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Somewhat sooner than expected, Transport for London has launched a consultation about a proposed express bus service running through Palmers Green - part of its plan to create a "Superloop" of fast bus services around the capital.

The X34 will form the northernmost section of the round-London loop, running between Walthamstow Central Station and North Finchley. Currently, TfL envisages that it will serve only eight intermediate stops: after Walthamstow Central it will call at three more locations in Walthamstow, then stop in Edmonton (Silver Street Station), Palmers Green (on the North Circular), Arnos Grove Station, New Southgate and Friern Barnet before terminating in North Finchley.

However, selecting the best stopping points for the express service is one of the aims of the consultation exercise, so they may change. In fact, there are already some alterations from the stops that were being proposed only a month ago, which included the North Middlesex Hospital. The plan now is to stay on the North Circular and instead stop in Palmers Green, near the Green Lanes junction.

Members of the public have until 21st July to ask questions and comment on the proposal. As well as an online survey, it is possible to provide feedback by email, through the post or over the phone.

We are holding a six-week public consultation to hear what you think about these proposals. We want to know if you agree with them, if there is anything you do not agree with, and to understand the reasons why you feel this way.

This questionnaire should take you around five minutes to complete. Once you have submitted your answers, we will ensure your feedback is considered before we decide how to proceed with the proposed X34 bus route.

As part of our decision making, we may decide to (i) proceed with our proposals as stated, (ii) proceed with our proposals but with changes, or (iii) not to proceed at all.

Frequencies and impacts on other routes

TfL plan to run the X34 every 12 minutes during the day on Mondays to Saturdays and every 15 minutes in the evening and all day on Sundays. At stops between Walthamstow and Arnos Grove which are also served by the all-stops 34 route, there would be an X34 or 34 every five to six minutes.

However, frequencies on the all-stops 34 will be reduced: on Mondays to Saturdays during the day from every seven and a half minutes to every ten minutes and in the evenings and all day Sunday from every eight minutes to every fifteen minutes.

So while passengers who are travelling between two X34 stops (and remember, there are only nine such stops along quite a long route) will benefit from an improved frequency, those who need to get on or off somewhere else will see a reduction in bus frequency. This particularly affects anyone wishing to travel along the section of the 34 between Arnos Grove and High Barnet, especially in the evenings and Sundays, when frequency will be halved. Of course, for parts of the route there are other buses runing along the same road that can be used to get to or from an X34 stop, but changing buses isn't convenient for everyone.

Justifying the reduced frequency on the 34, TfL state:

To ensure we continue to match local bus service demand with bus capacity, the introduction of the X34 would require us to plan to reduce the frequency on route 34.

This implies that the main consideration when planning bus frequencies is matching demand with capacity, ie ensuring that there's room onboard for everyone who wants to travel. But cutting the frequency of the 34 risks reducing demand as well, because a more frequent service actually attracts more passengers and a less frequent service makes it more likely that some of them will choose other transport modes, ie drive or take a taxi. And since one of the main purposes behend the introduction of Superloop buses is to coax people out of cars and onto public transport, there's a danger that it will have the opposite effect for some passengers, while those for whom driving or taxis is not an option will be inconvenienced.