Bus route 42 restructure

We're seeking your views on proposals to make route 42 more reliable by starting and finishing services at Tooley Street

By clicking on each of the buttons below, you can read more about what is proposed and how this may impact you. You can also view maps, ask questions, give feedback, and find out about other ways to get in touch and have your say.

You have until Sunday 20 September 2026 to give us your feedback.

Proposal

Route 42 double decker bus at a bus stand beneath green steel railway bridges in the City of London Route 42 bus at Liverpool Street stopBus route 42 currently operates between East Dulwich Sainsbury's and Liverpool Street, with a bus every 15 minutes during Monday to Sunday daytime and every 20 minutes during the evenings.

It is proposed that route 42 would terminate south of Tower Bridge on Tooley Street, standing at Queen Elizabeth Street (south side). To complete journeys, passengers would need to change buses to route 78. Bus route 78 covers the same routeing as bus route 42 between Tower Bridge Road (Grange Road) and Liverpool Street.

Passengers would be able to change buses at the same bus stops on Tower Bridge Road.

To mitigate some of the impacts on passengers, especially during off-peak times, it is proposed on route 42 to:

Increase frequency to a bus every 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes Monday to Sunday early mornings
Increase frequency to a bus every 15 minutes instead of 20 minutes Monday to Sunday evenings

Frequency changes are not within the scope of consultation. They form part of our continual review of the bus network which helps ensure services operate more efficiently with the right level of service provided.

If route 42 stops and starts at Tooley Street as proposed, there would be a gap in service on Monday to Saturdays in the early morning. This would be for 40 minutes between 05:00 and 05:40 on the section from Liverpool Street to Tower Bridge Road.

To avoid this, it is proposed to introduce two additional early journeys to operate on route 78 on Monday to Saturday daytimes, scheduled to depart Shoreditch towards Nunhead at 05:00 and 05:20. The route 78 schedule covers all other times route 42 currently operates.

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Why

Passengers boarding a Route 42 double decker bus towards Liverpool Street at a bus stop R on a tree lined London street Route 42 bus at stop RBus route 42 is one of the most unreliable on the bus network, suffering from heavy traffic delays and the ad-hoc lifting of Tower Bridge, which can happen many times a day.

As a result of the service being unreliable, passenger numbers have steadily dropped over the past five years with numbers falling by nearly a third since 2021. Approximately 9,600 passengers were using the service in 2019, compared to 2026 with roughly 6,900 passengers now using the service.

We have investigated several ways to try and improve the reliability of route 42. However, all the options have proved too costly to have any impact on operating a reliable route.

Our ambition is for London’s bus network to be the best of any city in the world.

We are taking steps to achieve this, and to ensure that the network is:

Frequent and reliable across the whole city, reflecting current and future travel patterns
Inclusive and affordable, with a high-quality customer experience
Safe and green, supporting both Vision Zero and Net Zero
Cost-efficient, enabling growth and supporting London’s economy

Our vision for buses

Primrose Street bus stop with route information, bus shelter and red double decker bus in the City of London Primrose Street bus stop JLondon is constantly changing and, as our most flexible form of public transport, our bus network must change too. That’s why our 2026 Business Plan builds on our Bus Action Plan by setting out how we will reimagine London’s bus network to ensure it can continue to deliver for the changing needs of Londoners now and into the future. This means providing an attractive, reliable, green bus service for all Londoners which reflects demand and is financially sustainable.

What this means for customers is that we’re going to be consulting on changes to ensure buses run where they’re needed most:

We will simplify routes in central and inner London, running a smaller number of high frequency, more reliable routes, so that we can deliver an attractive service which is still comprehensive and frequent, but has less duplication and excess capacity. We will seek to minimise any negative impacts, for example by ensuring convenient comfortable and accessible interchanges to help customers easily move around the network in a similar way to the London Underground and the wider rail system
We will continue to improve connections in outer London by expanding the Superloop network to link town centres and key stations. New connections will help unlock housing growth and encourage even more Londoners to go car free
While some routes will change, we will minimise any local impacts as far as possible. Our aim is to create a network that’s easier to understand and better reflects how people travel today

Alongside bus route changes, we’re also taking action to tackle congestion on bus corridors to make passenger journeys quicker and more reliable. This includes:

Rolling out world-leading FUSION technology to give buses priority at junctions and traffic signals
Partnering with boroughs and coordinating roadworks
Cutting delays to buses through our pan-London lane rental scheme, which charges utility companies for how long they take to carry out roadworks, so streets are reopened more quickly
Investing £90m a year to improve borough roads, making them safer and better for buses and those walking and cycling
Targeting £30 million through our Better Bus Partnerships to improve whole bus corridors, cutting delays and making journeys quicker and more reliable in Haringey, Lewisham and Southwark
Trialling AI cameras on buses to identify delay hotspots. Using the intelligence gathered to better understand the impact of roadworks and traffic contraventions, improve enforcement and reduce delays to buses

At the same time, we’re rolling out improvements to enhance customer experience for those using our buses, making them greener, safer, and more comfortable. This includes:

Delivering the next iteration of our world-leading Bus Safety Standard, which ensures new buses in London are fitted with advanced safety features such as intelligent speed assist and camera monitoring systems
Ensuring that customers have up-to-date information, where they need it, by installing 5,000 additional real-time information displays at bus stops
Delivering next-generation bus shelters at more locations, with better lighting, seating and accessibility
Building on Western Europe’s largest zero emission bus fleet, with up to 6,000 zero emission buses in service by 2030, the equivalent of two entering service every day
Improving passenger confidence and safety with our trial of CCTV at 30 bus shelters to evaluate the feasibility of a wider introduction
Investing in bus driver training to support a better and consistent customer experience
Improving bus station layouts to improve safety, accessibility and customer experience