WALTHAM ABBEY'S TFL BUS CAMPAIGN REACHES THE BBC - AND BOTH SIDES NOW SAY THEY'RE READY TO TALK!

This week, your support put Waltham Abbey's buses in the news. And it brought the most significant breakthrough this campaign has ever seen.

Our campaign to bring London Buses back to Waltham Abbey has been covered by BBC News, Greatest Hits Radio, and Essex Live, and discussed on Ben Fryer's show on BBC Radio Essex, where Cllr Shane Yerrell and a caller from Chingford made the case for our town brilliantly.

You can listen on BBC Sounds at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0032c9g (timestamps 1:17:11 and 2:11:25).

Over 3,400 of you have now signed this petition - the equivalent of more than 1 in 7 residents of Waltham Abbey. Thank you to each and every one of you.

Dr Neil Hudson MP, our Member of Parliament for Epping Forest, has shared the coverage on social media, saying that he is "really pleased to see real momentum building behind the campaign to reinstate Transport for London bus services to and from Waltham Abbey. The growing support, including over 3,300 signatures on a grassroots petition, shows just how important this issue is and how strongly our community feels about restoring these vital links. I will continue pressing both TfL and the Department for Transport to ensure that my constituents receive the reliable, accessible transport services they deserve. "

A FIRST FROM ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

Responding to this week's press coverage, a spokesperson for Essex County Council said:

"Supporting a good bus network for residents is very important to us. We are always open to discussing new routes and arrangements with Transport for London."

Since this campaign began, this is the first time Essex County Council has ever publicly expressed a willingness to engage with TfL on bus services for Waltham Abbey. Until now, responses have focused on commercial operators, or have not addressed TfL at all. We warmly welcome this statement from the new administration, and thank them for it.

This matters hugely. Despite the initial negative response from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, TfL has since confirmed, on several occasions, that it would be willing to restore bus services to Waltham Abbey if Essex County Council, as our local transport authority, provides some support. For the first time, both sides now say they're ready to talk.

We'd now like to see Essex County Council take the next step - open formal talks with TfL.

A NOTE ON THE BBC'S ARTICLE

We are very grateful to BBC News for covering this campaign, but one detail in its article needs correcting: TfL did not withdraw services in 2024. London bus services to Waltham Abbey were gradually withdrawn from the town decades ago, when services were handed to commercial operators or retracted to terminate elsewhere - such as route 250 in 1986, route 242 in 1989, route 317 in 1994, and route N279 in 1999. Apart from TfL routes 215 and 379, which reach only the southern edge of the parish, no London bus has served Waltham Abbey for more than 25 years. The commercial services that replaced them have dwindled ever since, and the last bus to Chingford (eventually an hourly, Saturday-only service) disappeared in 2021. Waltham Abbey has been waiting a very long time.

WHY IT MATTERS

Waltham Abbey is a commuter town of 23,000 on the edge of the Greater London Authority boundary. With our history, our landmarks and attractions, and Epping Forest and central London on our doorstep, it deserves the connectivity neighbouring towns like Loughton and Waltham Cross take for granted. Instead:

• Proper TfL buses already run to the edge of our town - and stop there. To the south, routes 215 and 379 run frequently until nearly 1am, seven days a week, but terminate at the southern edge of Waltham Abbey. To the west, TfL's Waltham Cross Bus Station gets frequent, reliable TfL buses, including through the night. Yet Waltham Abbey doesn't get a single TfL bus route into the town, nor any bus that reaches the adjoining GLA area and expanded ULEZ zone.
• Waltham Abbey and Chingford are neighbouring towns just ten minutes apart by car - but over an hour and a half apart by public transport, with multiple changes between TfL and non-TfL services. That cuts us off from Chingford, its Overground station and local amenities, and its onward connections - to local schools, to jobs, to family and friends, and to Whipps Cross Hospital.
• The mainly commercial services we've been left with are unreliable, unfit for purpose, and finish far too early. Delays, buses skipping stops when full, cancellations without notice, and buses that residents report simply don't turn up are all too common - local schools have even had to excuse Waltham Abbey students from detentions for lateness. The last bus home from Loughton Station leaves at just 7:46pm. From Waltham Cross, it’s 10:12pm on weekdays - and on Saturdays, there’s a two-hour gap after 8:12pm before one final bus - even though trains from Liverpool Street run until after midnight. On Sundays, the whole town gets just a single hourly bus, finishing before 8pm.
• Every station serving Waltham Abbey - Loughton, Waltham Cross, Chingford, Cheshunt, Theobalds Grove, Epping - lies within TfL fare zones, and we use Oyster there as a matter of course. Yet not one local bus serving our town is part of TfL's fare system. TfL buses cost £1.75, with unlimited bus transfers within an hour, daily network-wide fare caps, and free travel for 11-15 year olds with a Zip Oyster. Here, we pay up to £3 a journey, with no Hopper fare, no Oyster, no fare caps, and no Zip cards. We pay far more for far less.
• TfL routes run under contract, with performance standards and penalties when operators fall short. Ours can be changed with no public consultation - as we saw in July, when Arriva withdrew the last evening journeys to and from Loughton on its already-inadequate '66' service.
• We're a suburban town with no tube or train station of our own - yet almost every one of our neighbours is connected to the TfL network. Waltham Abbey, sitting directly on the Greater London boundary, gets none of it.

For generations, Waltham Abbey was an integral part of the London bus network. The gradual switch from comprehensive London bus services to the buses we have today has failed our town - its residents, its businesses, its visitors, and its community life. Our town needs the services it once had now, more than it ever did.

WHAT WE'RE ASKING FOR

We're calling on Transport for London and Essex County Council to work together to:

• Extend TfL bus routes 215 and 379 - which currently terminate at the Lee Valley Campsite and the Yardley Lane Estate on Sewardstone Road - to at least Waltham Abbey Town Centre, restoring comprehensive services to Chingford Station, Chingford Mount, and Walthamstow Central, 7 days a week.
• Restore the Waltham Cross to Upshire section (at a minimum) of TfL bus route 317, enhancing coverage in the east of our town, restoring a direct service to neighbouring Enfield, and providing a comprehensive, TfL-integrated service to our nearest station, from the first train to the last, 7 days a week.
• Restore London bus services from Waltham Abbey to Loughton and Epping, replacing the inadequate routes currently operated by Arriva and Central Connect with frequent, reliable, comprehensive TfL services, 7 days a week.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Moments like this are when every signature counts. If you've signed, please share this petition with family, friends and neighbours - in Waltham Abbey, Chingford, Loughton, Epping, Cheshunt, and anywhere else that would benefit from these restored links. Every new signature strengthens our case as we ask TfL and Essex County Council to sit down together.

Both sides say they're ready to talk. Let's make sure they do.

The Bring Back Red Buses campaign team