How to ruin five more central London bus routes

Tuesday 27th October 2026

It’s finally happened. After years of controversy with Westminster Council and others objecting, Mayor Kahn’s vision for a traffic free Oxford Street, first launched in his 2016 manifesto, finally got under way yesterday when the 900 yard middle section, between Great Portland Street and Selfridges, of the 1.2 mile long road was pedestrianised with not even cycles allowed to use the road.

I blogged about this proposal two years ago expressing concern at the impact on passengers using the busy bus stops served by the five TfL routes still using the street – routes 7, 94, 98, 139 and 390.

I pointed out the proposed alternative routing via Wigmore Street, Henrietta Place and Cavendish Place is very congested…

… inevitably delaying buses and increasing journey times thereby making them even less attractive than they already are in central London.

TfL has mitigated that problem by simply cutting back two of the routes completely – the 7 (from East Acton) and 94 (from Acton Green), which previously ran from the Marble Arch/Selfridges end to terminate at Oxford Circus (7) or continued via Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus (94) – both now terminate at Marble Arch.

As you can see from Mike Harris’s updated map below, passengers for route 7 now face a lengthy walk from/to Oxford Circus to/from the bottom of Edgware Road (the other side of Marvle Arch) making for a very unattractive proposition.

Having ditched the 7 and 94, that just leaves routes 98 (Willesden to Holborn), 139 (Golders Green to Waterloo) and 390 (Victoria to Archway) as the only three left from a road once served in its heyday by a dozen busy bus routes (eg 60 years ago, as a bus travelling teenager, I remember you could catch a bus on routes 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 15, 23, 60, 73, 88, 113 and 137 along the road. How the mighty have fallen.

I took a look at the new arrangements on their first day, yesterday, to see how things were going.

It wasn’t good.

In fact it was awful. I won’t be returning any time soon, especially if it involves travelling on routes 98, 139 or 390.

PR type people were taking photographs of the new ‘green carpet’ laid at the eastern end but, meanwhile, there were chaotic scenes in neighbouring roads as buses struggled to get through.

The pre-pedestrianised scheduled journey time between Oxford Street/Great Portland Street (just east of Oxford Circus Underground Station) and Selfridges was an average of six to seven minutes.

From yesterday that scheduled journey time has inevitably increased to an optimistic 10-11minutes. The reality yesterday morning on the three journeys I made in both directions was, ignoring an outlier, an average of 16 minutes (giving an average speed of 1.92 mph to cover what was a distance of 900 yards).

The outlier took 25 minutes mainly because over five minutes was spent stationary with the road ahead blocked as a bus was having difficulty negotiating the turn into Great Portland Street at the eastern end’s closure point where all traffic turns into and from that street. It’s not an easy turn especially if traffic from Oxford Street over shoots the traffic lights and then finds the way ahead blocked which I guess is what happened.

Having turned the corner into Great Portland Street, the next problem is negotiating buses now taking their stand time at one of the many bus stands which have been repositioned and are now dotted around the area adding to the restricted road widths available for passing traffic.

In addition to there just being too much traffic, another big problem is the number of vans parked on double yellow lines (and even in bays marked as bus stands) doing deliveries and pick ups as well as scaffolding contractors and other impediments including roadwork compounds.

Delivery vans and lorries were everywhere, even parked right bang in front of traffic lights with no thought seemingly given to their impact on passing traffic while deliveries are being made.

I would have expected some high profile enforcement of parking restrictions, especially on the first morning of the Mayor’s prized scheme. on what are now key thoroughfare roads, but instead, the endemic attitude to parking anywhere was bordering on anarchy…

… with buses and other traffic having to struggle through the blockages.

I felt sorry for the bus drivers but I suppose they’re used to such chaotic scenes in central London and just take it in their stride.

Meanwhile, in Oxford Street itself, there were no end of high viz wearing workers attending to the now defunct junctions and make them pedestrian friendly…

… as well as every bus stop no longer being served along the newly pedestrianised section having the benefit of pink tabard wearing agency staff for TfL to help any bewildered passengers wondering how far (and where) they’ve got to walk to catch a bus.

Bus stops (and some shelters) sported the usual TfL yellow notices in the timetable panels with a rather confusing map and lots of detail about which lettered bus stops are where.

On board the buses I noticed inconsistencies with what information is available on the, now legally required, next stop announcements/displays.

Some were working…

… others weren’t – which is a poor show considering how long this scheme has been in the planning.

What I hadn’t envisaged, but now I think about it, it’s obvious (for anti-terror attack reasons), is that each of the junctions where north/south traffic crosses the east/west pedestrianised Oxford Street, there are now elaborate temporary barriers and bollards in place…

…both in the road and on the pavements – which has the effect of impeding pedestrian flow making it worse than previously.

These bollards looked very much an interim arrangement and I wonder what the permanent solution will be bearing in mind the road is open during the night?

Having relayed all the above negativity about the impact on bus routes I should balance this by saying, notwithstanding that, I’m sure the pedestrianisation will be a success for retailers, shoppers and tourists wanting to enjoy a more peaceful ambiance in Oxford Street itself rather than overcrowded pavements struggling to cope.

There’s no doubt retailer’s like Selfridges and John Lewis will be pleased, especially in the run up too Christmas.

Once the ‘public realm’ is enhanced it will become a very pleasant and attractive area and it won’t be long before it would be unthinkable to return to having buses, taxis, cycles and the annoying ripoff rickshaws in Oxford Street. For example, no-one would dream of proposing Reading’s Broad Street or Bromley’s High Street return to having motor traffic.

But, and it’s a big BUT, it does depend on having a viable alternative arrangement for displaced buses. And in this case it doesn’t, unless there’s a serious crackdown on parking, both legitimate and illegal, on the neighbouring streets now used by buses.

There again, the Mayor and TfL have long given up on its central London bus network so I guess they won’t be worried about ruining five more bus routes, as this scheme has done. Big time.

Roger French

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