Several services were hit by a sudden change of operator in August and a cyber attack on TfL in September

A W9 bus without a destination indicator (credit @sheridan100_a)

Transport for London (TfL) has pledged to fix ongoing issues with bus services in Enfield, Barnet and Haringey.

Various problems on several routes in North London have been ongoing since the start of August, when independent operator Sullivan Buses suddenly ended its contract with TfL following a dispute over rising costs and unpaid debts.

Although alternative operators were quickly found, ongoing problems include destinations not being displayed on the large indicators at the front of buses, timetables not being followed properly and unreliable live information on the TfL Go app.

These issues were then compounded by a cyber attack on TfL in September which has continued to cause multiple problems with the transport authority’s electronic systems.

The bus routes affected by the ending of Sullivan Buses’ contract were the 217, 298, 299, 327, 389, 399, 549 and W9 services.

Asked to respond to complaints from bus passengers in Enfield about the continuing poor service found on some of these services, Rosie Trew, TfL’s head of bus service delivery, said: “While we work to restore our systems following the recent highly sophisticated cyber security incident, we are now able to start uploading new schedule data, meaning live customer information will be available again soon.

“We would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and thank everyone for their patience. Customers will still be able to find bus timetables on our website while we work to restore customer information as quickly as possible.”

Regarding the problems with bus indicators, Trew added: “We are also working closely with the bus operator to ensure that signage displayed at the front of the bus is clear and accessible. New destination blinds have now been delivered and are being fitted to W9 buses.”

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