Two north London bus routes are being redrawn — and one goes

Bus consultations attract almost no attention until the bus stops coming, at which point they attract a great deal.

The proposals

Transport for London proposes to withdraw route 67 and to reroute route 149 to run Wood Green to London Bridge. Peak frequency on the 149 would move from a bus every seven minutes to one every eight. Edmonton Green loses its direct link.

The consultation closes on Sunday 20 September 2026.

Seven minutes to eight does not sound like anything

It is worth being precise about what that change actually is. A minute on the headway is roughly a 12% reduction in buses per hour on the corridor at the busiest time of day. On a route that is already full at the front end, a 12% cut in capacity is not experienced as a slightly longer wait; it is experienced as the occasional bus one cannot board.

The withdrawal is the substantive item

Rerouting moves a service. Withdrawal removes one, and the people most affected by a removed bus route are, reliably, the people least likely to respond to an online consultation about it — which is precisely why the closing date is worth repeating.

Edmonton Green's loss of a direct link is the sort of change that reads as tidy on a network map and as a bus, a wait and a second bus on a Tuesday morning.

What a consultation response is actually for

Not a vote. TfL is not counting objections; it is looking for journeys it has not modelled. A response that says which trip one makes, at what time, and what one would do instead is worth a great deal more than a response saying the proposal is a bad one.