A new night bus for the city
Citymapper has been granted permission by Transport for London (TFL) to launch their first commercial night bus service in East London the company announced today.
The CM2 – Night Rider service will run between Highbury & Islington Station and Aldgate East, via Shoreditch and Dalston, on Friday and Saturday nights between 9pm and 5am and will launch in late August/September.
The new service comes after the transport app company trialled a free bus service, the ‘CMX1’ route, in May that took passengers in a circle around the river Thames around Waterloo, Temple and Blackfrairs and stopped and existing bus stops.
The buses which will of course be green will be just like a standard bus where passengers can hop on and off and pay using a contactless credit or debit card.
Unlike normal buses there are some unique differences that may prove popular with passengers. There will be a USB charging port in every seat, smart displays that communicate relevant information, passenger counting to communicate seat availability and integration with the Citymapper app, providing accurate live data.
In a statement Citymapper said they had been “using our analysis tool to identify gaps in cities’ transport networks, based on the demand we see through our app.
“We found central London fairly well covered during the day by existing TFL services, but we identified bigger gaps in the night network. People in London are staying out later, especially in East London.”
“The emergence of the Night Tube has also encouraged late night mobility, but also exposed gaps in the supporting night bus network. We found Highbury & Islington Station (an important hub on the night Victoria line) with inadequate bus coverage linking east,” they added.
Citymapper have partnered with Tower Transit and their Impact Group who are ‘experienced operators and have run some of the popular red bus routes across London’ to service the route with their fleet of green buses.
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