Planned reduction in frequency of 125 bus route

The request was successful.

Dear Enfield Council,
TfL is proposing to reduce the frequency of bus route 125 later this year from every 10 to 12 minutes, as part of a package which includes extending the route to Colindale. As far as I know no justification has been presented for the reduction, which appears to contradict the references in the Mayor of London's Transport Strategy to improving bus services in outer London.

TfL consulted upon the proposals, the consultation response being at https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/r.... The published responses do not appear to include anything from the London Borough of Enfield. They do include comments from Barnet which (surprise, surprise) opposed a frequency cut on the section within Barnet but proposed bigger cuts east of Southgate Station.

I would like to know
a) whether the London Borough of Enfield was consulted about this;
b) if so, what response was made to TfL;
c) if it was decided to make no response, and if so why.

To this end I would like to see any documents (including internal e-mails and the like) which relate to contact between TfL and the London Borough of Enfield on this issue, or which record internal discussions on the matter.

To clarify, I am not interested in documents relating to the temporary frequency reduction in 2017 while Cycle Enfield works were in place, just the proposed permanent frequency reduction.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Clary

Dominic Millen, Enfield Council

Classification: OFFICIAL - PUBLIC
Dear Sir / Madam

In answer to your request for information:

a) whether the London Borough of Enfield was consulted about this - We have been unable to locate any information indicating that the consultation on changes to bus service 125 was received.
b) if so, what response was made to TfL; - Please see above.
c) if it was decided to make no response, and if so why. - Please see above.

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Regeneration & Environment Department
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Enfield EN1 3XE
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Yours sincerely,

Dominic Millen
Group Leader – Transport Planning and Policy
Place Department
Enfield Council
Silver Street
Enfield
EN1 3XY

Email: [email address]

'Enfield Council is committed to serving the whole borough fairly,delivering excellent services and building strong communities'

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Dear Dominic Millen,

Thank you for your response. Is it not a legal obligation for TfL to consult local authorities? If Enfield has not been consulted should it not be asking TfL to put the change on hold until it has had a chance to comment?

Yours sincerely,

M Clary

Dominic Millen, Enfield Council

It is worth noting that, due to revenue reductions, TfL is going through a process of demand matching across London. This has involved a number of frequency changes which TfL have indicated they do not have to consult on.

Therefore for the route 125 changes, unless there is evidence of demand exceeding the amended capacity, it is difficult to make a case for changes to be reversed given that frequency will still be five per hour, which is above the minimum turn up and go level of four buses per hour.

Obviously if you have evidence that the 125 will be unreasonably crowded or that there is a specific local impact (for example timings no longer allow it to effectively interchange with a rail service) due to the changes then we can raise this with TfL.

Regards

Dominic

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