People are finding new patterns of their daily lives as they adjust to the W12 W14 becoming an hourly service, in place of the 20 or 30 minute service which has run for years.
TfL changed the bus services over the weekend, and now larger buses are serving Wanstead and South Woodford, but less frequently.
There are reports of bus drivers complaining that the larger vehicles don’t easily get through the narrower streets on the Nightingale Estate. But it is the timing change which will probably cause most disruption. One Wansteadium reader, Sumit, stoicly wrote:
“Unless the hourly bus goes past at 15 mins past the hour during the week, my kids will no longer be using a bus after school. I used to take the W12 from school back in 1988 (same school as my kids now attend) but I guess nothing lasts forever. “
The changes were opposed by many residents, and there were complaints that TfL’s consultation process was inadequate, especially to people who do not use the internet.
Retrospective planning permission is being sought for the parcel locker installed in March outside the Krishanco newsagent because it affects ‘the character or appearance of the Wanstead Village Conservation Area’. The application is number 2113/24 at Redbridge Council.
Here is the first view of the Wanstead Curtain, a performance space the Wanstead Fringe has crafted to become a stunning venue for theatre and cinema.
Lights up
The Curtain is a reinvention of the hall at Wanstead Methodist Church on Hermon Hill. It’s been familiar to generations of Wanstead folk, whether through Beavers, junior church, youth club, nursery, ballet lessons or countless other events. Now that legacy will continue.
The church ceased holding services at the site a couple of years ago and the Curtain is the result of a vision shared between the church’s minister, Mike Long, and the Fringe to make something really useful and enduring for Wanstead.
So with much hard work in the past few months, the hall has taken on a completely new vibe, and will be hosting its first events this week as the Fringe gets under way.
Details have become clearer about TfL’s new bus routes serving Wanstead, which are coming into effect this weekend.
At a meeting at the Town Hall in Ilford on Monday night it became clearer that an earlier proposal to remove the Nightingale Estate from the new W14 route, which replaces the W12, has been amended. It now appears the new route will follow the existing one, which will be welcomed by many people who depend on the hail-and-ride service.
However in a major change the new service will run only once every 60 minutes rather than a mix of every 20 and 30 minutes at present. If the same sized buses are being used this will cause serious overcrowding, especially at peak times. It will also limit the usefulness for people using buses for school or to get to Tube stations for work.
And in another significant change, the new services will no longer go into Whipps Cross, but rather stop outside.
This could be the last week of the much-prized W12 bus route as Wanstead knows it as TfL prepares to make a major shift to its services.
Click to enlarge. But yeah, we didn’t really follow it either.
Campaigners against the changes have other ideas though.
From the end of this week, the W12 will no longer serve Wanstead and will instead go from Walthamstow-South Woodford-Woodford Bridge. In its place will come a re-routed W14 which will go via Snaresbrook Tube, but miss the accessible Wanstead Station, then nip down Nightingale Lane before going back on towards South Woodford. It means it will miss much of the Nightingale Estate, large parts of which have come to rely on and cherish the W12 service.
Campaigners are furious, saying the consultation was over complicated and didn’t take everything into account that it should have done. They have amassed thousands of signatures on a petition (which is here).
The campaign group Save Local Buses and Routes for Local Residents issued a statement saying: “Among the scheme, the new W14 (replacing the W12) is being reduced from every 30 minutes to one an hour and, vitally, it will no longer deliver passengers into Whipps Cross Hospital’s grounds. Instead it will halt about a quarter of a mile away – difficult and possibly hazardous for for patients, visitors and staff, especially after dark and in bad weather.
“Incredibly, the same W14, also cuts out the most valuable points on the old route – no longer stopping near Wanstead Tube station with its vital step-free access, nor the useful small bus terminal at Wanstead’s Woodbine Place, missing out most of Wanstead’s high street including pharmacies and GPs, stopping nowhere near South Woodford’s supermarkets and cinema around George Lane, and no longer serving a number of schools, including Forest and only running once an hour to Nightingale Primary.
It will also no longer travel to Walthamstow — passengers will need to switch to the new W12 route. Residents on the massive Nightingale Estate, stretching from Wanstead to South Woodford, will be particularly badly hit, as the bus service provides a lifeline in their large network of roads away from other public transport links. The inadequate hourly service also puts women and other individuals at risk if they have to walk long distances down quiet, dark streets at night.”
