In February and March TfL ran a consultation about plans to change some bus routes in our area and serving the Isle of Dogs.
These changes will come into effect in September and October, as set out below:
135 – will be diverted along Spindrift Ave to compensate for changes to D3 route from 17 September
277 – will be rerouted to Crossharbour and no longer serve Leamouth from 17 September
D3 – will be rerouted via route 277 to Leamouth and no longer serve Crossharbour from 17 September
D8 – will be rerouted via route 108 between Blackwall Tunnel and Bow roundabout and will terminate at Stratford instead of Stratford International from 1 October 2016. Double decker buses will be introduced to increase capacity.
108 – From 1 October this bus will be rerouted to serve Chrisp Street, Violet Road and Campbell Road (instead of route D8). It will also be rerouted to Stratford International along Carpenters Road serving Stratford City. Larger single deck buses will be used to increase capacity needed at the south end of the route, around Blackheath/North Greenwich
Some people might have to swap buses because of changes to the D8 and 108 services, but TfL says the new ‘hopper ticket’ will let passengers transfer to another bus without paying another fare if they do this within an hour of the first journey.
Plans to run the D7 less frequently were scrapped and buses will continue to run every 6-7 minutes during the day, Monday to Saturday.
You can read a summary of the concerns raised in the consultation and how they were addressed here (PDF)
The change of routes 108 and D8 has not proved a success
Journey times have increased by up to 40 minutes and changes are hazardous and cumbersome, especially when travelling with luggage, children, prams buggies etc
The approach to Stratford Westfield and Stratford international on the 108 is considerably slower than the route used by the D8 adding a further 15 minutes, or more, on to the journey time, and the outbound journey from Fawe Street to Canary Wharf, which used to take around 17 to 30 minutes on the D8, is now taking more than 40 to 50 minutes changing from the 108 to the D8 at All Saints.
In terms of the sections of the routes described above this revision cannot be seen as an improvement. Mobility and access has been downgraded.
Update
New Proposal for route 108
In an attempt to salvage the misguided switch of routes 108 and D8 I now present a new opportunity for the are…. read on
Dear Tfl
In addition to the the two earlier proposals that I have flagged up I am now attaching an option for your consideration that retains the 108 as the local service bus, should the D8 not be reinstated. Refs: 7134762 and 7165182
This proposal will offer the original service going north instead of south and will also, as you have said you are keen to avoid, allow the 108 not to parallel the DLR route.
Allow the 108 not to parallel the DLR route to Stratford and instead let it take either of these two other options. 1) At the junction of Violet Rd and the B140/Devas St turn right;at the junction of Devas St and the A12 turn left in the direction of Stratford, allowing the bus to call at stop BE (BA returning) next to Bromley-by-Bow station: 2) continuing along Campbell Road from Violet Rd turn left at the junction with the A11 allowing the bus to call at stop Z (Y returning) serving Bow Road station.
It would be helpful if you could arrange a representative from Tfl to contact me to talk this through.
Kind regards
David Fielding
Hi there David Fielding (great name btw) – I work on issues that are related to the bus network, although I am not directly involved in route planning itself. I understand the changes have been made with one eye on future population growth, both in Bromely-by-Bow and on the Isle of Dogs.
The 108 is a very historic route, which my nan was using in the 1930s, going between SE and E London. It has to be a single decker due to the constraints of the Blackwall Tunnel. The D8 is a route introduced in the 80s to help provide connections between Stratford and the Isle of Dogs. However much of the route is paralleled with the DLR, which means that demand might not be the highest, as there isnt much of a price differential on the DLR and the service is quicker whilst being accessible.
There is a major residential development being built at the Tesco site, with a nearly a thousand houses. As part of this there is an obligation to provide new bus route due to go through the site. This would likely be the D8 (subject to future modelling, business case assessment and public consultation). This would provide the demand for a double decker service, particularly with the relocated Bow School. The other issue is that there is expected to be massive population increase on the Isle of Dogs. As one of the few single decker routes on the Island the D8 was seen as a prime candidate to convert to double decker.
However the Campbell Road has a railway bridge which would prevent the conversion to a double decker. Now as the 108 can be converted to double decker it was thought that the best way to provide extra capacity in Bromley by Bow and the Isle of Dogs would be to swap the D8 to serve the A12 and the 108 to serve Campbell Road corridor.
This may not seem that logical from our local point of view (although a bus connection to North Greenwich and higher bus frequency to Stratford International DLR from Bow Road is personal very useful for me) but it fits in with providing extra capacity in areas where significant housing is being developed over the next few years.
On the 108 reliability – its always been terrible – and that’s down to the Blackwall Tunnel mainly. I believe there maybe plans a foot in the near future for the Tunnel… I also think that there would be a bus network hole if you removed a North South Axis on Campbell Road which would need to be avoided. TfL has a target of 95% of London’s population being within 400m (5 min wallk) of a bus stop.
Hi there
Thanks for getting onboard regarding this issue
Here is my latest comment to Tfl – as yet lacking a response – which attempts to explain why the locals around Morris Rd Violet Rd need alternatives to the DLR giving better connections in order to link up with the underground system.
Dear Tfl
In addition to the the two earlier proposals that I have flagged up I am now attaching an option for your consideration that retains the 108 as the local service bus, should the D8 not be reinstated. Refs: 7134762 and 7165182
This proposal will offer the original service going north instead of south and will also, as you have said you are keen to avoid, allow the 108 not to parallel the DLR route.
Allow the 108 not to parallel the DLR route to Stratford and instead let it take either of these two other options. 1) At the junction of Violet Rd and the B140/Devas St turn right;at the junction of Devas St and the A12 turn left in the direction of Stratford, allowing the bus to call at stop BE (BA returning) next to Bromley-by-Bow station: 2) continuing along Campbell Road from Violet Rd turn left at the junction with the A11 allowing the bus to call at stop Z (Y returning) serving Bow Road station.
It would be helpful if you could arrange a representative from Tfl to contact me to talk this through.
Kind regards
David Fielding