Twenty people died in collision with, or on board, a London bus last year, according to the latest data.
This included 10 pedestrians, two cyclists and eight passengers. This compares with 17 bus-related fatalities in 2023, of which seven were pedestrians, and marks a 17% year on year increase.
One of the victims was Catherine Finnegan, who was hit by a bus near Victoria station in January 2024.
Comment: Are London's buses getting more dangerous?
The data emerged when Transport for London resumed publication of its road safety “dashboard” after a gap of about six months following a cyber attack on its IT systems.
The data shows there have been 164 bus-related fatalities between January 1, 2014, and December 31, 2024.
This appears to surpass a previous estimate, compiled by bus safety campaigners, of 93 “preventable” bus deaths since Sadiq Khan became mayor in 2016.
However the 164 deaths include cases where passengers have died from medical incidents while on board a bus.
TfL has come under repeated pressure to do more to reduce road deaths. It insists it remains on course to achieve Sir Sadiq’s “vision zero” target of eradicating road deaths in the capital by 2041, including an interim target of no bus deaths by 2030.
The number of incidents in 2024 – including those resulting in injury to passengers, pedestrians or other road users – was the highest figure for eight years. There were 76,846 incidents in 2016.
The number of incidents on buses has grown over the last five years despite a long-term decline in bus passengers.
Last week The Standard revealed that the number of bus journeys has fallen by six million in a year, mainly because of declining bus speeds – meaning passengers get stuck on board for longer.
TfL’s data breaks the incidents down into incident type – such as assault, slip, trip or fall, medical incident or collision – the borough it happened, the bus firm involved, the bus garage involved, the bus route, the injury outcome (whether the person was taken to hospital or refused treatment), the category of victim (bus driver, passenger or pedestrian) and their age and gender.
TfL said it was “redoubling efforts” to improve safety on buses to meet its Vision Zero targets.
It said that buses were the “safest way to travel on the roads” and carried more people than any other public transport mode.
It said: “The leading cause of fatal incidents on the network was collisions with pedestrians and we remain determined to ensure that nobody is killed by collisions on the bus network.
“This includes ongoing work to roll out a new design of the front end of buses to reduce the impact of a collision, bringing new technology such as Intelligent Speed Assist to more buses and plans for further safety improvements this year at our bus stations.”
Action planned for 2025 to improve safety includes redesigning the bus driver’s cab to make it more comfortable, fitting buses with cameras rather than mirrors and trialling the return of the Routemaster “ding ding” bell that alerted passengers to “hold tight” as the bus is about to depart from a bus stop.
Lorna Murphy, TfL's director of buses, said: “It continues to be completely unacceptable that anyone should be killed or seriously injured while travelling and we remain committed to our Vision Zero goal of eradicating death and serious injury from London’s roads and the bus network.
“We are redoubling our efforts alongside all bus operators, manufacturers and the boroughs to make the network safer through our comprehensive and world-leading bus safety programme.
“This is delivering major safety improvements across our fleet, our roads and the wider bus network and we remain committed to learning from every collision to end the trauma caused by serious incidents.”
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