Bus service 'urgently needed' for Surrey village

A Surrey village on the border with London "urgently" needs a bus service, says a local councillor, but authorities on either side of the boundary are refusing to fund it.

Residents of Netherne-on-the-Hill have to walk about half a mile (0.8km) to the village of Hooley to catch a bus to Coulsdon Town railway station.

Ward councillor Shasha Khan said the walk was "not pleasant" when it's dark and that it was an issue for elderly people who need to get to GP appointments in Coulsdon.

London's deputy mayor Seb Dance previously said the extension of a bus link to Netherne would cost £1m which was "not viable", while Surrey County Council said it did "not have the budget available".

The village, which has a population of 1500, is just outside the London borough of Croydon and has had no scheduled public transport links since the community bus service was suspended during the Covid lockdowns, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Last year, a petition calling for Transport for London's (TfL) 463 bus service to be extended from Coulsdon to Netherne was submitted to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

In response, London's Deputy Mayor Seb Dance said: "TfL had carefully assessed the cost of extending the 463 and found it would cost around £1 million per year, assuming a three bus per hour service extended from Coulsdon Station."

Mr Dance added that TfL had “also calculated rough fare income and projected that, based on the settlement of roughly 1500 people, it would cover only a fraction of this cost”.

Since September, residents of Netherne have been able to use the Surrey Connect-on-Demand bus service, but this currently only provides journeys into the Tandridge district of east Surrey rather than crossing the London border in Coulsdon.

The current service is a first come first served basis, and must be requested.

Caroline Russell, Green Group leader at City Hall, has asked the London Mayor to work with Surrey County Council to "open discussions about how services can be provided".

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