes for longer journeys, less attractive and skewing the ridership data)

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  11. I have to agree that this is an scandalous waste of money and a potentially worrying sign of things to come once the public sector gets greater influence and control of bus networks nationally. It’s clearly not about capacity. I’d argue that both sections are over-bussed. The 210 always seems lightly loaded (I admit that I don’t know the actual stats) and the Finsbury Park to Stamford Hill section is on the 253/254 overlap hence very well provided for. If the direct GG to SH link is needed then the obvious solution would have been to extend alternate journeys on the 210 to Stamford Hill and convert it to single deck, but that would contravene the policy of scheduling all journeys end to end, itself something of a worthless dogma given all of the short workings that happen.

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  12. The 310 was a route TfL didn’t want as it doesn’t meet their normal service planning criteria but was foisted upon them by the Mayor of London. Roger as you couldn’t ride on it yesterday I hope you can return to sample it another day. With the exception of Superloop routes (which get priority treatment) London’s bus publicity is abysmal. We’ll see how long it takes to update the Spider maps but I won’t hold my breath. Can you think of any other operator which has launched a new route without posters or leaflets ? Consultation after implementation is an interesting one which now sets a precedent. Will others follow ? Personally I hope it does succeed but it really depends on the effort TfL puts into it and how it responds to feedback. The operator (bizarrely Stagecoach when it terminates outside Arriva’s Stamford Hill garage) won’t have any incentive as they don’t keep the revenue. The publicity notices that went up at bus stops a few weeks ago suggested it would run daily. So can we expect a service on Christmas Day ?

    Martin W

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    1. As the route appears to primarily operate to safely serve the Jewish community, one would expect that as Christians Day is not a religious holiday in the Jewish faith, it would operate on a non observant day . As an aside I have been to the cinema with my football mates who are all single & most have lost thier parents given our age at 5ways Birmingham on Christmas Day as the day is not observed by the large Muslim community & many things open as normal catering for this market & we normally have a Curry afterwards on Christmas Day, aside from large stores here who don’t open. In fact Boxing Day has a full bus service here usually & given the fotty matches on we usually attend everything just opens as normal on Boxing Day.

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    2. “Foisted”? Doesn’t this come under the Mayor of London’s general duty to provide safe transport in London?

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  13. Wowsers, is London really that bad that it needs religious communities separating by way of a direct bus to stop them both having a confrontation in Finsbury lol, hell fire you really wouldn’t see something like this happening up North! Can just imagine Moortown in Leeds having a direct link to the Jewish Cemetery on Geldard Road, or better still a direct link to North Manchester!

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    1. I live in a very multi cultural area in Brum where you can perhaps hear 50 different languages spoke in a day & personally welcome the 310 as it specifically meets the needs of valued members of the community getting from A to B & of course it is open to everyone regardless of race & creed.

      For many years Thandi here in Brum served older members of their community commercially with thier own network of services catering for passengers who may not have had the confidence to use Travel West Midlands & Birmingham Coach Company.

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      1. “May not have had the confidence”. Sadly says everything about the state of integration in some areas of this country. However, this thread does risk going off-topic so I’ll stop there…

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        1. My comment was historic & based on first generation immigrants to this country in previous decades NOT currently as since May 2017 West Midlands Combined Authority led by Andy Street CBE until 4th May 2024 have striven to make Brum fully inclusive to everyone regardless of race or creed as typified by the hugely successful Commonwealth Games in 2022 which unitted the City.

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    2. The actual number of incidents has been pretty small, but there has been a concerted attempt to amplify them on social media by bad faith actors (some from outside the UK) and racists. I suspect the result is that there is significant fear amongst the Jewish community and in the face of a racist smear campaign during the London elections the Mayor made a commitment to try and resolve the issue. It’s not ideal, but given the reprehensible campaign against him I can see why the Mayor decided it was a small price to pay the neutraluse the issue.

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  14. London Transport always .ade route changes on a Wednesday up to and including Wednesday 18th November 1964. I believe that this was to allow crews to become familiar with any changes before the Saturday and Sunday which, in a number of cases, were at variance from the Monday to Friday service. The next 2 changes, 3rd October 1965 and 23rd January 1966 were Sundays. Changes on Saturdays started from 31st December 1966. I have taken these dates from the Central Buses’ Red Books. The trams also changed on a Wednesday in LT days.

    Ivy house was originally M E T tramway offices. I had heard that the ivy cladding was listed and should not have been removed. Perhaps another reader can expand on this fact.

    John Crowhurst

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    1. The Wednesday start of the working week was constructed around the then 11-day fortnight worked by bus crews. It allowed crews to have a three-day rest period (Tuesday-Thursday) every five-six weeks which would not have been possible had the week started any other day. This was also based around working far fewer Sundays than weekdays on most rotas……

      Terence Uden

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        2. There is also not a uniformity of how Sabbath is observed, even to the point of whether you can ride a bus on the Sabbath (I explicitly checked my assumptions on this)

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    2. As the route is (stupidly in my opinion) going to run on Saturdays (presumably to avoid criticism that it is ONLY aimed at the Jewish community, it makes no sense why the first day was a Sunday and not a Saturday. Indeed it could have been useful to start ot on a quiet day whilst drivers get famiar with the route. The stand at Golders Green on the 210 268 and 310 pick up stop seems likely to cause congestion.

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  15. Forget that this is a bus route, should the mayor spend approx £1.4m annually to solve this problem. If he spent £1.4m annually on extra police officers and increased police presence in the area it would reduce all street crime to the benefit of all communities.

    This is a serious thin end of the wedge and a scandalous waste.

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    1. I do not particularly want to defend the mayor here , especially as under his control there has been a large increase in crime across the city (something that I have experienced regularly), but £1.4 million just will not be enough. It is quite sad that in 2024, we have to create new bus routes so that religious groups can have a safe way to move around their communities.

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  17. We should all mourn the demise of DM1757! I have horrid pictures: damaged at the bridge and later on at Aldenham before being being sent north to be scrapped.

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  18. ……..aha, the old London Country 310! This brings back memories of living in Broxbourne a very long time ago now. As a child I recall travelling on it with my mother to go to Hoddesdon, and as a teenager I recall using it to go to the cinema in Waltham Cross to the south and in Hertford to the north.

    There was also a 310A which, going north, deviated in Hoddesdon and just went on to Rye House.

    My recollection is that originally it was branded just as London Transport, but painted green rather than red, and that the branding London Country came quite a while later.

    I have lived in the Peak District of Derbyshire now for some 44 years, and am a regular user of Stagecoach 358 from Hayfield to Stockport and High Peak Buses 61 from Hayfield to Buxton. The scenery is radically different from what I would have seen on the 310!

    Brian Musgrave.

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  19. I suspect this will turn out to be the basis of a new Superloop service, also at the time of the London election a Labour majority at the next general election was guaranteed, the future PM’s wife is Jewish, I think they attend a Reform synagogue.

    Keep on the good side of the bosses wife.

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    1. I am a Conservative as everyone knows but Kier Starmers family life is his own business & no one else’s. Comments such as this have no place on Rogers forum. I am a rough inner city 6ft 1inch 16 stone Brummie but am circumcised so should I use the bus on a Saturday if we follow this train of thought ?

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  20. I’m sure there are many direct routes to help particular communities. We probably have more than expected direct flights to Poland so our much appreciated Polish citizens can visit family easily. Let’s hope the 310 gets well used and it simply becomes another established London bus route.

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      1. Maybe the 310 should extend to Brent Cross and the residual 210 remain with double decks only at school times when demand is (o¹r at least used to be) very heavy, maybe with a school route number. The other problem would be Kenwood where double deckers on the 210 cannot cope after events (Sullivans used to run shuttle buses to assist the 210s, but have not for some years – presumably since the 210 got double decks?)

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  21. If ivy cladding could or ever was listed, I am astonished. All creepers such as ivy are a fire risk. One of the tasks my late mother gave me after father’s death was to strip the pyracantha off the front of the family home. It was tinder dry and came away from the building easily and I probably burnt the debris in the middle of what was then a very large back garden.

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  22. Why people who live in North End Road should be suffering from bus 310 passing the same bus 210. Very disappointing….and absetting..

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  23. Bus linking two of London’s biggest Jewish communities launches in bid to improve safety

    The 310 bus links Golders Green and Stamford Hill. It has been introduced by Sadiq Khan at a cost of £3.2million to honour a pledge he made during this year’s mayoral elections.

    TfL chose not to accept the lowest bid – of £2.4million – because Stagecoach was able to launch the route sooner than the rival bidder, and with newer buses, according to TfL tender documents.

    Seniors With Swollen Legs & Feet: You Need to See This

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  24. It appears totally bizarre to introduce an entirely new route when the 210 might have been extended. Surely that would have been the better option, The cumbersome TfL bus route procurement arrangements might have mitigated against this, although surely some local negotiation should have been possible

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  25. Good to see that TfL don’t just accept the lowest bid as other public bodies seem to do, however sub-optimal.

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    1. It was hardly that urgent and slightly older buses are no real issue, It is a big cost increase over the lower bid

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  26. As a local I find the 210 busier than many suggest at least at the Finsbury Park end. The 310 is a bit of a punt but you never know sometimes. A number of what I call ‘wiggly’ routes have been speculatively launched in London over the years and proved to be surprisingly popular. There is a lot of latent demand for public transport in London. And bear in mind the cost, given the size of the London Transport budget, is minuscule and nothing like the scale of Johnson’s wasted spending when he was mayor.

    MikeC

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  27. Feels like a waste of money at a time TFL are cutting services, feels like this has been forced upon the current mayor after his predecessor liar buffoon of a person promised such a route.

    Looking at the map, wouldn’t it have been better to divert the 210 at Archway via Holloway Road & Seven Sisters Road to Stamford Hill rather than introducing a new route?

    SM

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    1. A simpler route that keeps it close to the 210 routes is to run it as the existing 210 as far as Hornsey Road, It would then carry on down Hornsey road instead of turning into Hankey Road, It then just goes along Seven Sisters Road to Stamford Hill

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    2. I observe that the Archway to Finsbury Park section on the current route is well used, perhaps the busiest part of the route. The loss of this link would be very unpopular. Incidentally yesterday at 17.00 I witnessed a full 310 proceeding down Stroud Green to FPK followed minutes later by a 210 which whilst not full was busy.
      MikeC

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