Route N518 – creation of a new night bus service between Central London and Ruislip
Update 04 March 2024
This consultation has now closed. Thank you to everyone who responded. We are analysing your feedback and will report back shortly.
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We would like to hear your views about the proposed creation of a new night bus route N518 to run between Trafalgar Square and Ruislip Station via Wembley, Sudbury Hill and Rayners Lane, covering areas in the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow and Hillingdon. The new route follows the alignment of the existing route N18 between Trafalgar Square and Barham Park Roundabout travelling through the City of Westminster and the London borough of Brent.
On this page 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 take part.
Summary of proposals
How these proposals may change your bus journey
Background
How you can find out more
Equality Impact Assessment
Accessible Information
Tell us your views
What happens next
Summary of proposals
- We propose to create a new night bus route N518 to run between Ruislip Station and Trafalgar Square (via Wembley, Sudbury Hill and Rayners Lane) on all nights. The proposed route will operate every 30 minutes on weeknights and every 15 minutes on weekend nights. Operating hours on weekend nights are between 23:05 and 06:55 and between 23:15 and 06:45 on weeknights
- Demand at weekends has increased by 4% above the pre-pandemic average demand on route N18
- The proposal will replace the route N18 leg between Sudbury and Harrow Road Station and Trafalgar Square on all nights with the N518
- The proposal will increase the frequency of the route N18 leg between Harrow Weald High Road and Trafalgar Square on weekend nights from a bus every 30 minutes to one every 15 minutes
You can find out more about how the proposals may affect your bus journey.
Background
London’s bus network is our most affordable, accessible, and available form of public transport and offers the main sustainable alternative to cars for those journeys that cannot easily be walked or cycled. It is also London’s most flexible mode of public transport.
We continuously review and adapt the bus network to reflect changing customer needs. This includes proposing changes to existing bus routes, so services operate in areas where our customers need them most.
Read more about how we are increasing the number of bus journeys by making bus travel better, faster and greener in our Bus action plan.
In 2012/2013, a proposal to extend route N18 from Sudbury to Ruislip via Rayners Lane was developed by TfL with the support of the four boroughs that the extension would go through (LB Brent, LB Ealing, LB Harrow and LB Hillingdon).
Based on areas with a high population density, without a night bus service, feedback from the relevant boroughs at that time and finding a routing that has a business case, a route for a new night bus service was identified running from Sudbury along A4090 (Whitton Avenue and Alexandra Avenue) to Rayners Lane and Ruislip Station Approach where it will terminate.
Since the suspension of the weekend-only night bus route 114, there is no night bus routes in the Ruislip area and as such, there is a need for a service to serve this part of London at night.
How you can find out more
We have provided more information to help you respond:
- Maps showing current and proposed route
- Linear map showing current and proposed route
- A downloadable copy of our consultation survey in case you would prefer to respond offline
You can use the questions tool on this page during the consultation period. We will respond your questions as soon as we can.
Equalities Impact Assessment
Our Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) identifies:
- The affects these proposals could have on people
- How we propose to minimise any negative impacts
After we’ve considered all comments, the EqIA will be reviewed and may be updated.
We use the EqIA to help us decide if, and how, we should proceed with these proposals.
Accessible Information
We want to make sure everyone is able to take part in our consultations. To help make it accessible to everyone we have provided:
- An Easy Read version of our proposals and survey
- Audio versions of the proposals and survey
- Use the ‘translate’ button in the footer of this page to translate this website into a number of languages
Connecting with London's deaf community on our consultations
To further enhance how we consult with London's deaf community we offer:
- A British Sign Language (BSL) video of our proposals and survey
- A British Sign Language (BSL) consultation conversation service for this consultation. This service will allow the TfL consultation lead to have a two-way BSL translated discussion on any aspect of this consultation with a BSL speaker. To request a BSL consultation conversation please contact us at haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk and we will be in contact to arrange this at a convenient time
What happens next
These proposals are subject to the outcome of our consultation. Once consultation ends on Sunday 3 March 2024, we will spend time considering all the responses we receive and will prepare a consultation report.
The consultation report will help us reach a decision about how bus route N518 may change.
The report will be available to everyone that takes part in the consultation and a copy will be published on our website.
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How these proposals may change your bus journey
Share How these proposals may change your bus journey on Facebook Share How these proposals may change your bus journey on Twitter Share How these proposals may change your bus journey on Linkedin Email How these proposals may change your bus journey linkOur proposal is designed to ensure we can support increased demand for bus services along existing route N18 between Trafalgar Square and Barham Park Roundabout at weekends and offer new journey opportunities from/to Rayners Lane/Ruislip.
Impact on passengers
The extension to Ruislip would help to encourage modal shift to public transport by increasing attractiveness of the bus service at all times of the night.
New journey opportunities
The extension to Ruislip would develop new and improved connections and offer direct journeys to places that people want to go to and return from. It will provide links between Ruislip and other locations on the proposed route such as Wembley and to the night-time leisure and employment opportunities of central London.New direct links would be created at night between Ruislip and locations such as Rayners Lane, Northolt Park, Sudbury Hill, Wembley, Harrow Road, Kensal Green, Harlesden, Maida Hill, Paddington and central London.
The extension would improve accessibility by offering greater journey options for many of the groups of Londoners who face barriers to travelling around the network; including but not exclusive to older people, disabled people, women travelling at night, members of the LGBTQ+ community and lower paid workers.
Bus frequencies
In addition, there would be a higher frequency of service on the common section shared by the N18 and N518 between Trafalgar Square and Barham Park Roundabout of a bus every 7.5 minutes at weekends
This proposal will reduce the frequency of buses serving Sudbury & Harrow Road Station at night because the proposed N518 will not serve the bus stops at the station. On weekday nights, the frequency of buses serving these stops will reduce from a bus every 15 minutes to one every 30 minutes. At weekends, the frequency will reduce from a bus every 10 minutes to one every 15 minutes.
However, these bus stops are located within 500 metres of the Bridgewater Road/Chaplin Road bus stops on Harrow Road that will continue to be served by both the N18 and N518.
There is public lighting on the walking route between the first/last common stops of the N18 and N518 on Harrow Road and the bus stops at Sudbury & Harrow Road Station that will not be served by the N518. There are shelters and public lighting at these bus stops (Bridgewater Road and Chaplin Road). Please see figure 1 below for locations.
Roads to be newly served by the N518
The new roads that the route would traverse from Harrow Road heading westbound are:
- Bridgewater Road
- Whitton Avenue East
- Whitton Avenue West
- Sheridan Terrace
- Pett’s Hill
- Alexandra Avenue
- Rayners Lane
- Village Way
- Eastern Avenue
- North View
- Elm Avenue
- Park Way
- Pembroke Road
- Station Approach
In the opposite direction heading eastbound, the roads that the route would traverse are:- Station Approach
- Pembroke Road
- Park Way, Elm Avenue
- North View
- Eastern Avenue
- Village Way
- Village Way East
- Imperial Drive
- Alexandra Avenue
- Pett’s Hill
- Sheridan Terrace
- Whitton Avenue West
- Whitton Avenue East
- Bridgewater Road where it will merge back onto Harrow Road
Existing stops to be newly served
On the proposed route of the N518 between Barham Park Roundabout and Ruislip Station, there are bus stops that already exist because they serve current bus routes. Some of these existing bus stops are proposed to be newly served at night by the N518. Please see linear diagram below for details. Proposed bus stop names and locations are indicative for consultation purposes.
(Click on map for larger image)New bus stops are proposed to allow the N518 to serve the locations with indicative bus stops marked with blue dots in figure 3 below. Please note locations shown for proposed bus stops are indicative for consultation purposes only.
- We propose to install two new eastbound and two new westbound bus stops on Elm Avenue
- We also propose to install two new eastbound and two new westbound bus stops on Alexandra Avenue between the junctions with Eastcote Lane and Northolt Road
Figure 3 below shows the proposed section of the N518 between Barham Park Roundabout and Ruislip Station. The red dots on the map indicate areas that have existing bus stops, served by existing bus routes and the blue dots indicate the areas without existing bus stop infrastructure.
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BSL videos
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British Sign Language (BSL) video
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British Sign Language (BSL) video
