North London to get a boost as route 382 is extended

Local bus services in north London are to get a boost from this Saturday (4 April), as Transport for London (TfL) extends route 382.

Route 382, which is operated by Arriva, currently runs between Southgate and Mill Hill East via Arnos Grove and Finchley Central will now be extended to Millbrook Park.

These changes follow a consultation, which ran from 13 November 2014 to 8 January 2015, which proposed extending the route to Millbrook Park - a new residential development at the former Inglis Barracks site. Once complete the development will include 2,174 dwellings, a primary school, GP surgery, 1,100sq metres of retail and 3,470sq metres of office accommodation.

TfL has worked closely with Barnet Council in planning this enhancement, which supports local plans for expansion of homes to cater for growing population. The council negotiated some funding from the developer to enable the service to start running early in the life of the development.

John Barry, TfL's Head of Network Development for buses, said: `By extending route 382 to Millbrook Park we will be creating new links for local residents to key stations like Finchley Central, Arnos Grove and Southgate. This is part of our ongoing work to continue to monitor and adapt the bus network to meet our passengers needs and offer them the best possible service.

Councillor Dean Cohen, Chairman of the Barnet Council Environment Committee, said: `This extended bus route will provide a welcome transport link to residents on one of newest developments. I am sure it will be very well used as the estate grows.'

Route 382 will continue to run every 15 minutes during the day Monday to Saturday, and every 30 minutes in the evenings and on Sundays.

This service change is part of TfL's management and development of a network that comprises of around 700 routes across Greater London, operated by 7,600 buses at peak times, carrying more than 2.4 billion passengers every year. TfL keeps the network under regular review, working with the London boroughs and other partners to help ensure that services can respond to London's changing travel needs.

Since TfL was formed in 2000 it has invested strongly in London's bus network - resulting in a 69 per cent increase in passenger numbers. London Buses now carry more than 2.4 billion passengers a year, which equates to half of all bus journeys made in England. In recognition of the continued need to invest in bus services - with a increase in demand from the city's rapidly growing population - TfL's latest Business Plan has dedicated around £500m to improve the network over the period from 2015/16 to 2020/21. This will include funding for over 500 extra buses, which will create capacity for an extra 2.9 million customer journeys each week. There is also an additional £200m which will be invested in supporting the reliability of the bus network at a local level with bus priority schemes. A further £25m will be used to fund customer-focused bus driver training to improve customer service.