Reduced 197 bus service from August

Local talk
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Route 197 will be cut in service from every 12 minutes to every 15 minutes from Saturday 29th August on Monday to Saturday daytimes. No change to evenings or Sundays which stay every 20 minutes.

This slightly reduces the amount of buses between Forest Hill and Penge from 10 per hour to 9. (122 also adds buses between FH and Sydenham). Yet it’s reduced to four per hour if you’re travelling to Peckham or between Penge and Croydon.

This is part of the new tender which will eventually include new electric buses on the route.

Something had to give to give us the SL15 in 2027 and this appears to be it although TfL in the tender report claim that levels of passenger use are still low compared to pre-Covid levels.

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If they’re cutting the useful buses for the SL15 that’s a real shame :anguished_face:

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The annoying thing it only shadows the 197 for two bus stops that the SL15 will stop at.

TfL have been shaving the frequency of bus routes across London over the last few years to save money. Nearby the 484 has been cut to every 15 mins, the P13 is being cut to every 20 mins in October and the 12 in Dulwich which used to be a very high frequency route is every 12 minutes, which is less frequent than the 176 and the 185!