Are you frustrated by not only the frequent diversions on the W3 bus route, but still more by the lack of information provided by TfL about them? Waiting for a bus that never comes, or getting on a bus that takes off into the unknown, can deter people from using buses at all.
The 3-4 months of diversions for flood prevention work on Alexandra Palace Way last summer prompted a group of us to campaign for improvements – in particular, for TfL to place maps of diversion routes and dates/times in places where people will see them, and also inside buses.
TfL did take on board a couple of our ideas. Two huge posters with identical maps of the diversion route appeared in the bus shelter at just one bus stop – outside the Green Rooms by Wood Green station – on just one weekend in July. Then another poster appeared at the same stop for the Fireworks Festival the following November, but with just a list in huge letters of the roads on the diversion route - no map. So of little use to the nearly 50k people who come to the Fireworks by public transport.
These posters did prevent the build-up of the crowds which sometimes congregate here, and the motivation for putting them up at just one bus stop was clearly more for crowd control than to benefit bus users.
By the end of the summer diversions TfL were becoming dismissive of our concerns, and they continue to treat the issue as low priority, in spite of the efforts of our three helpful negotiators, our ward councillor Alessandra Rossetti, Jason Small (head of Flood and Water management at Haringey Council), and Joanne McCartney, who has just been re-elected as member of the London Assembly for Haringey and Enfield.
We think there are limits to what can be achieved in an email campaign, and propose that a group of us should meet TfL rep(s) in person to try and get through to them what bus users need, and why this is important. Alessandra has already asked for such a meeting to be arranged, and Joanne will also do so now that she is back in her office.
It is in TfL's interests to attend to passengers' concerns – use of public transport is still 20% down since the pandemic, they need more income, and buses in London are the most used forms of public transport, particularly by the poor, elderly, infirm, and carers with buggies and small children. We can help TfL achieve their ambition to attract more customers ... by focusing on the experience of all customers (Press Release August 2023).
Do join us to discuss how to make this happen! Please respond to this post or send me a private message (click on envelope icon at top right), and we will organise a meeting in AP Library.
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