Key information
Petition presented by: Caroline Pidgeon
Date petition submitted: Wednesday 2 November 2016
Petition presented at: London Assembly Plenary
Summary of petition
“We the undersigned call on TfL and the London Mayor to improve the capacity of the H14 bus route – Hatch End to Northwick Park Hospital – by changing the service specification from single decker to double decker buses. There is considerable over-crowding on the service at peak hours already, and there will be a consequential increase in passenger numbers once the construction of the large housing estate on the former Kodak sports ground is completed in the next 12 months”
Response information
Response title: Mayor's Response
Name of person responding: Sadiq Khan, Chairman of Transport for London
Response date: Thursday 5 January 2017
"Thank you for your letter of 4 November 2016 enclosing a petition about improving the capacity of the H14 bus route. I am aware that you also wrote to the Commissioner: please consider this reply from us both. Transport for London (TfL) regularly reviews capacity across its network, especially for services which link important public services, such as hospital trusts. Capacity is measured by the size of the vehicle used and the frequency with which they arrive. TfL strives to ensure the capacity provided meets the passenger demand on each route. Following a review on bus route H14, TfL increased capacity on the route in September through the introduction of a new double-decker bus towards Harrow in the morning peak. This increased the capacity by around 18% in the busiest hour and follows additional capacity introduced in 2014 and 2015. While this additional journey is operated by a double-decker bus, the rest of the service remains operated by single-deck buses. I appreciate that the route continues to be busy. With this in mind, TfL is carrying out further reviews to assess the impact of the recent improvements. Following this review, TfL will consider making some further changes to provide more capacity on this route. Any changes will be subject to commercial negotiations with the bus operating company and additional costs. Further information will be available in due course after the review is completed. Please be assured, TfL will continue the bus network and usage of the H14 keeping in mind the option of a double-decker service across the route. TfL will also continue to work with local authorities and developers to plan the bus network including securing Section 106 funding. Thank you again for writing to me".