Minutes of ETUG meeting - 24th November 2023 at 19:00 hrs
Held in the Conference Room of the Enfield Civic Centre
1. Chairs Welcome
Chair Ray Knight
He welcomed everyone to the meeting including the guest speaker Chris Cole, Head of Strategic Transport and Policy Enfield Council
2. Apologies
Apologies received from Basil Clarke, Phillip Ridley and Robert Taylor
Members Present: Dave Cockle, Ray Knight, John Prior, Sean Cirillo, John Williams, Peter Smith, Peter Jeffrey, Cllr Peter Fallart and Faye Medcalf
3. Presentation by Chris Cole, Head of Strategic Transport and Policy Enfield Council
Chris introduced himself to his role, position, and brief background on his past roles.
I. Sources of data summarised within the borough and used by the council.
LB Enfield -
Traffic Sensors
Cycle Counters
Air quality monitoring
TfL -
Bus and cycle analytics
National sources -
Census
Rail
II. Key notes of transport data within the borough
Enfield Town to Southbury, Ponders End and Edmonton Green, Fore Street have the busiest bus corridors.
North Circular Roads and Great Cambridge Roads north of Cambridge Roundabout have the lowest speeds.
Palmers Green, Green Lanes and Green Roads have the highest delays reported on bus routes.
Air pollution is more common along the North Circular corridor.
Enfield Road, Lea Valley Road, North Circular, Hertford Road and Palmers Green, Green Lanes are listed as bus priority for investments.
Peter Smith raised a question regarding “extending the 456 bus route to Crews Hill Station”
Chris Cole responded “TfL had made themselves clear they won't be pursuing the extension at this time, mainly on grounds of limited demand and a requirement for a bus turnaround facility.
Dave Cockle raised another matter regarding the low frequencies on our rail services in particular both the Overground Southbury Loop and Enfield Town services as well as the Great Northern services from Enfield Chase.
We as a group agreed to forward the priorities we want implemented for bus and rail services.
4. Matters arising from the previous meeting
Routes 279 and the W8 to receive brand new electric buses.
5. Updates from train operation companies
I. Greater Anglia
Train operator of the year (1st in the league)
95.9% of services arrive on time
1.4% cancellations
Reinstating the 4tph to Stanstead airport during the peaks, all-new train railway.
New waiting shelters are being invested, almost pre-COVID levels for inner London travel.
II. London Overground
3.6% cancellations
95% on-time
1st place for operator performance for services up to three minutes late.
Trialled customer initiative to use less busy weekday services.
III. Great Northern
89.0% of services arrive on time
5.74% of services cancelled
IV. London Underground
The first of the new 2024 tube stock was tested in Germany
Testing on the Piccadilly line remains on target to commence next year in 2024.
Sean Cirillo raised concerns over “Great Northern metro services being held at Alexandra Palace to be overtaken by a delayed Sevenoaks bound Thameslink train, creating delays for the Great Northern services, occasionally up to 10 minutes”
Dave Cockle responded, “Thameslink services are given priority over Great Northern metro services on traffic”.
6. Update on bus services
I. New 377 electric buses
New buses for the 377 have been constructed and registered. With the first one stationed at the Enfield bus garage.
The new buses are expected to roll out soon, looking at next year subject to charging infrastructure and driver-type training being ready.
II. 30 new electric buses have been ordered for the 279.
The same type of electric buses used on the 307 are placed for the route.
The new spec interior will be featured including wood effect flooring, advanced digital announcing information, sun roofing and high-back seating.
III. Superloop route SL1 is expected to commence on Saturday 9th December 2023
The first departure from Finchley will be at 05:00 AM with the last departure leaving Walthamstow at 00:50 AM.
The frequency will run every 12 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes and every 15 minutes on Sundays and evenings.
The route will stop at Friern Barnet Town Hall, Beaconsfield Road (New Southgate Station), Arnos Grove Station, Palmerston Road (Green Lanes, Palmers Green), Silver Street Station, Eley Trading Estate (Meridian Water), Crooked Billet, Forest Road/Bell Corner and Walthamstow Market. This is a limited stopping service.
The route will also operate with double-deck buses.
IV. Bus stats 2022/2023 usage data
Both Enfield routes 279 and 149 routes are on the top ten busiest routes in London with the 149 at 2nd place and the 279 at 8th place.
399 and the 327 are on the ten least used routes in London with the 399 at 1st place and the 327 at the 8th least used.
Both Enfield night routes the N29 and the N279 are on the top ten busiest night routes with the N29 at 3rd place and the N279 at 6th place.
Top 5 busiest routes in the Enfield borough locally:
149: 12,034,285
279: 9,584,914
141: 8,384,745
102: 6,554,480
34: 6,190,475
Top 5 least used routes in the Enfield borough locally:
399: 399: 8,381
327: 48,612
377: 244,606
456: 338,952
W9: 623,475
Top 5 most recovered routes in the Enfield borough by usage from its pre-pandemic:
232: 99.7%
192: 99.5%
317: 99.3%
313: 96.1%
N279: 96.0%
Top 5 least recovered routes in the Enfield borough by usage from its pre-pandemic:
327: 67.6%
299: 68.7%
W9: 71.9%
259: 77.0%
377: 77.8%
Peter Jeffrey asked, “if any review or amendments be made to the least used routes in Enfield?”
Sean Cirillo responded, “There are no current plans to amend or restructure the least-use bus routes, however, each route is reviewed”. He also expressed personal doubt the “W9 bus route may not survive in its current form in the long term. Mainly due to the route paralleling the 456 for most of its routing and taking patronage off the route.”
Ray Knight also raised concerns over “handling bus stops not in use, in particular, drivers sometimes alighting for you or skipping the stops.”
7. Update on environment forums
No update on the environment forum. However, it's stated there will be a meeting next week with a TfL guest speaker expected to attend
8. ETUG’s website and Membership
A total of 416 views on the website over the last three months totalling 1110 views of all time.
The top search engine for accessing the website continues to be Google and Facebook.
Two new members gained since our last meeting totalling 42 members in total.
An average of 60.8% of email open rates and 5.7% for clicking on links provided for the last three months.
9. AOB
Peter Smith announced, “There will be a meeting for the over 50s forum at the Enfield Council chambers with Joanne McCarthey will explain the role of the GLA and her responsibilities as well climate change and pollution”. This event will take place on Tuesday 28th of November at 10:00 AM. Non-members are welcome to attend.
Sean Cirillo proposed “if having the option to attend via Zoom can be made permanent after successfully conducting it today with our guest speaker, Chris Cole as well John Prior”
All the committee voted to agree on this.
Ray Knight ended the meeting by thanking everyone for attending.
Next meeting Thursday 29th February 2024 19:00 hrs.
Below is a link to the minutes viewed from the documentation:
https://docs.google.com/
