Unbelievably it's been 10 years since TfL last bothered to print a set of London bus maps. Ten whole years.
They used to be updated regularly, then came a 14 month hiatus from January 2015 to March 2016 and then they just stopped. No good reason was ever given, although saving money probably had a lot to do with it.
It's since become harder and harder to work out where buses go, at least for those of us who like to plan our own journeys rather than slavishly following an app. I still use the2016quadrantmaps when travelling around London, they're often invaluable, although the Central London bus map is now impractically inaccurate because so many subsequent changes have occurred.
So it's a joy to report that a new set of London bus maps has finally been published, a proper geographic suite, almost as if TfL have finally seen the error of their ways. I couldn't wait to grab some paper copies.
Physical and digital copies will be provided. Look out for them in bus stations and larger tube stations, while the full set will be available at Visitor Centres, the London Transport Museum and City Hall.
This time there are nine maps rather than five, that's one for each of the eight compass points plus one in the centre. A West End and City summary will appear on the reverse of each map.
The North East map, for example, covers buses from Chingford to Upminster and from Loughton to the Royal Docks. Heathrow appears on two maps but Crystal Palace, annoyingly, is split across three.
It's hoped that having nine maps rather than four means they'll be more useful for planning local journeys. It also allows areas to be shown at greater scale. However the fold-out maps are smaller in size than the previous incarnation, and also printed on thinner paper so may not survive several outings in your jacket pocket.
The front cover designs return to the theme of local attractions. The Central map has a fairly standard Westminster view, bus included, while North East heads to the Olympic Park and North West features Wembley Stadium. South London offers a quirkier pair of dinosaurs, North plumps for parakeets in Highgate Woods... and as for South West, well, we'll get to that.
The real surprise is what they think counts as a bus map these days. It's definitely not what we've been used to.
Don't expect to see a simple road map, it's now a lot more colourful. Don't expect to see a lot of place names, it's now all about interchange with stations. Don't expect the previous confusion with very small numbers, instead a different kind of confusion with big numbers. It's going to take some getting used to.
Previously route numbers were shown alongside the roads and you had to follow them across the map. Now the routes are shown as coloured lines and only numbered at the ends. Arguably it's much easier now to see where the buses go, but patently it's also harder to see what they are.
TfL have very much been following this philosophy of late, for example when producing maps for consultations. I've long thought this unhelpful, especially where several routes follow the same road, but here's that fundamental shift writ large. I mean, just look at the size of the key.
Colourblind passengers may find this particularly hard to get their heads around, if indeed they can use the new maps at all.
Also the edges of the maps now feel less helpful. Whereas previously the routes would go right up to the edge they now end with arrows, some distance away, and this may make gaining an overview harder than before. There also seems to have been somewhat of a cop out in the Purley area, sacrificing the southernmost tip of London to ensure greater clarity.
At least they've gone for dotted lines to make the Superloop stand out.
I am greatly reassured that TfL have finally seen sense and reintroduced London-wide bus maps with up-to-date information. Perhaps the absence of maps meant they no longer knew where their own buses went, making network management increasingly difficult! A fresh suite of public-facing maps thus helps them as well as us. It should also be simple to update the digital maps with revised information every time a bus route changes.
But we need to talk about the South West London map because that is an abomination, and I hope it doesn't set the tone for what's to come.
Uniquely amongst the suite of nine, the South West London map has been produced 'in conjunction with Gail's'. Not only does the bakery chain get a namecheck on the cover alongside a striking photograph of their Brentford store, but the Gail's logo also appears on the map itself. And this being southwest London there are a considerable number of them - I counted nineteen - all given undue prominence simply because the company paid to shoehorn their brand onto the map.
I'm reassured that so far only one map has been commercially sullied in this way. Maybe TfL's commercial team failed to find any relevant businesses for the other sections or maybe they're all in the pipeline, so god help us if Wetherspoons takes South East London or Greggs goes Central.
Whatever, it is a joy to finally have accurate and up-to-date bus maps again, ten years after some budget-focused bigwig decreed we could all do without and should trust an app instead. The full suite of nine should be going live at tfl.gov.uk/maps/bus later this morning, and do look out for physical copies of the maps as you travel around London.
As a special launch offer all bus drivers have been provided with copies of their local map today and will be able to dispense one if you ask, so be sure to request one as you board.
These maps are sure to make travelling around our capital easier, even if they take some getting used to. And they finally right a wrong created ten years ago when some high-minded official decided we no longer needed to know where any of London's buses go, indeed we've all been in the dark ever since.
