Sunday was the 5th best day ever on diamond geezer, visitornumberswise, and came within a smidge of being the 4th. As usual it had nothing to do with something I'd just written, just thousands of people piling onto an old post which just happened to answer a question someone had innocently asked.
This time the bombardment platform was Reddit, specifically the r/london subreddit, and the question was
That photo is of bus stop R at Elephant & Castle station, the first southbound stop on Walworth Road, which has 12 daytime bus routes and 4 nightbus routes, a total of 16.
In that post I pulled apart an FoI response and produced a list of the busiest bus stops based on passenger boarding data from June 2022.
London's busiest bus stops 1)[R] MARBLE ARCH STATION/PARK LANE (s/b) (2 6 13 16 23 36 74 137 148 390 414) 2)[H] WOOD GREEN STATION (n/b) (121 141 184 221 232 329 W4) 3)[A] STRATFORD BUS STATION (n/b) (69 158 257) 4)[R] ELEPHANT & CASTLE STATION (s/b) (12 35 40 45 68 136 148 171 176 343 468 P5) 5)[N] WOOLWICH ARSENAL STATION (n/b) (96 99 122 177 180 472)
I like how that list does indeed include bus stop R at Elephant & Castle station, proving what a good intuitive guess the original questioner made given there are 22000 bus stops to consider.
In my post I also said two bus stops outside Brixton station probably ought to be very high on this list, but TfL had juggled the routes stopping there since the data was produced so it was impossible to be sure.
But that's only part of what the original questioner said. They also said "I can't think of of any stop with more routes" and that's also something I've addressed in a previous post. Unfortunately that post is now 8 years old and umpteen bus routes have since been fiddled with so that list is very much not current. So here's my attempt at an updated version for 2024...
The London bus stops served by the most bus routes
All three of these bus stops are along the Strand.
All are served by 21 bus routes.
I was in central London yesterday evening so I went along to check and took these photos.
As you can see the Southampton Street bus stop has tiles for 21 bus routes - 8 daytime and 13 nightbuses. However the Bedford Street bus stop only has tiles for 20 bus routes - the N26 is missing. This is an error, the N26 definitely stops here. I checked and it's wrong on both sides. And the Savoy Street bus stop only has tiles for 19 bus routes - the N21 are N44 are missing. This is another error, the N21 and N44 definitely stop here.
I checked back eight years and Bedford Street was also missing the N26 then. Savoy Street used to have an N21/N44 tile but this is now missing. These multi-route stops must be a right pain to alter when bus routes change, and it seems the Men Who Change The Tiles have buggered up twice.
These are the only bus stops served by more than 20 routes. There used to be three others across Waterloo Bridge, but TfL have been so successful in culling central London bus routes that those are now down to just 15 routes each.
There are no bus stops with 19 or 20 routes - that's how far ahead the Strand bus stops are.
There are five bus stops with 18 routes.
Museum Street(E) 18 routes: 8 19 38 55 98 188 N1 N8 N19 N25 N38 N41 N55 N68 N98 N171 N207 N242
This stop's just off New Oxford Street near the British Museum. Although it's served by 18 bus routes only six of them are daytime buses so you might think this doesn't properly count. Don't worry, the remaining four stops are all out in the suburbs and have lots of proper daytime buses.
Edgware Station(G) 18 routes: 32 79 107 113 142 186 204 221 240 251 288 292 303 340 384 N5 N32 N113
This stop's immediately alongside Edgware station. However it's for alighting only - you can't catch a bus here. Also 14 of these routes terminate here so you might think this doesn't properly count.
Bromley Civic Centre(T) 18 routes: 61 119 126 138 146 162 208 246 261 314 320 336 352 358 367 SL5 N3 N199
This stop's on the bypass avoiding the pedestrianised section of Bromley High Street, heading south. It beats the northbound stop because the Superloop doesn't stop there, only here.
Hounslow High Street(K) 18 routes: 81 110 111 116 117 120 203 222 235 237 281 423 E8 H22 H28 H32 H98 N9
This stop's just off Hounslow High Street, heading east, and is the penultimate stop for 10 routes terminating at Hounslow bus station. You can board all these routes here, even if it's only for one stop, but you might think this doesn't properly count. It's also one of only two bus stops in London served by as many as 17 daytime bus routes. Here's the other one...
High Street / Orpington War Memorial(R) 18 routes: 51 61 208 353 358 B14 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 N199
This one's on Orpington High Street, heading north, and scores really highly because all 11 R-prefix buses stop here. The R2 skips the southbound stop opposite, otherwise that'd be in my list too. According to the results of a recent consultation the B14 and R6 will be merging soon, so the number of routes here will be dropping to 17.
There are currently seven bus stops served by 17 bus routes.
•• Horse Guards Parade (N) and (S)
• Westminster Station/Parliament Square (A)
• Bromley Civic Centre (S)
• High Street / Orpington War Memorial (S)
•• Tubbenden Lane (H) and (J) (outside Orpington station)
So, to finally answer all the points in that Reddit post...
Is this London's busiest bus stop?
No, it's 4th busiest (unless any of the southbound stops at Brixton station beat it).
The busiest bus stop is at Marble Arch on Park Lane, heading south (ditto).
I can't think of any stop with more routes.
There are at least 15 bus stops with more than 16 routes.
Bus stops A, J and U on the Strand have the most - 21.
Hounslow High Street (K) and Bromley Civic Centre (T) have the most daytime routes - 17 each.
