London bus drivers will gather at Oxford Street tomorrow to mark the city’s planned pedestrianisation and demand safe working conditions across the capital’s bus network. The Bus Driver Bill of Rights campaign is calling for guaranteed safety standards, stronger protections for drivers and respect at work. The rally begins outside Oxford Circus Underground Station at 12:00 on Sunday 21 September, with all drivers, supporters and members of the public invited to join.
Image © Google / Greater London Authority
The action takes place on the same day that the Mayor and TfL will have taken control of the landmark shopping street as part of the Mayor’s plans to pedestrianise much of Oxford Street in 2026. While public attention focuses on “where will the Buses go?”, Bus Drivers supporting the Bill of Rights have consistently indicated that working conditions for Bus Drivers have degraded to a point where they cannot perform their jobs safely and with duty of care for passengers and road users. Drivers frequently report fatigue-inducing schedules and 40c bus cabs with no or faulty Air Conditioning. The Mayor has confirmed to the London Assembly that one in four London Bus Routes lack toilets for Bus Drivers at one end.
Bus Drivers have long evidenced that these unsafe schedules, hot cabs, lack of route toilets/rest facilities and poorly-maintained vehicles directly impact upon their ability to drive with duty of care, and thus might put their passengers and other road users at risk. The Bus Driver Bill of Rights sets out 12 key demands Bus Drivers are campaigning for the Mayor to inscribe into TfL’s Framework Bus Services Contract, the primary legal document under which TfL’s 10 or so Bus Operators are franchised to perform public Bus Services in London. Among these “Rights” are proper rest breaks and safe schedules, clean and serviced toilet facilities at the both ends of every route, working cab air conditioning in summer and heating in winter, and protection for Bus Drivers who report safety problems to their employers and/or CIRAS. Over 6.5 million journeys depend on London’s bus drivers each day. Campaigners say that the current conditions permitted by TfL and the Mayor not only harm drivers, but also endanger passengers and pedestrians.
Joining the Bus Drivers will be Transparency and Governance Campaigner, Tom Kearney, of #LondonBusWatch, who survived being critically injured in a TfL Bus crash on Oxford Street in 2009. Asked about Sunday’s “This is Oxford Street” event, Kearney commented: “While we celebrate the Mayor’s decision to lead on making Oxford Street safer for pedestrians, by failing to embed a guarantee of safe working conditions in TfL’s Framework Bus Contract, The Mayor’s just transferring the well-evidenced risk of an “Institutionally Unsafe” Bus Operation from one street and permitting that risk to be present elsewhere across London. The Bus Drivers Bill of Rights are just Human Rights. Frankly, I’m at a loss to understand why the Mayor, as a former Human Rights Lawyer and the TfL Chair, refuses to agree to these reasonable working conditions guarantees that most of us assume are ‘givens’ in any working environment.
Image © London Bus Forums
The Bus Driver Bill of Rights flyer sets out the demands clearly with campaigners insisting that urgent action is needed. The 12 points include safer schedules and proper breaks, clean and available toilets at the end of each bus route, protection for Bus Drivers who report safety concerns to their employers or confidential safety reporting schemes, and an end to harassment of drivers signed-off sick.
Image © London Bus Forums
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