©Greater London Authority/Caroline TeoSir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London and chairman of TfL, has replied to a letter from a local school regarding long-ignored bus problems. Donna Mizzi reports
Woodbridge High School was invited to send a letter to the Mayor after its pupils from across Wanstead and Woodford suffered more than a year of severe bus travel problems. Last November, deputy headmaster Jeremy Clifton wrote and explained that the relied-on W12 buses serving the Woodford Green school had insufficient capacity, and were then replaced by even smaller electric vehicles!
Sir Sadiq Khan replied: “When making improvements to bus services, TfL must look across the whole network and ensure it is providing value for money. Occasionally, service changes are required on the bus network that may lead to changes to people’s previous journeys, but which will deliver an improved bus service overall. This was the rationale behind making the changes to the W-bus routes… Following the letter from Mr Clifton, TfL subsequently undertook surveys in the vicinity of the school. The results found buses to be busy but with no significant crowding problems on nearby bus routes.” The letter – which can be read in full online – also refers to the wider bus reorganisation and the closure of the Broadmead Road bridge.
But the Mayor’s recent survey was carried out ludicrously late. TfL’s public liaison officer said 14 months ago that the school’s bus situation would soon be surveyed. It wasn’t. Keith Prince, this area’s London Assembly Member (Conservative turned Reform), said at the beginning of 2025 that he would start a full, local investigation into the W-bus scheme and promised a survey at the school last autumn. Both never happened. Pupils say after 18 months of getting nowhere, and sometimes standing at stops in the freezing cold while full buses sailed past, they gave up. Many resort to alternative means of travel, including paying for the Tube instead of using their free bus passes or being ferried by parents.
Local residents say Sir Sadiq and TfL refuse to confront the stark problems created by the poorly devised W-bus reorganisation, imposed despite protests in September 2024. Nightingale Estate residents and elderly people on Snaresbrook Road still have no dependable hourly W14 bus to be able to reach anywhere, and have greater difficulty reaching Whipps Cross Hospital. The reorganised W-buses continue to be confusing and illogical.
Meanwhile, the dinky W12 bus frequently has insufficient capacity along its route. “Being able to get onto the W12 is a problem every day. Luckily, I can also get the W13 for my journey, but that’s no good for those at Woodbridge High,” said Wanstead High School student Maja Broker. In contrast, the W14 bus is oversized for the narrow roads of the Nightingale Estate. TfL has got the bus sizes of the W12 and W14 the wrong way round. On the myriad W-bus problems, residents say: we’ve seen it. Said it. And it still needs sorting.
To read Sir Sadiq Khan’s letter in full, visit wnstd.com/busletter