FAQs

These new limited stop express routes are designed to minimise journey time, while maximising access to the route by serving interchanges with other bus and rail routes, and key attractors such as town centres. This is done through reducing the number of stops that the bus serves.

We are proposing the stops for the X183 based on demand and to serve key locations in Harrow, Brent and Barnet. The route would connect town centres, hospitals, schools and transport hubs with a quicker bus service than existing routes, and would encourage more sustainable journeys in outer London.

The stops proposed would also provide extra capacity on the busiest part of the existing route 183 between Hendon and Harrow, and support the existing route 125 as new developments at Brent Cross and Colindale continue to be built.

We think we are proposing the right stops - where there is the most demand, where key destinations are located, like stations, and where there are opportunities to ensure the bus can travel faster. However, we want your feedback on whether these are the right places for the new limited stop express bus route to serve.

We have designed our proposals to provide quicker journey times by stopping less frequently.

The X183 would run with: 

• Buses every 12 minutes Monday to Saturday, and  
• Buses every 15 minutes on evenings and Sundays  
• It would be timetabled to run at similar times as a regular day service would  
• During Monday to Saturday daytimes there would be a combined frequency at the common stops on the proposed X183 and the 183 of buses about every six minutes

Routes 183 and 125 are well used and would continue to run alongside the X183. At bus stops where both the 183 and the X183 would stop there would be a bus every six minutes, rather than every eight minutes as there is now. To ensure we continue to match local bus service demand with bus capacity, the introduction of the X183 would require us to plan to reduce the frequency on route 183.  

Therefore, as part of these proposals we would need to plan changes the route 183 frequency to:

• Buses every ten minutes Monday to Saturday (currently every seven and a half minutes), and   
• Buses every twelve minutes on evenings and Sundays (currently every eight minutes)

The frequency of bus route 125 would not change.  

Our aim is that the X183 could be operating by spring 2024. This is dependent on the outcome of this consultation, and further feasibility and commercial terms.