Transport chiefs have agreed to review the frequency of buses on a Finsbury Park route after farcical pictures showed dozens of people queueing during rush-hour.
Transport chiefs have agreed to review the frequency of buses on a Finsbury Park route after farcical pictures showed dozens of people queueing down the road during rush-hour.
The W3 runs from Alexandra Palace to Finsbury Park and one is meant to arrive every four to seven minutes.
But morning commuters say they are regularly forced to join huge queues for the privilege of squeezing onto the packed buses – and then do the same on the way home in the evening.
Transport for London (TfL) insists the service runs every three-and-a-half to five minutes on average, but people who use the route say it’s more like one bus every quarter of an hour at peak time.
Images posted online this week showed up to 30 people stretched along Weston Park, a residential street in Crouch End.
TfL said it was due to a diversion, but the aspiring passengers are furious and say it happens every day.
It’s not a new problem, either. A petition calling for more buses was launched in 2016, and TfL responded by running two more between 7am and 8am.
But the additional service doesn’t appear to have solved the problem.
Robyn Fryer said up to 60 can be waiting in Weston Park, and said the situation was “ludicrous”.
She told the Gazette: “It seems to have got particularly bad in the last few months, but I can count on one hand the number of times they have been three to five minutes apart at rush hour.
“Today I waited 15 minutes. Two then came at once and I got on the second – just!
“Yesterday I waited for 30 minutes before I gave up and walked to Crouch End Broadway to get the W7.
“Because the times on the board do not accurately reflect how far away the buses are, people get hopeful and end up waiting far longer.
“It also means the sheer volume of people that end up at the bus stop makes it impossible for them all to fit on, making the ride both uncomfortable and potentially dangerous.”
TfL said on average 91 per cent of people using the W3 wait under 10 minutes for a service.
But a spokesman added: “We’re concerned to hear that our customers feel there are not enough buses on the W3 route.
“We regularly monitor the performance of our bus network and we’ll review the W3 following their concerns.”
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