Arthur Figgis wrote:
Tom Barry wrote:

For my money, I'd expect buses to stay in service longer (particularly
with the debendifications taking some ridiculous proportion of the new
buses in 2011), fares to rise above inflation (justified by comparison
with the rest of the UK, so hello to the £1.50 bus fare), routes to be
cut back in some areas

Cut-backs seem to have started. The Sutton - Croydon night bus service
went this month, which is a pain.

OK, you know you've been in London too long when you get annoyed at not
having buses at 01.30 or at "get to the airport"-o'clock in the morning,
instead of simply being grateful that there is any kind of service after
22.00 or a non-distress-purchase service on Sundays...


In fairly typical Boris fashion, the N213 cutback got an instant
reaction when some public spirited Croydon youth got a Facebook campaign
together and lobbied the Mayor when he came to town last week. The
result, after some rabbit, was a promise to look at it.

The problem for the cutters is that this thing will happen again and
again - Boris isn't ruthless enough to say 'sorry, chaps, we can't
afford it', and tries to please everyone, and is aware that he's
promised things around looking after the outer boroughs that are
difficult to reconcile with cutting their bus services. Unfortunately,
these are just the services likely to be running at low densities.

Tom