“It’s a kick right below the belt,” said Amir, a driver, standing in front of his 78 bus on a warm Friday morning. “After all that we’ve been through over the past two years.”
The 78 is one of sixteen bus routes that could be scrapped entirely under Transport for London (TfL) proposals unveiled at the start of June. Three of these – the 45, the 12 and the 78 have large stretches that pass through Nunhead, Peckham, Camberwell and Walworth, areas that do not have Tube stations close by.
The 12 would be largely replaced by TfL extending the 148, and the 78 route would be largely covered by the 388 coming down to Peckham – but the stretch that serves Nunhead to the south-east would not be replaced.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” said Amir, who has been a bus driver for eleven years. He said that he had had Covid-19 three times, including once before the first lockdown. “I was coughing up blood,” he added.
Haroon, another driver who has been in the job a decade, said it felt like “a punch in the guts” when he heard the news. “What are they doing?”
The start and end of the 78 route is on St Mary’s Road in Nunhead, which is around the corner from the Lime Tree sheltered living facility. The managers of the centre did not want to comment, but several passengers and drivers said the 78 route was very useful for residents and people visiting them. “I have them in the bus the whole time,” Amir said. “It gives [the residents] a connection with the outside world.”
The P12, which connects Nunhead with Peckham, Bermondsey and Surrey Quays, is not under threat. But the bus stop is too far away for many people in this part of Nunhead to walk easily, passengers and drivers said. And for people commuting very early in the morning, the P12 starts running too late, at around 7am through Nunhead. The first 78 bus is at 6.15, and is always busy with people going to work, Amir said. “What’s going to happen to them, how are they going to get to their job now?”
One passenger, who did not want to be named, was shocked to hear about the planned cuts and said they would have a big effect on her elderly mother who lives locally.
Another, an elderly woman named Tina, said she “massively relied” on the 78. “Now I’ll have to walk everywhere.”
A fourth passenger said: “They don’t want us to drive a car, but now they’re getting rid of the buses. It doesn’t make any sense. Do they want us to get around at all?”
TfL is consulting on the proposals until July 12, so you can have your say here.
Sign a petition against the cuts here.
Bus drivers ‘first heard they could lose route from rival company’
why would tfl let go of the 78 bus its been going for a long time and there lots of people that use that bus route ,school kids rely on that bus to get them to school and everyone one who working .