Greens say extend 603 route

Transport for London has rejected a petition signed by more than 400 people for a new bus route
from North Finchley via East Finchley to the Royal Free Hospital, on the grounds that the route
would require a subsidy estimated at more than 800,000 pounds a year.
Barnet Green Party, which raised the petition, is challenging the figures and has put forward a
modified proposal to run more journeys on the existing 603 route between Muswell Hill and Swiss
Cottage and to modify the route slightly to take it past the Royal Free.
Green members in the London Assembly will formally ask Mayor Boris Johnson to tell TfL to work
out the cost of an hourly service until midnight on the amended 603 route.
The daytime journeys would help people to reach the Royal Free and the Greens believe the
evening buses would be popular with people wanting to attend social events along the route, which
goes via East Finchley, Highgate village, Kenwood, The Spaniards Inn and Hampstead village.
The 603 currently operates only four journeys each way from Monday to Friday, two in the morning
and two in the afternoon, mainly to serve North London schools.
In response to the petition, David Brown, TfL's managing director for surface transport, told Green
Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones that the North Finchley to Royal Free route would not
attract enough passengers to justify the estimated subsidy.
But Andrew Newby, of the Green Party's East Finchley group, said: “TfL bases its rejection of a
new route on its estimate that there would be around 700 passenger trips per day if a 20 minute
service was provided. People in East Finchley know that far more people than that would use it,
reducing the amount of subsidy the route would require.”
“More and more Finchley people are being referred to the Royal Free Hospital. At the moment
people have to take two buses and it usually takes them over an hour to get from East Finchley to
the Royal Free.”
Brown also rejected other ideas for improving bus routes between East and North Finchley, linked
only by the 263. Extending route 17 to North Finchley would cost around 1.2 million pounds
according to TfL's calculations, while diverting some 134 buses via East Finchley would mean there
was insufficent capacity on the existing route at peak times, London's transport authority said.
“If we can get a service launched between East Finchley and the Royal Free we are certain it will be
successful. Once that is established we can go back to TfL and make the case for better links to
North Finchley and beyond,” Newby said.
“Many people in that area have said they would use a bus route to Hampstead and the Royal Free,”
he said.
A full copy of Brown's reply to Jones is on www.barnetgreenparty.co.uk.