London Mayor "failing the poorest by not improving bus services in deprived neighbourhoods"

The London Mayor is failing to improve the life chances of the poorest in the capital because improving public transport accessibility by investing in bus services is not a priority of Transport for London under his stewardship, a Labour London Assembly member says. 

A report by Val Shawcross highlights that TfL plans to increase the number of bus kilometres run by four per cent from 2012 to 2020, whilst population growth creates demand for buses of 1.3% per year. This is exacerbating deprivation, she says, pointing to evidence of a correlation between accessibility and deprivation in high density neighbourhoods.

Shawcross finds no evidence that TfL transport planners are working to identify areas with poor public transport accessibility in order to raise this, despite the Mayor's transport strategy making reference to accessibility. Instead, TfL "tends to start with the existing network and assessing whether it is performing as well as it could be".

A likely relationship between property prices and distance from transport, particularly from tube and rail services, causes those on low incomes to "end up trapped in neighbourhoods where access to public transport is poor, making it difficult for them to access education, training and employment, creating a vicious cycle".

She comments: "We all know that it is far cheaper to run a brand new bus service than it is to build a new tube or rail line. So the fact that the Mayor is constraining the one service that can have a positive effect on the life chances of Londoners is a scandal."