Bus Route Cuts: Have your Say

TfL Bus Route Reductions: consultation ends on 7 August. Find out more about SE5 Forum’s campaign and read our consultation response.

The TfL Central London Bus Consultation closes on 7 August; this will remove routes 12 and 45 that go through Camberwell. 

SE5 Forum objects in the strongest terms to TfL’s proposals to reduce and re-route bus services from Camberwell. They fail to recognise the significant socio-economic and equalities issues affecting Camberwell and its residents.

SE5 Forum is using social media to campaign to fight these cuts due to their negative impact on Camberwell – please share our tweets and posts. We are calling on the Mayor of London to withdraw these flawed proposals and reverse other recent cuts.

We will also be submitting our response to the consultation and sharing our objections. If you care about the loss of bus services, have your say here: haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/busreview.

Here is a summary of our consultation response: 
Thank you to consultant Jane Bevis, for volunteering to put together a full response to these cuts and show their negative effect on public transport in Camberwell. You can read the full document here. 

• The proposals to withdraw completely two bus services connecting Camberwell with central London to the north, Lambeth to the west and reducing service along the corridor towards Lewisham in the east. These are key locations supporting Camberwell’s economy and opening up employment and education opportunities across London for residents.

• Overall TfL’s proposes to withdraw 16 routes across London. It is completely disproportionate to target 2 of these on Camberwell – a single community reliant on its bus connections.

• High levels of multiple deprivation, unemployment, low pay, child poverty, physical and mental health problems and an ageing population speak to the need for enhanced, not deteriorating, public transport services in Camberwell.

• Access to car transport is limited among residents and TfL targets for Southwark look to reduce car ownership further.

• Impacts resulting from the withdrawal of services and re-routing of others include increased and less predictable door to door journey times, loss of Hopper fares due to extended journey times, and fears over personal safety at interchange points affecting women, older and young people, disabled people and LGBTQ people. Camberwell has a majority BAME population, many of whom experience multiple deprivation factors.

• Collectively these factors show TfL is failing in its Public Sector Equality Duty in the way it has assessed its proposals and their impacts on Camberwell residents.

• Visitors to Camberwell and its businesses and services, notably including two major London hospitals, King’s College Hospital and South London & Maudsley Hospital, will also face reduced services and access.

• Significant levels of housebuilding in Camberwell means the population is growing and bus passenger figures can be expected to rise by 15-30 percent by 2030.

• There has been a century of disinvestment in Camberwell’s transport infrastructure since the railway station closed in 1916. Repeated failures over 80 years to invest in Tube, rail and tram services connecting Camberwell with central London leaves Camberwell uniquely reliant on bus services. Over recent years these too have been reduced with the loss of 5 cross-river bus services and the reduction in frequency on remaining routes.