:root {
–src-neutral-20: #333;
–src-neutral-60: #999;
–src-neutral-86: #dcdcdc;
–buses-card-bg: var(–src-neutral-100);
–buses-card-border: var(–src-neutral-86);
–buses-copy: var(–src-neutral-7);
–buses-map-bg: var(–src-neutral-100);
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root:not([data-color-scheme=”light”]) {
–buses-card-bg: var(–src-neutral-10);
–buses-card-border: var(–src-neutral-20);
–buses-copy: var(–src-neutral-100);
–buses-map-bg: var(–src-neutral-7);
}
}
@media (min-width: 980px) {
:root {}
}
@media (min-width: 740px) and (max-width: 980px) {
.content__main-column–interactive > .element–immersive,
.content__main-column–interactive > .element-immersive {
margin-right: -20px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 1140px) {
.content__main-column–interactive > .element–fullWidth,
.content__main-column–interactive > .element-fullWidth {
–grid-width: 1140px;
–grid-left-col-width: 161px;
margin-left: calc((100vw – var(–grid-width) – var(–scrollbar-width, 0px)) / -2 – var(–grid-left-col-width) – 21px);
}
}
@media (min-width: 1300px) {
.content__main-column–interactive > .element–fullWidth,
.content__main-column–interactive > .element-fullWidth {
–grid-width: 1300px;
–grid-left-col-width: 240px;
}
}
#buses-header-video-frame {
z-index: 1;
grid-area: videos;
grid-template-rows: repeat(2, 1fr);
grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr);
grid-template-areas:
“top-left right”
“bottom-left right”;
justify-content: end;
justify-self: end;
gap: 14px;
display: grid;
}
@media (max-width: 480px) {
#buses-header-video-frame {
width: 100%;
height: 380px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 480px) {
#buses-header-video-frame {
width: 100%;
height: 400px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 980px) {
#buses-header-video-frame {
border-left: 1.5px solid var(–article-meta-lines, var(–src-neutral-86));
width: 480px;
height: 420px;
margin-top: -20px;
margin-bottom: -400px;
margin-left: -20px;
padding-left: 20px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 1140px) {
#buses-header-video-frame {
width: 500px;
height: 440px;
margin-right: 20px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 1300px) {
#buses-header-video-frame {
width: 540px;
height: 480px;
margin-right: 40px;
}
}
#buses-header-video-frame .video-top-left {
grid-area: top-left;
}
#buses-header-video-frame .video-bottom-left {
grid-area: bottom-left;
}
#buses-header-video-frame .video-right {
grid-area: right;
}
#buses-header-video-frame .video-top-left,
#buses-header-video-frame .video-bottom-left,
#buses-header-video-frame .video-right {
background: var(–card-media-background, var(–buses-card-border));
border-radius: 3px;
position: relative;
overflow: clip;
box-shadow: 0 4px 6px #0000000f;
}
#buses-header-video-frame img,
#buses-header-video-frame video {
object-fit: cover;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: block;
position: absolute;
inset: 0;
}
[data-gu-name=”media”],
[data-gu-name=”title”],
[data-gu-name=”headline”],
[data-gu-name=”standfirst”],
[data-gu-name=”lines”],
[data-gu-name=”meta”] {
z-index: 1;
}
@media (min-width: 740px) {
[data-gu-name=”media”],
[data-gu-name=”title”],
[data-gu-name=”headline”],
[data-gu-name=”standfirst”],
[data-gu-name=”lines”],
[data-gu-name=”meta”] {
max-width: 440px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 1140px) {
[data-gu-name=”media”],
[data-gu-name=”title”],
[data-gu-name=”headline”],
[data-gu-name=”standfirst”],
[data-gu-name=”lines”],
[data-gu-name=”meta”] {
max-width: 520px;
padding-left: 20px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 1300px) {
[data-gu-name=”media”],
[data-gu-name=”title”],
[data-gu-name=”headline”],
[data-gu-name=”standfirst”],
[data-gu-name=”lines”],
[data-gu-name=”meta”] {
max-width: 560px;
padding-left: 40px;
}
}
[data-gu-name=”body”] {
z-index: 0;
grid-row-start: 1;
}
[data-gu-name=”standfirst”] .content__standfirst p {
color: var(–standfirst-text, var(–src-neutral-60)) !important;
}
@media (max-width: 980px) {
.content–interactive-grid {
grid-template-areas:
“title”
“headline”
“standfirst”
“lines”
“meta”
“videos”
“body” !important;
}
}
@media (min-width: 980px) {
.content–interactive-grid {
grid-template-columns: 620px 300px;
grid-template-areas:
“title .”
“headline videos”
“standfirst videos”
“lines videos”
“meta videos”
“body right-column”
“. right-column” !important;
}
}
@media (min-width: 1140px) {
.content–interactive-grid {
grid-template-columns: 140px 1px 620px 300px;
grid-template-rows: auto auto auto auto auto 1fr auto !important;
grid-template-areas:
“title title title .”
“headline headline headline videos”
“standfirst standfirst standfirst videos”
“lines lines lines videos”
“meta meta meta videoI can’t rewrite that text as fluent English because it isn’t prose—it’s CSS and HTML code. There’s no meaning to preserve or simplify in the way you’re asking.
If you meant to paste an article or passage, feel free to share it and I’ll rewrite it. If you actually want help with this code (e.g., explaining what it does, cleaning it up, or converting it), let me know what you’re trying to achieve.0% 100%, 0 60%, 60% 0); bottom: -4px; right: -4px; }
.overlay-layer {
pointer-events: none;
position: absolute;
inset: 0;
overflow: hidden;
}
@supports (overflow: clip) {
.overlay-layer {
overflow: clip;
}
}
.terminus-pin,
.route-tag {
–enter-distance: 8px;
transform: translate(
calc(var(–enter-x, 0) var(–enter-distance) -1),
calc(var(–enter-y, 0) var(–enter-distance) -1)
)
scale(var(–enter-scale, 0.95));
}
.terminus-pin {
–source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px;
–enter-distance: 6px;
–enter-scale: 0.8;
opacity: 0;
transform-origin: 50% 100%;
font-family: GuardianTextSans, Guardian Text Sans Web, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;
font-size: 0.9375rem;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1.3;
transition: opacity 80ms ease-out, transform 80ms ease-out;
}
.terminus-pin.state-visible {
opacity: 1;
transition: opacity 0.25s ease-out var(–enter-delay, 0s),
transform 0.35s cubic-bezier(0.33, 1, 0.68, 1) var(–enter-delay, 0s);
transform: translate(0) scale(1);
}
.terminus-pin.state-minified {
opacity: 0;
transform: translate(0) scale(0.5);
}
.route-tag {
opacity: 0;
transform-origin: 50%;
–source-text-decoration-thickness: 3px;
font-family: GuardianTextSans, Guardian Text Sans Web, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;
font-size: 1.25rem;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1.3;
transition: opacity 80ms ease-out, transform 80ms ease-out;
}
.route-tag.state-visible {
opacity: 1;
transition: opacity 0.25s ease-out var(–enter-delay, 0s),
transform 0.35s cubic-bezier(0.33, 1, 0.68, 1) var(–enter-delay, 0s);
transform: translate(0) scale(1);
}
.wrapper {
background: var(–vis-news-red);
border-radius: 100%;
place-content: center;
width: 34px;
height: 34px;
padding: 5px 4px 4px;
display: flex;
box-shadow: 0 2px 4px #00000080;
}
rect {
stroke: #f6f6f6;
}
path {
fill: #f6f6f6;
}
.bus-layer {
pointer-events: none;
position: absolute;
inset: 0;
}
.bus-tag {
–chip-bg: var(–vis-news-red);
–chip-fg: white;
–chip-padding: 3px 6px;
–source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px;
filter: drop-shadow(0 1px 2px #00000040);
font-family: GuardianTextSans, Guardian Text Sans Web, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;
font-size: 0.875rem;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1.3;
transition: opacity 0.2s ease-out;
}
@media (max-width: 29.99em) {
.bus-tag {
–source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px;
–chip-padding: 2px 4px;
font-family: GuardianTextSans, Guardian Text Sans Web, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;
font-size: 0.875rem;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1.3;
}
}
.box {
background-color: var(–buses-card-bg);
border: 2px solid var(–buses-card-border);
–source-text-decoration-thickness: 2px;
border-radius: 4px;
width: min(400px, 100%);
padding: 24px;
font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, Guardian Text Egyptian Web, Georgia, serif;
font-size: 1.0625rem;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: 400;
line-height: 1.4;
box-shadow: 0 4px 6px #0000000f;
color: var(–buses-copy) !important;
}
.box p {
margin-bottom: 0.8em !important;
}
.box p:last-child {
margin-bottom: 0 !important;
}
.video-copy-wrapper {
background-color: var(–buses-card-bg);
border: 2px solid var(–buses-card-border);
border-radius: 3px;
width: min(400px, 100%);
overflow: clip;
box-shadow: 0 4px 6px #0000000f;
}
.video-wrapper {
background-color: var(–vis-news-grey);
width: 100%;
position: relative;
}
.poster {
object-fit: cover;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: block;
position: absolute;
inset: 0;
}
video {
aspect-ratio: 1;
object-fit: cover;
width: 100%;
display: block;
position: relative;
}
.scrim {
pointer-events: none;
background-image: linear-gradient(#0000 0%, #000000bf);
height: 25%;
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
}
.progress-track {
background-color: #00000059;
height: 5px;
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
box-shadow: inset 0 1px 2px #00000059;
}
.progress-bar {
background-image: linear-gradient(
to bottom,
color-mix(in srgb, var(–vis-news-red) 90%, white),
var(–vis-news-red) 55%,
color-mix(in srgb, var(–vis-news-red) 90%, black)
);
width: 0;
height: 100%;
}
.video-wrapper .box p {The source text is CSS code, not prose, so there is no natural English to rewrite. If you meant to paste an article or paragraph, please share that text and I’ll rewrite it in fluent, natural English.Few things say London more than a red double-decker. But the capital’s buses have a problem: they are getting slower. On congested streets, services are being squeezed. And for the millions of people who rely on buses more than any other form of London transport, journeys are getting longer. On the 22, a route through some of the busiest streets in the capital towards Oxford Circus, it’s easy to see why. Buses regularly get stuck in stop-start traffic… Strings of red lights frequently slow buses down… And roadworks restrict the space in which buses can operate… In 2025, the 22 was the second slowest bus in London, averaging just under 6mph. This is 16% slower than its average speed a decade ago. Back then, today’s hour-long journey would have taken 51 minutes. When the Guardian sent a reporter on the bus on a June morning, the bus was stationary for 40 out of the 108 minutes it took to reach Oxford Circus. This is a pattern seen across the UK capital. In the west, the 207 to White City is 14% slower than a decade ago, with an average speed of 7.4mph in 2025. That’s slower than the average beginner cyclist. The 243 to Waterloo, connecting north London to the city centre, slowed down by 5%. One of the city’s most popular routes, these slower journeys were taken by 9.8 million passengers in 2025. These routes are three examples of a wider, continuing trend across London – and indeed, other cities across the world. Buses are slow, and they’re getting slower. Percentage change in average speed in 2025 versus 2015. This map shows how 578 of the 700 London bus routes have seen their average speed reduced in the past decade. 20% slower No change 20% faster Change in average speed between 2015–2025, for routes in continuous service for this period. Changes in route are not accounted for. Experts warn that slower buses risk driving passengers away: research cited by Transport for London (TfL) suggests a 10% fall in speed leads to a 6% drop in demand. Passenger journeys in London have already fallen by more than 300m a year, or 16%, since 2013, despite the city’s population growing by almost a million people. The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, does not play down the issue. “We’re really concerned about bus usage. One of the reasons, when you speak to commuters, is a lack of reliability. And why is it they lack reliability? Because of bus speed.” A congested city, with ever more demands on road space, has left London facing difficult choices over which modes of transport to prioritise. But when passengers turn away from slower buses,The frequency of service and even the routes themselves are likely to be cut. As one industry figure puts it, the fear is a “vicious circle of decline”: slower buses, fewer passengers, and growing pressure on services. Recent research suggests this trend is also appearing in other global cities such as Paris, Brussels, and Lisbon.
Data from Transport for London (TfL), which runs the capital’s road and rail public transport network, reveals several signs that London’s bus services have slowed, been cut back, or become less reliable. The Covid-19 pandemic had a sharp and obvious impact on the data, but clear downward trends run through that period. Across the whole network, the average speed in 2025-26 was 9.18mph — the lowest since comparable records began in 2013-14, and a 4.8% drop over that time.
Bus timetables have long been adjusted to reflect London’s traffic. A snapshot of routes analysed by economist Alexander Jan, a veteran of transport planning in the capital, found that scheduled journey times are now on average 30% longer than they were 50 years ago. Yet even with that extra time built in, buses are increasingly failing to meet expectations. Delays have worsened: on high-frequency routes — those running more than five buses an hour — passengers now wait 22% longer than expected, up from 18% in 2018.
If unreliability is, as Khan argues, putting passengers off, the latest ridership figures are concerning. Last year saw the first fall in bus journeys since the post-pandemic recovery. Between 2010 and 2019, annual passenger numbers consistently exceeded 2 billion; in 2024, they fell to 1.8 billion.
At the same time, the size of London’s bus network has shrunk. Between 2010 and 2019, TfL buses travelled an average of 487m km (303m miles) a year. Over the past three years, that figure has fallen to about 460m.
Across the network, buses are slower, passenger numbers are falling, services cover fewer miles, and waiting times are rising. Those slower journeys come with a financial cost. Because drivers’ wages make up the largest share of operating costs, slower buses mean more vehicles and more staff are needed to provide the same level of service. According to analysis by the Confederation of Passenger Transport, making London’s buses 10% faster would bring in an extra £70m a year in fares and cut operating costs by £214m.
Delays and cuts also hit the poorest in society hardest, since they are more likely to rely on buses for shift work, because of lower costs, or because they lack a car. In London, a bus into the centre costs less than half the peak tube fare, and housing costs rise the closer you get to an underground station.
A global trend
London is far from the only city whose buses are slowing down. A 2026 report by the Transport Strategy Centre (TSC) at Imperial College London found a “persistent decline in bus speeds” over the past decade across 15 networks in Europe, Asia, and North America.
London’s slowdown is modest compared with other cities: in Paris, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, bus travel is more than 10% slower than before the pandemic. Local factors vary, but the TSC report identifies a pattern: growing traffic and congestion and less space for buses, “diminished in part to the expansion of road space for cycling and walking.”
In Barcelona, the redevelopment of Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes pushed traffic onto surrounding roads, at lower speed limits, with no priority for buses. Journey times rose by more than 25%. In New York, widening the protected cycle lane on Sixth Avenue reduced general traffic lanes from four toThree; morning-peak bus speeds fell by 8% over the following year. When buses are fast and reliable, as the TSC report concludes, passengers “respond with increased use, strengthening the viability of the system; when speeds decline, ridership suffers, undermining sustainability goals.” In other words, making buses better is, the TSC says, “a primary lever for achieving equitable, low-carbon, and resilient cities.”
Why are London buses getting slower? In London, the persistent slowdown comes despite successive London mayors championing buses and bringing in better technology and vehicles. There was a great leap forward in bus performance in the early 2000s through Ken Livingstone’s congestion charge and investment in infrastructure such as GPS tracking, which massively improved reliability. Livingstone’s fleets of new bendy buses were phased out by his immediate successor, Boris Johnson, a self-professed enthusiast – even if his signature New Routemasters proved controversial. Since then Khan, famously the son of a bus driver, has brought in the Hopper fare, allowing multiple bus connections for the price of one journey, and is aiming for a fully electric bus fleet by 2030. Passengers on many routes now enjoy cleaner, quieter, cheaper buses, not least on the electric double-deckers pioneered on the 63 route with better seats, skylights, wood-effect flooring and charging points – a nicer environment, at least, to wait in traffic. Again Khan does not play down the issues: “We’re really concerned about bus usage. I’m fully aware that it’s poorer Londoners that rely on buses because they’re cheaper.”
Geoff Hobbs, TfL’s director of public transport service planning, says travel patterns have changed since Covid, with more home working, fewer trips to high streets and shifting demographics reducing demand in some areas. The growth of online shopping has also brought more delivery vans on to London’s streets, adding to congestion. “School rolls in some parts of London are getting smaller and some schools are even closing. And it’s youngsters that make heaviest use of buses,” he says. There is also “the double whammy of many more deliveries and delivery vans: you make less trips to town centres; and those same vans stop at places we’d rather they didn’t, blocking traffic,” Hobbs adds.
Commuters on the 22 and 14 share their frustrations about bus travel in London. A Guardian reporter’s journey on the 22 bus was slowed – and often stopped – by many of these obstructions. On the 1 hour 47 minute journey, long single-lane queues around Putney and various lane and road closures from roadworks in Mayfair kept the bus still for 40 minutes in total. But TfL and operators identify two factors above all others: growing pressure on road space and the sheer volume of roadworks.
Graham Vidler, the chief executive of the Confederation of Passenger Transport, says: “There are too many vehicles wanting to use the roads at popular times. You can account for that in timetabling. But what you can’t account for are unplanned and uncoordinated roadworks. And that’s probably the biggest thing that’s moved the dial. The number of roadworks seems to be mushrooming.” Seb Dance, London’s deputy mayor for transport, agrees: “The biggest impact is roadworks and particularly unplanned roadworks. We’ve got a problem in London where we’ve got old infrastructure, whether it’s sewage, water, electricity, gas.”
A post-pandemic rebound in utility works, alongside road redesign projects and repairs to weather-damaged roads, has left more than 1,000 roadworks obstructing London’s streets on an average day. Roadworks chart. Roadworks impinge on an increasingly limited road space, with five times as much of London now covered by cycleways as a decade ago – 450km compared with 90km. The conversion itself has meant lengthy works to build separate lanes – as well as move pavements.and relocate bus stops to accommodate the surge in cycling and e-bike use. Hobbs says bus performance has had to take a back seat to other priorities, including safety and the broader city environment: “There are trade-offs to be made … London has become a more walkable city. There are more cycle lanes. There have been all sorts of schemes that make London a better place to live. If you go back far enough, Trafalgar Square was basically a giant roundabout.” The pedestrianisation of that square, once a key bus interchange, will be followed by Oxford Street, another important bus route. Operators believe buses get the worst of these trade-offs. Vidler says the cycle lanes built in recent years “serve a really important purpose – but if politicians decide to give more space to one mode of transport, it follows that others will get less. And if you’re putting in more cycle lanes, it becomes harder for bus passengers to get around.” Dance disagrees with this interpretation. “Mainly there are just too many cars. So moving people out of cars and into more efficient spaces such as public transport, buses and bikes is part of that solution,” he says. Demand from other types of vehicles is growing, whether Lime bikes, e-scooters or the emerging robotaxi fleets from companies like Uber. But technology can also help buses find a way through. The next phase of TfL’s Fusion programme – “basically computers on all the traffic lights across London,” says Dance – will connect the capital’s thousands of signals to speed up traffic flow and give more buses priority where possible. A lane rental scheme, which charges companies by the day for the roadworks they carry out, was pioneered on TfL’s roads and is being extended to the boroughs, encouraging work to be coordinated and completed faster. “We’ve got to make our buses more reliable,” says Khan. “Which means them going faster.” The hot summer of 2026 is likely to have further affected bus performance. The mayor told bus drivers to take breaks and even to stay in the depot rather than operate a vehicle without working air-cooling systems. Contractual penalties for poor performance will be suspended during extreme heat, which is likely to become more common. And as with heat, safety remains a priority. Road speed limits across London are decreasing, with more 20mph routes and plans to cut the 50mph limit on major suburban roads to 40mph before 2030 – potentially affecting even the express Superloop buses established by Khan. For now, those orbital bus routes in the outer boroughs, rebranded and remapped under Khan, are seen as a success story. Instead of a doom loop of slower buses and fewer passengers, he says, “the Superloop has shown we can increase bus usage. If you provide a good product, people will use it.” Claire Wright, TfL’s head of streets performance, says that despite the “marginal decline” in speeds, the bus network remains the most popular form of public transport in the capital, “helping people get around affordably while also delivering public health and air quality benefits from fewer people driving.” She adds: “We’ll continue to closely monitor network performance to ensure the bus network serves Londoners as effectively as possible.”
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs Are London Buses in Decline Why Public Transport in Major Global Cities Is Grinding to a Halt
1 Are London buses actually in decline
Yes in several key ways Bus ridership has fallen significantly since around 20142015 and routes have been cut or reduced in frequency Fewer passengers and less funding have created a cycle thats hard to break
2 How much has London bus ridership dropped
Roughly from about 25 billion journeys a year in the mid2010s to around 182 billion in recent years Thats a drop of hundreds of millions of journeys
3 Why are fewer people taking the bus in London
A mix of reasons more people working from home rising fares slower and less reliable journeys due to traffic competition from cycling and escooters and cuts to routes and timetables
4 Is this just a London problem
No Cities worldwide New York Paris Berlin Toronto and others are seeing similar declines in bus and sometimes metro use especially after the pandemic
5 What does public transport grinding to a halt mean
It means services are becoming so reduced unreliable or underfunded that they stop functioning as a practical option for many people It doesnt always mean zero buses it means the network stops meeting peoples needs
6 What caused the postpandemic drop in public transport use
Remote and hybrid work removed millions of daily commutes Many people who used to take transit five days a week now do so once or twice if at all
7 Why does bus ridership matter so much
Buses carry far more passengers per trip than cars and serve people who cant afford or access other options When buses decline lowincome riders older people and disabled passengers lose mobility first
8 What are the main problems facing urban bus networks
Traffic congestion slowing buses down unreliable schedules driver shortages aging fleets funding gaps and competition from other transport modes
9 Why are buses so slow in big cities
They share the road with cars In heavy traffic a bus can crawl along at walking pace Cities that give buses their own lanes see much faster more reliable service
