Andrew Dismore

At today’s City Hall Assembly plenary meeting, Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore AM today submitted a petition with 1870 signatures to the Transport for London (TfL) against their scheme to rename the 82 bus as the 13, and scrap the current 13 service from Golders Green to Aldwych, via the Finchley Road. The petition was collected by Camden resident Tara Aleck and the Camden Labour Party. (Video link)

 

A similar scheme by TfL was consulted on last year, to scrap the 13 bus route. Public reaction to the proposal was hostile, and the consultation was subsequently withdrawn. TfL now say they want to want to reduce services on Finchley Road to ease congestion.

 

After submitting the petition, Mr Dismore said:

 

‘We very quickly saw through the TfL plan to scrap the 13 bus by stealth. This is a very useful and much loved route. I have long thought the real reason for wanting to scrap the route was to have fewer routes on Oxford Street, which will need to be diverted when it is pedestrianised.’

 

‘If TfL need to reduce services on Finchley Road, I suspect it might be more to do with the introduction of Cycle Superhighway 11 than to ease traffic flow. Either way, I think TfL should be clearer in their intentions, unless people attribute ulterior motives to their decisions.”