London Buses
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 An East Lancs Olympus bus of Metroline, a modern interpretation of the famous London red double-decker. |
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| Parent company | Transport for London |
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| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | 172 Buckingham Palace Road |
| Locale | London, UK |
| Service area | Greater London, UK |
| Service type | Bus transport network |
| Routes | over 700 (100 night buses)[1] |
| Stops | 17,500[2] |
| Fleet | 8000[1] |
| Daily ridership | 6 million per weekday[1] |
| Operator | Various bus operating companies |
| Web site | www.tfl.gov.uk/buses |
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages bus services within Greater London, UK. Most services are provided by private sector bus operators, although this is not particularly obvious to passengers, as buses are required to carry similar red colour schemes and conform to the same fare scheme.
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[edit] Overview
Transport for London's key areas of direct responsibility through London Buses are:
- planning bus routes
- specifying service levels
- monitoring service quality
- management of bus stations and bus stops and other support services
- providing passenger information in the form of timetables and maps at bus stops
- producing leaflet maps, available from Travel Information Centres, libraries etc, and as online downloads.
[edit] Bus operations
The actual bus services are operated by a number of bus operating companies which work under contract to London Buses. Although most of these operating companies are private-sector organisations, one company, East Thames Buses, is actually owned by Transport for London, and managed at arm's length so as to avoid conflicts of interest. Although this originally came about due to the default of a private sector operator, it seems now to be deliberate policy, possibly partly to act as an exemplar for other operators as to how TfL wishes bus services to be run.
[edit] Publications
London Buses publish a variety of bus maps. Some are traditional street maps of London marked with bus numbers. In 2002, TfL introduced the first "spider" maps[3]. Rather than attempting to cover the entire city, these maps are centred on a particular locality or bus station, and convey the route information in the schematic style of Harry Beck's influential tube map, capitalising on TfL's iconic style of information design. The arachnoid form of bus routes radiating from a centre earned them the nickname "spider" maps, although TfL refer to them on their website now as route maps. The maps are displayed at most major bus stops, and can be downloaded as PDFs from the TfL website.[4]
[edit] Legal status
The legal identity of London Buses is actually London Bus Services Limited (LBSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London. East Thames Buses is the trading name of another wholly owned subsidiary of TfL called, rather confusingly, London Buses Limited (LBL).
LBL was first created in 1984 in the process of the privatisation of London bus services, and acted as an arms length subsidiary of TfL's precursor organisation London Regional Transport (LRT). LBL acted as an arms length holding company of LRT to hold ten bus operating units and other assets. The operating divisions were sold off in 1994/5, and their purchasers make up the majority of companies awarded bus operating tenders from the current London Buses (LBSL).
After 1994/5, the LBL company then lay dormant, passing from LRT to TfL. It was resurrected as a place for East Thames Buses to live within TfL, allowing a chinese wall to separate it from LBSL, and act as a London bus operator by proxy.
[edit] Scope
The local bus network in London is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Over 6,800 scheduled buses operate on over 700 different bus routes.[1] Over the year this network carries over 1.5 billion passenger journeys.
[edit] Fares
Buses in the London Buses network accept both Travelcards printed on cardboard and Oyster card products including bus passes, as well as single cash fares. As of January 2007, the bus adult single cash fare is £2.00 for any journey. With the Oyster card pay as you go (formerly Pre Pay) it costs £0.90. The change was made at 0430 on Sunday 30 September 2007.
The off peak reduction has now been removed. The "Daily Cap" is £3.00. This means however many buses you travel on in one day, using your Pay as you go Oyster, you will only pay £3.00, which is less than a one day bus pass. A one-day pass allowing unlimited journeys in the Greater London area for one day costs £3.50. A seven-day pass costs £14.00.
All children under 16 travel free, as do teenagers aged under 18 in full time education or on a work-based learning scheme who live within a London borough. To qualify for free travel, passengers must have a valid Oyster Photocard and comply with TfL's Behaviour Code. Discounts are available for older students with an Oyster photocard. This reduces the fare to half an adult Oyster fare, and caps the daily price at £1.50, again half the adult rate. The free travel concession is controversial.[citation needed] Some have claimed that overcrowding has increased at certain times of the day due to more children using buses, and that crime and antisocial behaviour have increased on buses because of free travel concessions.[citation needed]
Within the West End of London and on routes throughout London operated by 'bendy' buses, and on route W7, passengers must pre-purchase tickets prior to boarding a bus. To this end, bus stops in the area and on those routes are equipped with ticket machines which sell single tickets and one-day passes. In other places, tickets may be purchased from the bus driver although it is planned to extend the cashless area.
| Ticket | Cost |
|---|---|
| Cash single | £2.00 |
| Oyster single | £0.90 |
| One day bus pass | £3.50 |
| Daily Oyster cap Max payable in one day |
£3 |
| 7-day bus pass | £13.00 |
[edit] Current operators
| Companies operating buses under contract to London Buses |
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Arriva London | Arriva Shires & Essex | Arriva Southern Counties | Blue Triangle | CT Plus Docklands Buses | Ealing Community Transport | East London | East Thames Buses First London | London Central | London General | Metrobus | Metroline | NCP-Challenger Quality Line | Selkent | Sullivan Buses | Transdev London | Travel London | Uno |
| Also, see Bus garages in London for operating codes. |
[edit] Vehicles
The various bus operators providing services under contract to London Buses operate a wide variety of vehicles, about the only immediately obvious common feature being their use of a largely red livery. However, London Buses does in fact maintain a close control over both the age and specification of the vehicles. Particular examples of this include the use of separate exit doors, increasingly unusual on buses in the United Kingdom outside London, and, on double-deckers, the use of a straight staircase where most other UK operators specify a more compact curved staircase. Additionally, London Buses also specifies that vehicles operating in London use linen roller destination blinds, whereas in most other parts of the country, electronic dot matrix or LED displays are the norm on new buses.
Because of London Buses' close control on the age of the fleet, it is very common for London buses to be cascaded by their owners to operations in other parts of the country after a few years service.
[edit] iBus
iBus is an AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) scheme to improve London's buses using technology. The system will track all of London's ~8000 buses. This information will be used to provide passengers with improved information on bus arrivals, and to trigger priority at traffic junctions.
The current AVL system uses microwave beacons which are located on the side of the road (and in the busses). These beacons run from a small battery, and when a bus passes, the roadside beacon informs the onboard beacon of its location, and the bus then relays this information to a central server. This server can then send out updates to any nearby countdown displays at bus stops (each of which has a telephone line to receive information). Additionally some roadside beacons are linked to traffic lights, and can trigger a priority green signal.
However, this system has an inherent problem in that the beacons cannot detect if a bus is in traffic which can significantly slow the bus down, and problems can also be caused by buses passing the beacons too quickly to pick up the message, or at too great a distance.
The iBus system aims to improve matters by providing a better fix on bus locations than was available using the beacon system. It does this using a series of sensors:
All of this information is fed into a Kalman filter, which, combined with the knowledge of the road network, produces a "best guess" of bus position, even in areas with low GPS reception.
This improved position data is sent back to the countdown servers. The servers then update the signs as before, but because the position data is no arriving in a continuous stream (rather than just when a becaon is passed), and contain more information (such as current speed), predictions are more accurate. There is the possibility in the future that this data may also be made public over interfaces such as SMS and websites.
For priority at junctions, the bus will send out its position and route number using a short range radio system. When the junction detects a bus near enough, it can trigger a priority green. The facility exists for priority to be given only to late running buses.
The iBus system will also be used to make announcements on buses: Emma Hignett, a radio presenter, was chosen to voice the announcements and will have to make 30,000 recordings informing passengers of the next stop. The system will also provide visual displays telling passengers of the next stop. The scheme is expected to be completed in early 2009, and bus drivers' radios will be replaced as part of it. The iBus system can already be seen (and heard) in operation on routes W4, W15, 34, 38, 41, E7 49, 57, 71, 76, 94, 102, 123, 125, 131, 141, 220, 221, 144, 148, 149, 281, 243, 318, 329, 29, 72, 73, 283, 220, 114, 78, 279, 349, 121,192, 96, 292, K1, K2, K4, H11, H13, H14, 282, 427, 607, 207, 482, E3, 482, H91 and 83 [5]. As at 28th March 2008, 1800 buses had been upgraded with the iBus system[6]. all transdev buses/arriva/metroline w/ac have been fitted out and first ux/g/on/x.
[edit] See also
- List of bus routes in London
- London Underground
- East London Transit
- London articulated bus controversy
- Aldenham Works
[edit] External links
- London Buses website
- Collection of Google Earth locations of London Bus Stations (Requires Google Earth software) from the Google Earth Community forum.
- London Omnibus Traction Society
- Greater London Bus Map
- London Bus Routes Fotopic
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Transport for London. London Buses. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ^ Transport for London. London Buses Fact Sheet. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ^ Mayor of London. Transport Strategy - Buses. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ^ Transport for London. Bus route maps. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ^ Routes currently using iBus
- ^ Transport for London's iBus wins innovation award
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