REVEALED: Map shows how EastLondonLines boroughs were hit hardest by bus strike

As at Friday June 22, 2012 09:00am Image: Talisman

New mapping technology has shown how East London Line boroughs were hardest hit by last Friday’s strike. Data obtained by researchers shows that only 34 per cent of all buses were running during the day, leaving East and South London the most affected areas of the capital.

As at Thursday June 21, 2012 13:18 (BST) Image: Talisman

The boroughs of Croydon, Lewisham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney were particularly affected due to the strike action last Friday at garages operated by London Central. London Central, which covers the eastern boroughs and is a subsidiary of Go Ahead, had a majority of their buses stranded in garages because of the strike over special payments for the Olympics.

London Central garages in the East London Lines area are: Belvedere Depot, Bexleyheath Garage, Camberwell Garage, Mandela Way Depot, Merton Garage, New Cross Garage, Northumberland Park Depot, Peckham Garage, Putney Garage, Rainham Depot, Silvertown Depot, Stockwell Garage, Sutton Garage, Waterloo Red Arrow Base and Waterside Way Base.

Injunctions preventing strike action were awarded to bus companies Aviva, Metroline and Go Ahead subsidiary, London General but seventeen other bus companies were affected.

The maps were created by Talisman, a research group funded by the National Centre for Research Methods. Talisman is a team made up of experts in the field of spatial modelling and simulation. These experts are based at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), a unit in the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London and the Centre for Spatial Analysis and Policy (CSAP) at the University of Leeds.

Data from Friday’s strike at 9am was compared to data taken at midday the day before, which tracked the number of London buses running during the strike. The heat map below shows the density of buses at 9am on the day of the strike. Using this link to the original map provided on the Talisman website, specific bus routes running at that time can be found. Specific information is also provided on final destination, registration and exact location.

Heat map of bus locations for Friday June 22, 2012 09:00am Image: Talisman

Richard Milton of Talisman explained: “The data was obtained from the TfL Live Bus Arrivals API web service, which we called every 3 minutes between 8am and midnight to get data for every bus running in London. We know the positions of every bus stop in London and the API gives us the time each bus is expected at the next stop, so we can calculate a location from this. We have one map for each 3 minute period during the day.”

“I actually only just got this working in time for the strike, so we don’t have full data for a normal day to compare against yet. That’s why the comparison of numbers of buses was with the lunchtime data for Thursday.”

The London Evening Standard reported today that union representatives have warned of further strikes if a deal is unable to be reached and will fight to have injunctions that prevented all of London’s privately own bus companies striking overturned.

More information on bus strike mapping data can be found on the Talisman website.

By Lauren Buljubasic

 

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