Help Save Our Local Buses from Sadiq Khan and TfL's Extreme Bus Cuts
MP for Chelsea and Fulham Writes to Residents
Opposing proposed cuts to local services
Dear Resident,
I am writing to you today regarding Sadiq Khan and TfL’s proposals to abolish or cut back nearly 80 bus routes across London. These include plans to axe entirely local bus routes: 11, N11, 14, 31, 74, N74 and C3 as well as change or reduce the numbers: 19, 27, 49, 211, 328, 414 and 430.
I would like to encourage local residents to sign my petition opposing the cuts to our local buses and respond to the TfL consultation on their shocking proposals.
These buses have served our local area well for years and are used regularly by residents to get to work or school, to medical appointments, to shop, visit family and friends and much more!
This announcement comes just weeks after I submitted my petition calling on Sadiq Khan and TfL to reverse the recent reductions to the Number 14 bus. With over 1700 people signing this one petition, the importance of bus routes like this to my constituents cannot be overstated.
The current proposals will seriously impact residents across my constituency, especially disabled people, elderly residents and those with young children who rely on using buses, partly as a result of the lack of step-free access at tube stations like Sloane Square, Putney Bridge and Parsons Green.
This decision comes as a result of Sadiq Khan’s financial incompetence through decisions such as freezing TfL fares for 4 years (without accounting for the impact on the budget), introducing an overly generous Hopper Fare, freezing the daily bus cap at £4.50 a day for more than 5 years and ramping up the bus subsidy, which was around £600 million under Ken Livingstone, reduced to £450 million under (Mayor) Boris Johnson and was up to £722 million by March 2019 under Mayor Khan, well before the pandemic.
The Mayor may believe that announcing these cuts at the start of the Jubilee holiday was the best day to bury the bad news, however I will fight against these cuts all the way.
I am therefore asking you to respond urgently to TfL’s 6-week consultation on these proposals, by emailing your views by 12 July to: haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk.
I would like to request that you copy me in any responses you send to TfL or notify me via email if you submit a response online. My email address is mail@greghands.com and please provide your full address to confirm you are a constituent.
As you will remember from my resignation from the Government in 2018 to vote against the third runway at Heathrow, I always put my constituents and our local area first. I have therefore started a petition opposing the bus cuts to our local area. To sign my petition, please visit the ‘Local Action’ section of my website: www.greghands.com.
Kind regards,
Greg Hands
The Rt Hon Greg Hands MP
Member of Parliament for Chelsea and Fulham
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June 27, 2022