Thursday 10th July 2025
New bus links to RHS Wisley have been in operation for a few weeks so I thought it was time to give them the BusAndTrainUser once over.
Woking Community Transport had been providing a shuttle bus on behalf of RHS between Woking and the Gardens and there was also a bus stop in a nearby lay-by on the busy A3 used by buses on route 715 between Guildford and Kingston.
But as part of the current major development of the M25’s Junction 10 and associated upgrade to the A3, a new bridge has been constructed over the A3 providing a new access road to the RHS Garden site including a new bus turning area much closer to the entrance.
From 5th April the shuttle bus was replaced by Surrey County Council extending tendered routes 462/463 (Guildford to Woking) from Ripley via the new access road into the new turning area and more significantly, from the end of May, introduced a new hourly route 714 between KIngston and Wisley operated by Falcon Buses.
I checked the new arrangements out on Monday beginning on the 11:15 departure on new route 714 from Kingston’s rejuvenated Cromwell Road bus station.
A smart new Falcon Buses’ Enviro200 with 714 route branding and very comfortable seats…
… appeared and took me effortlessly on the 49 minute journey through Thames Ditton, Esher and Cobham along the tried and tested route of the longer standing 715 (to Guildford) before branching off on the new access road from the A3 to RHS Wisley.
Although the new route is in its seventh week, sadly, only three other passengers travelled on the journey: two from Kingston to Cobham and one for a ride of just a couple of stops in the Thames Ditton area.
Surrey County Council are using BSIP funding to effectively double the hourly frequency of the 715, combined with this new hourly 714, offering a half hourly timetable between Kingston and Cobham.
The Council has been busy updating printed departure times on display in bus stop panels along the route including those controlled by TfL, but oh dear, TfL’s bus stop flag updating has slipped again and there’s no mention of the 714 on any TfL plate along the relevant section of route within Greater London..
…nor on the departure listings…
… or the electronic display in Kingston’s bus station.
It’s not very reassuring and undermines the effectiveness of the significant investment that’s been made in two extra buses running this additional service.
Time and again as I travel around I find shortfalls of this kind yet they’re so unnecessary and could easily be put right with the minimum of effort. People go on about how London’s transport is “integrated”. Much of it may well be, but it’s certainly anything but integrated around the edges.
Equally as unimpressive was seeing many of the bus stop flags controlled by Surrey County Council have also not been updated, showing no reference to the 714.
I expect the excuse is there’s only room to display four numbers but it would be easy for the 714/715 and/or 514/515 to share a plate.
At the new more conveniently sited bus turnaround lay-by closer to the entrance (than the old lay-by on the A3) to RHS Wisley a nice new shelter has been I installed with departure times listed for both routes 714 and the 462/463 (Guildford to Woking).
But there’s no bus stop flag confirming it is a bus stop and no case to protect the departure listings and it’s still a longer walk to the entrance…
… than visitors arriving by car enjoy, which seems a missed opportunity.
However, on a positive note, RHS Wisley offers a 30% discount on admission for visitors arriving by bus on presentation of a bus (or train) ticket.
I hope more custom is generated over the coming summer as visitor attractions like RHS Wisley need to be as easily accessed by those using public transport as by motorists.
Sadly I have my doubts there’s enough potential to justify the 714 especially as it doesn’t run on Sundays which I would have thought would be a popular day for visitors, but maybe the improved frequency on the rest of the route will generate more than double the existing numbers using the 715, although the route from Esher into Kingston is also covered by White Bus operated route 458 (Kingston-Staines) running hourly at very similar times to the 714 (particularly in the southbound direction).
From RHS Wisley I caught the newly diverted White Bus route 463 to Woking. I described this route back in October 2020 as part of a review of bus and train services connecting Woking and Guildford.
I explained then that the route incorporated a double run to serve Ripley (top right on above map) with buses turning at the roundabout under the A3. Now that dog leg has been extended further along the new access road and bridge over the A3 to the turning circle for RHS WIsley as already described. All told it takes 17 minutes to do the double run – quite an imposition for through passengers from say Send to Guildford a journey of 23 minutes without the double run.
Although the 463 arrived at RHS Wisley with just two passengers on board I was pleased to see another passenger board with me who also travelled into Woking and we picked a few more up on the way via the rather circuitous route to serve the Ryden Way area of Woking as shown on the above map.
It’ll be interesting to see if these new links generate new business for both RHS Wisley and Surrey County Council and the bus companies.
Hopefully there won’t be a repeat of the debacle I experienced when aiming to make the journey from Kingston last Thursday when a lane closure in Clarence Street were causing long delays to buses approaching from the south on Portsmouth Road alongside the River Thames leading Falcon Buses to curtail routes 714/715 to a bus stop 1.2 miles south of KIngston town centre by Uxbridge Road to avoid the worst of the gridlock.
Even more unfortunate, the driver of the 12:15 departure on the 714, which I was aiming to catch, having missed the 11:15 and walked to the temporary terminus (not having consulted the ‘Service updates’ information online and finding out about the curtailment), took it upon himself to begin the journey at a stop a half mile even further south by Kingston University where the road was wider for him to wait time before heading off.
I’m grateful to the staff at Falcon who I spoke with on the phone when trying to find out what was happening (and was not in the best of moods after missing two buses) and also my thanks to Richard Telling, Managing Director of Falcon Coaches, for kindly writing and apologising for the driver’s actions and delay I encountered.
I caught a 458 to Staines instead but I’ll tell you more about that another time.
Roger French
Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu
BusAndTrainUser 
I used the 462 a few weeks and it was doing good business including several locals who worked at Wisely. But its not a quick route, as well as the Ripley detour it also has a very fiddly double run via Rydens Way in Woking. Interestingly the 714 takes the opposite approach and puts a new route in, rather than slowing down the 715. However, I agree with Roger that the 714 will only be viable long term if it generates additional traffic to and from Kingston, as well as the RHS. Fortunately, Falcon and Surrey have a good record of steadily improving frequencies on their main routes so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Finally, having seen the queues to get into the car parks on a busy day, the new stopping arrangement at the RHS is much better than trying to put a stop nearer the entrance.
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I used route 715 to visit Wisley with a friend a year or two ago, boarding near Thames Ditton. We got off and on at the stops on the A3 which were still just holding out amongst the extensive road works, and used the old (foot?)bridge over the A3 to access the gardens and it wasn’t that far to walk. I was impressed that the bus stops were still in use as they could easily have been forgotten. When we arrived at the ticket desk we had lost our bus ticket but were still allowed, kindly, to use the discount.
I agree that the new bus stop near Wisley Lane would be better nearer the entrance (it’s always good to give bus users and active travel users an advantage over car users as an incentive and to give them prominence rather than treat them as an afterthought) but I see what Phil has put and unless a ‘bus gate’ or special lane can be provided it does seem pragmatic to place it where it is, and it’s certainly a bit closer than the former bus stops on the A3 (but further than where the shuttle bus from Woking (I think) used to stop).
It looks like route 714 may be a direct replacement (for Wisley Gardens) for route 715 which can no longer stop near Wisley (the closest stops being at the Ockham Park Roundabout), a double-run via the roundabout and the new bridge presumably taking too long, although it looks like there may be sufficient time in the schedule to do a double-run on Sundays.
I’m impressed with the efforts Surrey County Council and the RHS have done to maintain and improve bus connections with Wisley Gardens, something which some local authorities and visitor attractions would not do, although it may be that funding has been provided from the road junction improvement project and it remains to be seen if the funding is maintained. Sadly if funding dries up these sorts of links can fail (see Bluestar’s Z00 route between Eastleigh and Marwell Zoo, another route which Roger could have tried out, with the only alternatives being a difficult and unsafe walk from route 69 at Fishers Pond or a few route 69 direct journeys on Sundays).
Stephen H
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I live in Thames Ditton and wondered what these new 714s were when cycling along Portsmouth Road.
I have never seen one with many passengers. On the other hand, the parallel 715s to Guildford often look very busy. Especially the early morning journeys.
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It was fortunate you didn’t choose to visit Kingston on Wednesday 2nd July when a big crane was being removed in central Kingston and no buses at all were running!
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It might have been considered better to run the 714 M-S via Surbiton Station ( avoiding Portsmouth Road ) which would also unentangle the times issue of the White Bus service into Kingston ) (and perhaps should have been diverted that way while Portsmouth Road was out of Action)
Cromwell Road Bus Station for many of its Departing Routes is really in the wrong place with them having to run round part of the one way system of Kingston and as shown disruption in one place can really get to annoy passengers for the alternative.
For Sundays give the 715 drop in frequency indeed a publicised 714 could be useful in the departure infill. I would be tempted to extend it to Putney Bridge (but noting the problems of Traffic Congestion and difficulty of serving Cromwell Road ) Maybe just drop the 715 on Sundays and extend 714 to Guildford or run a 715A as Variant all hourly on a Sunday with the double run with more departures compensating for the increase in running time
I also saw recently a TfL bod checking on reported missing timetable panels etc in a local bus station and apparently this is being done to see exactly what items have gone missing – some panels have been damaged seriously in some areas , others lose panels when contractors post or remove service amendment notices and other timetables get caught and away in the wind . so report them , they will get replaced
JBC Prestatyn
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If the 714 was diverted to serve Surbiton Station, this would provide a useful London to Wisley link by public transport.
MotCO
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Yes, we took a slow train to Kingston around the Loop from Waterloo on Tuesday last. We would have saved a lot of time if we could have caught a fast train to Surbiton and connected with the 714 there. As it was we hurried to the bus station as quickly as our old legs would let us and we just managed to catch the 11:15 because it left a few minutes late. 10 or 12 boarded for part of the journey but only two others alighted at Wisley. We were the only two to board the 17:30 return at Wisley but a fair number boarded along the way. With a Freedom Pass, a gift of RHS membership and a £5 voucher for the cafe, a very cheap day out.
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I think the assumption is you could take the fast train to Woking and get the 462 from outside the station there.
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I was caught up in the Clarence Street congestion myself and as I use Falcon Route 461, I was additionally caught up in the delays along the A308 owing to the Hampton Court RHS Festival. I agree that it is a nice tidy bus terminal at Wisley but still missing a stop post. Correct information is a precious asset but one that sometimes eludes one. You correctly bang on about inadequacies of printed information yet yesterday in Sutton I might well have been “The Village’s” “No 2” trying to get information out of “No 6”! A Shelter Indicator at Sutton failed to display Route 213 departures towards Kingston. One turned up “unannounced” yet when aboard my first 213 of the day its Passenger Information Displays were insisting that it was a Route 93 going to Putney Bridge. I broke my journey to Kingston at North Cheam and when I went on to Kingston on another 213 the Passenger Information Displays were stating that it was a Route 93 going to North Cheam despite the bus getting further and further away from North Cheam as we headed for Kingston.
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Maybe the solution to the bus stop at Wisley would be a special ‘bus passengers only’ footpath to the main entrance, with interesting planting beside it! Wisley is an all-year, all-weather attraction, and an actual bus shelter (with bus-flag attached) would seem appropriate. Some of the visitors will be making purchases – maybe quite large; is the bus layout suitable to cope with that?
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It is a proper old school wooden shelter at Wisley, although a bit on the small side! And when I went it looked like they were working on footpath access for bus users and cyclists.
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I found it fairly easy to find the bus information on the RHS Wisley website with links to Good Journeys, and bustimes.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley/plan-your-visit/how-to-get-to-wisley
Peter Brown
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It would be better if this bus went through Thames Ditton proper as only an hourly service here!
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Here in Harrogate Transdev run a twice per hour service (M-S, hourly on Sunday) to a stop a 5 minute walk from the RHS Harlow Carr Gardens. Like Wisley, a discount is offered on presentation of a ticket. I asked a receptionist how it works for holders of an ENCTS pass, who would not have a ticket. She said it was taken on trust. Don’t tell your car-driving friends!
John
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You were in an area that I know well.
Stagecoach ran the route from Woking Station for a while before Woking CT took it back. There was a period when Woking CT avoided giving free rides to pensioners on the legally-sound pretext that seats on the minibus could be booked, but passholders can have a free ride now.
The stop now labelled as “Thorkhill Road”, presumably after someone consulted Google Maps or similar, was for decades known to all as Winter’s Bridge. There is actually a stream under the road, although it is not easy to spot. The history of the bridge is quite interesting and it is a shame to see it erased from the bus (also former tram and trolleybus) network.
Steven
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It’s not been completely erased – the fare stage, at least on Falcon, is still caled Winter’s Bridge!
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I have to say I’m surprised at the bus stop flag at Thorkhill Road not showing a plate for the 714. Having lived in Surrey for three years now, I’ve been impressed by how promptly revised roadside timetables are posted and bus stop flags updated. Here in Camberley, for instance, new plates for the 730/731 to Heathrow were in place several weeks before that service started. As Roger says, I suspect the reason is that there is only room to display four numbers, but I’d be very surprised if this isn’t addressed before long. Certainly, the stops along the Portsmouth Road in Esher all had 714 plates very soon after introduction, if not before.
According to OpenStreetMap, the walk from the bus stop to the Garden entrance takes 6 minutes, along what looks like a pleasant path through woodland and then along the edge of Car Park 1 and past the old laboratory.
Given that most visitors to Wisley are likely to spend an hour or possibly more walking round the gardens, the walk to/from the bus stop is likely to be seen as just part of the visit. Walking to/from a car park is likely to take 5 minutes anyway, and if you are unlucky enough to visit on a busy day when you’re directed to overflow Car Park 4 in Wisley Village it can be nearer 15 !
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I’m a bit disappointed to hear that the RHS shuttle from Woking has gone. I had it in mind to visit, via Woking station, but the new arrangements don’t sound as convenient.
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The shuttle bus from Woking was very convenient when we used it as the stop was very near the entrance; now it looks like a long walk for slow walkers like my wife. For us 6 minutes means 12 or 15.
malcolm chase, Fleet
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I live in Send so am very familiar with these routes. Surrey is generally using BSIP money wisely and a PVR increase of 3 buses (Mon-Fri) and 2 buses Sat/Sun to replace one dedicated shuttle bus has quite a few advantages but there are different issues at different times of the week. Mon-Fri I think there has been increased use of White Bus routes 462/3 to justify an additional bus and extended hours of running despite the extra running time taken between Send and Guildford. I also note that the Traveline journey planner now suggests going via Wisley Gardens as a good way to go between Woking and Kingston by bus. I am going to suggest here, and elsewhere, that the current 25 minutes layovers at both ends could be altered to give a shorter layover at Guildford so that the extra time at Woking is used for a ‘short’ journey to Rydens Way and back so that most of the through journeys can run direct via Kingfield.
The section of route 715 between Ripley and Cobham has been poorly used, apart from a few passengers going to and from Wisley Gardens, while the section between Cobham and Esher/Kingstion is well used and deserved an uplift to 2 bph, the 714 is an ideal solution for this. Whether it should be routed via Surbiton, Thames Ditton or even Hampton Court (as the 715 in double-deck days was) is a different matter. The 458 timetable is due to change on the 4th of August, hopefully that will give better spacing between the 458 and 714/5 between Esher and Kingston.
On Saturdays in order to keep the 462/3 PVR at 2 buses they now run every 70 minutes, which is slightly inconvenient. The PVR increase is the 2 buses on route 714.
On Sundays the 714 doesn’t run at all and the 715 runs every 90 minutes. The Sunday service on routes 462/3 is very welcome and I have used it myself a few times, noting that other regular weekday passengers are also using it as well as visitors to Wisley Gardens. If the 462/3 also ran every 90 minutes, evenly spaced with route 715 between Ripley and Guildford this would give an acceptable 15 minute wait at Ripley for passengers using route 715 to/from Kingston who wanted to travel to Wisley Gardens.
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The new timetable for the 458 is now available both on the WhiteBus website at https://www.whitebus.co.uk/news/458-459-august-2025/ and SCC’s at https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/buses-and-other-transport/bus-timetable-changes/forthcoming-changes – which explains how they are linked to the associated changes to 555.
Unfortunately, co-ordination between 458 and 714/715 between Esher and Kingston will become even worse than before, with 458 passing Esher Council Offices at xx35, 6 mins before the 714 at xx41, and returning from Kingston at xx10, 5 mins before the 714 at xx15. As a result, 714 is likely to be carrying even fewer local passengers over the Kingston/Esher section.
Rather than being by design, this seems to be just the logical outcome of retaining existing 458 departure times from Staines, allowing 6 mins extra running time from there to Walton, connecting there from/to 555 which arrives/departs at xx35/xx45, allowing a sensible layover of 7 mins at Whiteley Village for the 459 and bringing forward a) 458 departures from Kingston by 10mins to co-ordinate with the 459 from Walton towards Staines. Given all these requirements, improving co-ordination with existing 714/715 times would have been one constraint too far.
There seem to be a number of options to address this :
a) Change all timings for 458/459 and 555 to run 10mins earlier, so as to provide an approx. 15/15/30 frequency Esher-Kingston.
b) Change all timings for 714 and 715 to run 10mins later, with the same outcome – but this would mean poorer co-ordination with 462/463 between Guildford and Ripley on M-F.
c) Just change the 714 to run 10mins later, giving a 25/15/20 frequency Esher-Kingston. This would mean that the service to Cobham would be 20/40, rather than half-hourly, but still an improvement over the previous hourly service.
d) Divert the 714 to run via Surbiton Station, to provide alternative main-line links. However, this would add around 6 mins to the journey time in each direction and cut the layover at Kingston from 15 mins to 12, which is probably unviable.
e) Divert 714 to terminate at Surbiton Station, leaving 458 and 715 to provide a 25/35 frequency Esher-Kingston, and providing some new links to Surbiton.
f) Just leave the new timetables as they are and accept that we don’t live in an ideal world !
All these services are supported by Surrey County Council, who presumably specify the service levels and have some say in the timetable detail, so its over to them !
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None of the TfL electronic countdown displays (the older LED displays, or the newer LCDs at bus stations, and e-ink displays at non-sheltered bus stops) display any information about non-TfL bus services, commercial, non-TfL tendered routes or otherwise, and the TfL Go app doesn’t mention non-TfL bus services which call at any bus stop served by 1 or more TfL service either; contrast this with infrastructure owned by say Surrey County Council, and their older LED-type Countdown displays mention all bus services, at least in Epsom town centre they do (several non-TfL routes, and 6 TfL-subsidised routes).
The service looks promising, maybe a diversion via Surbiton Station would help increase ridership, especially during peak hours?
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If anyone wants to try new routes . route 700 starts in Colliers Wood on Monday at 8am heading loosley South via normal 200 toward Phipps Bridge and Mitcham Parish Church before returning north every 20 mins (30 eves and Sundays) as part replacement for 200 as Church Road closed between the Parish Church and Lower (Cricket) Green) . Normal 200 continues but runs via 152 along Western Road to the normal Mitcham stand.
The 700 appears will share the 470 stand so bit of walk to Colliers Wood tube and then follow the 470 one way working to find its was south in due course.
Expected to continue until (Thames Water) road works completed
JBC Prestatyn
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