Guy Russo calls for urgent review of Enfield buses
The local Liberal Democrats are calling for TfL to launch an urgent review into the quality of bus services run in Enfield.
It follows events on Friday night when with very little warning Sullivan Buses pulled out of their contract with TfL. This immediately put the future of twelve Enfield bus routes at risk - including the W9 which serves thousands of local people with no other good transport options.
Fortunately, several other bus companies stepped in quickly to operate services on the routes - but it isn’t clear yet whether or not this is a long term fix. Guy Russo and Liberal Democrat members of the Greater London Authority are chasing for answers.
Sullivan Buses have said that the reason they pulled out of their contract is because at the time of their last meeting in June, they were owed £130,000 by TfL.
Guy Russo said "It is deeply concerning that Sullivan Buses felt they had to pull out of running so many of our local buses so abruptly.
"That is deeply concerning and I will be chasing up to find out more of why this independent bus company has been put in a position where they felt they had to make this decision, which I imagine cannot have been taken lightly.
"There are many more questions that the public deserve answers to, but let's be clear - some of these buses have been completely unreliable. The shoddy service on the W9 has been consistently one of the worst things about transport in Enfield."
"TfL need to use this moment to launch the urgent review that I have been calling for for years now. Tens of thousands of local people rely on buses to get them around. They deserve better than poor service - and TfL must find ways to improve all of our local services".
According to data published late last year, the W9 was the WORST bus for no-shows in the whole of London, with just over one in five scheduled buses not running at all over a three month period. The 217, one of the only buses that connects Waltham Cross to Enfield and beyond, also had the longest average waiting times in London.
The local Liberal Democrats have been campaigning to improve local buses for many years now. In 2018, Guy Russo succesfully campaigned for the introduction of a new bus to replace the W10 - which is now the much improved 456 bus route.
Ever since then, we have been fighting for a proper review, led by TfL, into the quality of local bus services.
Earlier this year we launched a petition calling for exactly that. You can sign the petition here.
