The London Transport Strategy of 2000 aimed to address acute congestion and overcrowding through a package of measures including improving bus services through the London Bus Initiative. The Initiative took a whole-route approach across 27 key routes, implementing bus priority measures, stops improvements, and increased enforcement to deliver over 100 new bus lanes. This increased bus patronage by 21.9% while improving journey times and reliability, demonstrating that coordinated multi-agency initiatives can provide short-term congestion relief as part of an integrated long-term strategy.

2. Presentation Structure
- London Transport Strategy 2000
• Main components
- Buses and the London Bus Initiative
- What else happened
- Considerations for Melbourne

3. Background – London in 1999
“Congestion and overcrowding on London’s
transport networks is acute.”
- Urgent need for measures to reduce heavy all
day traffic congestion
- Slow and unreliable bus services
- Difficulties for business in servicing and delivery
movements
- Unreliability and gross overcrowding of National
Rail and Underground services
- Growth in the number of people using transport
- London’s population and economy growth

4. Background – London in 1999
Key issues for outer London include:
- Inadequate public transport options, particularly for non-radial
and off-peak trips
- Heavy and growing traffic congestion on key routes and in
town centres affecting both individuals and businesses
- Pockets of deprivation and regeneration sites which are not
well linked to the main transport networks

5. Background - The Mayors Transport Strategy
- Creation of ‘Transport for London’ provided a new opportunity
- “Balanced set of priorities needed to facilitate the required
changes in the transport network in the short and medium
term”
- Overcoming backlog of investment in the Underground
- Radical improvements to bus services
- Improving capacity including cross city and orbital rail, a new
Thames crossing
- Increase travel choice

6. Package of measures proposed
- Overground Rail – Crossrail, East London Line extension,
Thameslink 2000
- Underground – station upgrades e.g. Tottenham Court Road,
Victoria, etc (and Docklands Light Rail extensions)
- Intermediate modes (Tram/BRT) – Cross River Transit, East
London Transit,
- Smartcards and fare changes
- Congestion charging

7. Role of buses
- Bus system offered potential for rapid (i.e. short term)
improvements
- Could relieve overcrowding on Underground
- Offer an alternative to the car especially in outer London
- Building off the back of Red Routes (Clearways) and Pilot Route
43 project
- Key short term focus was London Bus Initiative
• Improvements on 27 key routes
• £60 million over 2 years

8. London Bus Initiative – The Strategy
The vision:
- To deliver a ‘step-change’ enhancement of the actual and
perceived quality of London’s bus services
Key objectives were to:
- Promote a change in travel habits to get more people onto
London’s buses
- Make buses more attractive for potential users
- Make buses the first choice mode of transport on LBI routes
- Deliver the above on a ‘whole route’ basis
- Aligned to Mayor’s strategy

9. London Bus Initiative
What was different?
- Corridor based – not hotspot targets on 27 routes
- Multi-agency approach
• TfL / Councils / Operators / Police
- Reviewed whole trip
- Not just infrastructure focused

10. London Bus Initiative – Whole route/trip approach
- Whole (Bus) Route
- Whole trip corridor approach
• Door to Door
• Total Journey Quality
- Partnership (multi-agency) approach
based on responsibilities
- NOT just bus priority i.e. bus lanes and
vehicle detection at signals, etc
Origin/Home
Walk to Bus Stop
Wait at Bus Stop
Bus Journey
Board the Bus
Alight from Bus
Walk to Destination

11. London Bus Initiative – package of measures

12. London Bus Initiative - KPIs
Targets/KPIs – Multi issue/agency examples:
- Reductions in journey time (10 – 20%)
- Improved reliability (excess wait time)
- Increased coverage of routes with bus lanes (real and virtual)
- Increased patronage
- Reductions in bus stop dwell time
- Bus stop accessibility (50 – 100%)
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Improved bus cleanliness

13. London Bus Initiative – Package of measures
- Route Traffic Management Strategy
• To review use of carriageway space
• Introduce real and ‘virtual’ bus lanes
- Review of kerbside parking/loading controls
- Extension of hours/days of Red Routes (clearways)
- Detailed Traffic Signal Review
- Bus stop improvements/rationalisation
- Total Route Control Strategy (flagship routes only)
• i.e. Control any aspect likely to cause delay
- Integrated Traffic Management – link and node

14. - Delivered via Program
Team
- Dedicated LBI
Communications Team
assisted delivery
- Consultation widened to
include bus passengers
London Bus Initiative – other features

15. London Bus Initiative – What was delivered?
Over LBI 1 – (2+1 years):
- 108 new sections of bus lanes
• 84 extended in length / 40 in hours
- 50 new pedestrian crossings
- Bus Priority added to 306 traffic signals
- 146 physical intersection improvements
• 200 signal timing changes
- 40% of 2,500 route stops made DDA complaint

16. London Bus Initiative – total spend
Spending breakdown: (2002 GBP – 2013 AUD equivalent)
- Enforcement £11m $24m AUD
- Traffic engineering £28m $60m AUD
- Bus operations £3.5m $8m AUD
- Programme support £9m $20m AUD
- Major projects £8.5m $18.5m AUD
- $130m AUD

17. London Bus Initiative – Benefits
- Increased bus patronage +21.9% during LBI
• Patronage increase equivalent to $12 million in benefits pa
- Mixed journey time improvements
• Big wins on contra-flow schemes
• More time spent at stops negated some journey time benefits
- Over long term improved reliability
• Reduced operating costs
• Protected buses from worsening
congestion

18. London Bus Initiative - legacy
- Bus Stops accepted as vital part of trip
- Increased patronage increased time at stops
- Acknowledgement of need to reduce
boarding/alighting time
- Led to:
• Cashless Operation – and Smartcards
• Articulated buses – multi-door entry/exit

19. London Bus Initiative – other legacy
- Enforcement seen as key to urban arterial operations
- Expansion of decriminalisation (non police enforcement) to
both Borough and Transport for London Road Network
- Transport Operational Command Unit (TOCU)
- Expansion of CCTV enforcement (211 new cameras)
• Bus Lanes
• Parking / Loading / Stopping
• On bus cameras on 600 buses
- Enforcement Strategies now seen as fundamental to Bus
Priority in London

20. The other schemes…
Many of the other components delivered later…
Project/measure Planned Actual
Congestion charging 2003 2003
East London Line 2006 2010
Crossrail 2012 2016
Thameslink 2000 (1991) 2008 2018
Cross River Transit 2007 Cancelled
Greenwich Waterfront
Transit
2007 Cancelled

21. London – considerations for Melbourne
- An integrated multi modal strategy can deliver range of
outcomes over time
- Planned dates and actual dates rarely agree
- Package of measures needed across modes – Trams / Buses
and bikes have a role to play
- Need short term / medium / long terms plans to move people
and goods
- One size does not fit all