London Assembly rejects our 28 petition!

I've just heard that the Chair of the London Assembly - a Green party member, of all people - has refused to accept the petition sent in from over a hundred Wandsworth residents calling on the Mayor of London to halt his plans to axe the 28 bus route.

Remarkably, he did so because he didn't like the way the petition was phrased. We the people determine what our petitions say - not jobsworth politicians. The whole purpose of a petition is that it's asking the powers that be to do something they might not want to do! So the rejection of our petition isn't acceptable and cannot be allowed to stand.

The 28 bus service is an important local bus route. That's why I'm sending our 28 bus petition back to City Hall, this time direct to the Mayor of London himself.

Save the 28 bus

I reported in November about the threat to the 28 bus route from London Tory Mayor Boris Johnson. Not content with increasing public transport fares by the largest ever amount, the Conservatives are also slashing investment in London Transport and one of the casualties looks like it could be the 28 bus.

Not if I've got anything to do with it.

The 28 serves central Wandsworth, including Mantle Court OAP sheltered housing, the huge Arndale estate above Southside shopping centre and the new Argento Tower and Palladio Court housing in Mapleton Road. It's crazy to cut this service, which runs from Wandsworth through Fulham and on to High Street Ken and Portobello Road.

That's why today I launched my campaign to save the 28 - and I'd really appreciate you signing up, which you can do below, or by visiting www.stuartking.net/savethe28

I support Labour?s Stuart King in opposing the plans by Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson to end the 28 bus service. The 28 connects a growing part of Wandsworth with central London and should be kept, not cut.

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At the last General Election in 2005, who did you vote for

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If you'd like to get involved with Stuart's election campaign tick this box

"The biggest fare increase in Transport for London history"

It's deja vu. A year ago almost to this day I flagged up the inflation-busting fare increases Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson imposed on commuters.

Well, this year, the Tories are doing the same thing, except on an even bigger scale:

• A single bus journey by Oyster: 18 months ago 90p; now £1.20
• A weekly oyster bus pass UP 20% to £16.60
• Six-zone peak single Tube fare by Oyster UP 10.5% to £4.20
• A five-zone off-peak single Tube fare (outside zone 1) UP 18.2% to £1.30
• Most Oyster pay-as-you-go Tube fares UP by 20p per trip
• Overall tube fares will rise 3.9% and overall bus fares up by 12.7%

The Financial Times calls it "The biggest fare increase in Transport for London history". In just 18 months since they took over from Labour in City Hall the Conservatives have increased fares by one third. And they've done so by making sure those on the lowest incomes pay most.

Why is this happening? It's nothing to do with the recession: passenger numbers continue to rise. It's because the Tories have completely lost control of Transport for London budgets - which is why they're slashing services and massively increasing fares. Anyone want to claim the Tories are the party of good financial management?

And the difference with Labour is stark.

• With Labour, fares were frozen in real terms for four years.
• We simplified fares - introducing the 70p and £1 flat-rate fares.
• We reintroduced free bus journeys for children, and extended it to teenagers.
• We were able to scrap planned fare increases because revenue from the extra people using London Transport meant there was more in the budget than we anticipated.
• And whereas Labour increased fares only to invest in renewing transport infrastructure, the Tories have cut investment while raising fares.

We've got absolutely nothing from the Conservatives except a bigger hole in our wallets and worse services.

The Tories are also planning on ending the 28 bus service, serving the Southside shopping centre, Mantle Court OAP sheltered housing, the huge Arndale estate and the new housing at Argento Tower and Palladio Court. And we know London's Conservative councils want to wriggle free from their responsibility to fund the Freedom Pass that gives pensioners free London transport.

This is callamitous Conservative mismanagement of Transport for London, and it forewarns us what life will be like under a George Osborne-run Treasury if the Tories were to win this year's general election.

The Conservatives have - literally - shown they're unfit to run a bus service; they're certainly unfit for government.

Changes to Nos.33 and N10 buses coming soon

I've received the following letter from Transport for London regarding the proposed changes to three bus routes that include the N10, which currently runs up Putney High Street and Upper Richmond Road.

The N10 will cease to operate and instead the 33 bus, which runs down Castlenau, Rocks Lane and then into Upper Richmond Road by the Rosslyn Park Rugby Club, which will become a 24-hour service.

The changes will come in on Saturday 30 January.



Click here to read the full letter.

Transport for London proposes axing the N10

Transport for London intends to make some changes to night bus provision that will affect Putney. They want to make the route 33, which runs from Hammersmith down Castlenau and Rocks Lane and then goes on to Richmond and Twickenham via Upper Richmond Road a 24-hour service. But as a consequence, they're proposing to abolish the N10 nightbus, which currently travels up Putney High Street, and then down Upper Richmond Road to Richmond.

This clearly means a worse service for Putney residents: the route 33 only touches the very edge of our area whereas the N10 runs right through it. Reducing night-time services - which despite the introduction under Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone of 24-hour routes still aren't very frequent - isn't something I support.

If you want to make your views known on the axing of the N10 service you have until 30 October: email STengagement@tfl.gov.uk.

New stop for the 969 bus

The 969 bus - a service that runs once at lunch-time on Tuesdays and Fridays from ASDA in Roehampton Vale to Whitton now stops on the Lennox estate.

A new bus stop has been put up at the front of the estate on Arabella Drive near Priory Lane, just opposite the former Paddock School building.

There is very little information around about this service, but what it does do is give pensioners - and anyone else who doesn't find it easy to get about a way to get to Roehampton Vale or go into Richmond. Oddly, however, there doesn't appear to be a return service, so not sure how people are supposed to get back!

Better buses for Roehampton?

A few days ago there was an exhibition about public transport accessibility in Roehampton, held by Transport for London consultants SDG.

Because Roehampton is relatively remote - separated from other places by Richmond Park, Putney Heath, Wimbledon Common and Barnes Common - it is especially reliant on buses.

One of the key strands of the consultation was improving connections between Roehampton and Barnes station. Two bus routes, one from Kingston that currently stops at ASDA in Putney Vale, and the 170 that runs to Victoria from Danebury Avenue, are both being considered for extension to Barnes.

In the case of the 170, it's proposed that it runs down Priory Lane. Priory Lane desperately needs a bus service but the problem with this plan is that the plans as they stand would continue the bus down Danebury Avenue and through the road closure by the Alton School. Removing the barrier would return Danebury Avenue to being a rat-run.

And we also need assurances that extending further a route like the 170 - which has already been lengthened from Clapham Junction to Victoria in recent months - will have no knock-on consequences for frequency or reliability.

What do you think? Please get in touch to let me know your thoughts.

Local buses

Following complaints I've received about the quality of some of the local bus routes, I've been looking into the reliability of buses throughout the constituency.

Most of our bus services now run very frequently indeed; the improvements in public transport since Ken Livingstone became Mayor of London are significant. Buses are now cleaner, safer, more reliable and 24-hour routes like the 85 have made a real difference to more remote parts of the constituency like Roehampton and Putney Vale.

The average time people have to wait for borough buses is just over four minutes. The longest waiting times are for the 493 bus, that seems to visit everywhere in South West London - but even here the average wait is supposedly just 7 minutes (though there is a 1 in 4 chance that passengers will end up waiting up to 20 minutes, according to the stats - and that chimes with my experiences of this route).

There are, however, some routes that I want to see improvements in. The reliability of three routes: the 493, the 265 which goes down Lower Richmond Road and up Roehampton Lane towards Tolworth; and the 337 which runs along Upper Richmond Road between Richmond and Clapham Junction also leave something to be desired.

You can download the bus service reliability report here; and I'd like to hear from you about your own experiences of public transport - good and bad - not just buses but tube and train journeys too. Of course, there is more to a good travel experience than the amount of time you have to wait.

Pupils and buses

Another story that caught my eye in this week's Wandsworth Guardian was a complaint by the Deputy Head of Southfields Community College that 156 bus drivers haven't been stopping near the college at home times.

He makes the not-unreasonable point that by refusing to pick up groups of schoolkids, the group only grows even larger and more rowdy. On the other hand, being a passenger (and I'm sure a driver too) when large groups of noisy, boisterous pupils surge onto a bus, shouting, jostling and often behaving aggressively and thoughtlessly is not a pleasant experience.

What would help no end would, I suggest, be the College - and our other secondary schools too - sending a staff member out to the bus stops at home time to make sure that the pupils behave themselves while waiting for their buses. In such circumstances, other than when buses are already full to bursting, there would be no excuse whatsoever for 156s not to stop. The Guardian story is here.