Cut the number of buses

Published: 26 November, 2010

• IT’S that time of year again.  

As Christmas approaches our VIP – Very Important Pedestrian – Day has become an enjoyable part of the season for hundreds of thousands of people. 

The traffic-free day takes place from 10am tomorrow (Saturday). Oxford Street and Regent Street will be closed to the public, with shops on Bond Street also taking part in special promotions.

For 364 days of the year residents, shoppers and workers have to put up with wall-to-wall traffic on Oxford Street and Regent Street, but for one day everything changes. 

Shoppers enjoy the rare luxury of having the space to walk anywhere they want.

Taking all those buses and taxis off these streets is a major operation for New West End Company, Westminster Council and Transport for London. 

We need to retain the services for passengers but reroute vehicles as sensitively as possible so that we minimise any disruption to residents. 

So we are hugely grateful for the support and patience of residents which helps to make this day such a success.   

Retailers, visitors and residents tell us that life would be much better if there were fewer buses in the West End, especially since there are 243 an hour going up and down Oxford Street and on average they carry fewer than 20 people.

We like the idea of balancing rush hours with shopping hours between 10am and 4pm when the streets are crowded but the buses are not. 

We think there could be fewer buses on Oxford and Regent streets during shopping hours, benefiting shoppers and the areas’ residents alike, without providing a worse service for passengers or diverting them through residential areas. 

We think that there is great scope for reductions because it will improve the air quality, create a better ambiance and save the money of hard pressed London taxpayers, who currently pay £650million a year to keep the system going.

We have been working with TfL and the city council to reduce bus numbers on Oxford Street by 10 per cent a year for the last two years. 

We are confident this partnership will lead to even more measures for reducing bus numbers over the next few years including reductions in Regent Street.

Together we can ensure that the West End remains the world’s top shopping destination without being clogged-up by, as the London mayor put it so well, that throbbing wall of red metal.

RICHARD DICKINSON
CEO, New West End Company