The London bus network as we know it dates back to the creation of the Greater London Council in 1965 and the introduction of the congestion charge in 2003 and some bus routes have existed in a similar format for over a century.
The amount of car, van and lorry traffic in London and the numbers of inhabitants and bus passengers have increased considerably in the twelve years since 2003. Very little has been done to remedy the impact of more road traffic on the bus network, except for adding more buses. The opening of Crossrail 1 in 2018/19 will be an opportunity to deliver a revised bus network, preparing for the 2020 decade. This article in Planning for London 95/15 sets out four strategies for delivering a mid twenty first century bus system, fit for an estimated ten million inhabitants of London in 2029.
The above figure shows how 19 miles of trunk or red-bus-routes in Central London could operate after the opening of Crossrail 1 within zone 1. The figure shows five 24 hours red-bus-routes where buses would run at high frequency throughout the day and evening (every 3-5 mins), separated from car, taxis and vans. Noticeably, there are only two routes running along Oxford street, east and west of Tottenham Court Road respectively and at only three places do two routes run in parallel.
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