Quite a long article here, detailing how cycle lanes, road works, traffic and many other factors are slowing down buses in London and elsewhere:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2026/sep/23/london-buses-in-terminal-decline-why-public-transport-in-global-cities-is-slowing-to-a-crawl-visualised

 
The conclusion of the article touches on successful new bus routes that provide for changing travel needs, but what the answer is for people who will not consider a bus or are totally unfamiliar with the concept I don't know. Staying with friends in the suburbs I was shocked to find that despite living there for twenty years they didn't know where the nearest bus stop was to home, or where the buses ran to - and I recalled at one point that the school run had imposed on them a daily journey that was more than a little insane and could only realistically be done using a car - but that had been their choice. If people do experience the buses at morning or evening school run times, depending on the route, they'll more than likely get the message that fare evasion is endemic, something that lowers the sense of personal security.

 
My experience in Bristol is that dwell times are a lot longer than they used to be - something that the Guardian article did not refer to, perhaps because it's less of a problem in London.

Passengers are now told not to get out of their seat until the bus comes to a stop. I can understand why this is - it's plainly safer - but coupled with the time taken to tap out, it can be quite a while before everyone who wants to get off has cleared, and only then can passengers start to board. The Metrobus vehicles have a central exit door, something which was common on city routes in the past. Can't help wondering why this is not a feature on other city buses?
 

 

Historically, might it be because the central doors proved something of an incentive for fare dodgers in the past?  On a crowded bus and away from the eyes of the driver it would certainly present such opportunities especially in the days before onboard cameras were commonplace.

 
When a central door is fitted the wheelchair access is normally through the central door due to logistics with the interior created by the central door. The layout between single and double door buses are quite different.

Most central door buses can’t use bus stations as wheelchair users have no way of accessing the bus, due to the platform length not reaching the centre door.

 
Going back to the Guardian article referred to by MarkA, there are a number of questions raised that are not addressed by what I thought was something of a rambling, unfocused piece.

Firstly, there's no mention of the impact of other competing modes of public transport. The reduction in the number of journeys since 2013 quoted (300m), most of which occurred after Covid, is not that different to the number of passengers now carried by the Elizabeth Line (254m) which opened at about the same time. The Overground seems to have improved and is now marketed much more actively, and although the traditional tube lines have (I understand) lost out to the Elizabeth Line, this must make them more attractive to anyone who used buses in the past to avoid the crush of the Tube. Is this as much a "modal shift" caused by investment in other modes of transport?

Secondly, there seems some confusion in the message or conclusion of the piece. It starts off on the tack that "delays are driving passengers from the buses in London", but later produces some international comparisons showing that actually bus speeds have not declined significantly in London compared to the selection of 11 other major cities overseas for which comparable figures have been obtained. Having waffled on about Livingstone's bendy buses, Boris's "new" Routemasters and Kahn's electric buses (none of which are relevant to the issue of what is causing any delays), there's then an attempt to explain growing delays on various causes, ignoring the international comparison graphic showing just a 1% reduction in bus speeds since 2013, and not instead looking at whether the greater delays in cities such as Singapore, Paris or Dublin have resulted in even greater reduction in passenger numbers.

Thirdly, the graphic showing the increase in delays across Greater London does show a marked geographical variation that is not commented upon nor investigated. There's a sector across the west, largely between the A40 in the north-west and A3 in the south-west where almost all routes show the higher reduction in speeds (annoyingly, the scale is not shown, but if the colour segments are consistent, it looks like most are 12% slower or more, whereas there are many areas where the delays are under 4%). Why is this? Is it reflected in a greater decrease in ridership in West London?

Is it just me, or is anyone else frustrated by the lack of insight shown by so many transport articles like this that appear in what is meant to be "the quality press"?

 

You make a number of very good points there, eightonedee - thank you for posting.

Are we in danger of classing The Guardian - or indeed the Daily Mail - as "the quality press" in the UK?

Again, that's my personal opinion, not the official view from the Coffee Shop forum.

CfN.

 

Yes, but we are informed specialists, Mark, and as time passes and we continue to observe we become further informed and educated on these matters whereas the press and news feeds much address the whole of their audience which includes those who are younger and do't have as much life experience, or who's expertise is in other fields and they take just a skim-interest in travel.

Back on topic.
* Buses getting busier - more passengers boarding and leaving the bus
* Passengers staying seated until the bus stops / driver waiting for passengers to be seated before restarting
* A higher proportion of passengers with mobility / other issues that slow their boarding / leaving the bus
* Road congestion
* Routes being obfuscated by the addition of loops / routes through new housing and past new businesses
* New 20 mph speed limits
* Single door double deckers that increase passenger transit time from seat to and from door
* Consolidation of local "town" and interurban routes into a single one-journey-for-all vehicle
* Eased timetables with more generous catch up allowances to help better timekeeping

I went into Bath yesterday - slowed down by many of these issues.   Joined bus at 11:51, got off at Grand Parade in Bath at 12:52.   So that took 61 minutes.  Busy - both on the bus and on the roads.  The time scheduled is 11:48 to 12:35 - 47 minutes - and of an evening an inbound bus can have a timetable as brisk as 40 minutes, with fewer inbound passengers and fewer other vehicles on the road, and that timetable can be met.

 
I've previously mention the reduced timings happens for evenings, weekends and bank holidays.
Unfortunately no increase in times for weekends or bank holiday; I found more passengers at those times, added to reduced schedule times (and reduced frequency), and drivers struggled (also failed) to keep to time.

 
I wouldn't expect a generalist journalist to do a particularly good job of this, but the Guardian piece is bylined (inter alia) by its transport correspondent, who ought to know better.

Oxford's bus speeds, after a long period of decline, are finally on the up again - at statistically significant levels - thanks to the city's congestion charge (which becomes "traffic filters" tomorrow). The charge only applies to cars.

 
A couple of Other things that slow buses down.
Drivers are told to wait for people to be sat down before moving off. No driving off as soon as the money is paid. Adds maybe 15 seconds per stop.
Traffic seems to be slower.
Where I am half the pensioners want to have a gossip on their way off, I know a lot of detail about lots of pensioners. I hear who’s funeral they’re off to next week, what they’ve had for dinner, whether they like or dislike the government. And many other topics in between.

 

Traffic is indeed getting slower - due at least partly to the ever increasing number of 20mph speed limits being introduced - with speed cameras to enforce them, sometimes.  I experienced the delay effects of that, in my grocery delivery van driving days.

CfN.