The W7 bus stop on the steep Muswell Hill looks set to soon be moved to outside Boots on Muswell Hill Broadway, after a three year campaign by local Liberal Democrats.
The encouraging news was sent to Lynne Featherstone MP earlier this week following enquiries to the Council and TfL.
Following a campaign of letter writing, numerous site visits and petitioning led by Cllr Martin Newton and the Hornsey and Wood Green MP, TfL and the Council have now agreed to move the bus stop to outside Boots on Muswell Hill Broadway. The move will rely on a successful safety audit and will be on a trial basis.
Lynne Featherstone MP comments:
“I’m really thrilled! Thanks to the support of hundreds of local residents, and years of campaigning, the Council and TfL have finally agreed to work together to make the bus stop accessible.
“This is great step forward for elderly and less mobile residents in the Muswell Hill area, who will hopefully soon be able to get safely on the W7 bus to Hornsey Central.”
Cllr Martin Newton adds:
“A bus stop down a steep hill, for the only bus to Hornsey Central, was always a poor solution. But due to strong backing by local residents, and a relentless Lib Dem campaign, we are now really close to getting the move local people need.
“It feels like common sense has finally prevailed. Fingers crossed for a quick move up to the Broadway. But rest assured, until that bus stop is permanently accessible for local people, we will not stop fighting!”
Lynne Featherstone 
Breathtaking speed! Don’t worry folks, if it only takes them three years to get a bus stop moved, we can rest assured that the economy is in safe hands….
Perhaps we could now deal with a dangerous coalition that is taking the country down a steep hill and threatening the wellbeing of millions
I’m not sure putting a bus stop on a busy roundabout sounds that clever.
This idea doesn’t sound wise to me. I think a more appropriate idea would have been to extend the w7 bus route down colney hatch lane where there used to be a bus garage! Then it could use the bus stop outside the ‘slug and lettuce’ bar. It would also help to halt Muswell Hill from turning into one Giant Bus Interchange.
I read that the round about- formerly the pond was filled in to become a coach stop because when one of the victorian/edwardian developers built the flats that lined the broadway, he didn’t want coach & horses stopping directly outside his building – didn’t seem to work out though.
Anyway.
I don’t think buses are a sustainable solution to Londons public transport issues either. There was once a station here which only seems to have closed down because it’s popularity never picked up after the bus replacement service was put on during the war. I think it might work again. Perhaps when that primary school which is on the site if the station is rebuilt at some point a station plan could be incorporated near by? I don’t know. Just a thought.
Congratulations for a deed well done. I never used taxis so that facility wont be missed but often had to race down the steep slope. No longer will there be the issue of buses stopping and pulling out at an inconvenient spot. I assume the W3 will share the W7 stop and there will be adequate seating at the stop.
Maybe I’m being a bit thick, but where exactly will the bus-stop be? Won’t it block the traffic on the roundabout, causing congestion and a potentially very dangerous blind spot for drivers and, even worse, for pedestrians? I just don’t get it. As Ed says, a better solution would be to run the W7 further up towards Finchley, or even to Archway wouldn’t it? Will the 144 also be stopping outside Boots?
Here’s a great response which sadly I can’t take credit for – but well done Robin.
12 March 2011.
Dear Lynne Featherstone,
Many thanks for sending me news of your success in getting the W7 bus stop on Muswell Hill moved to a more accessible location. Congratulations. This will be welcome compensation indeed for the thousands of your constituents who will be losing their housing benefit, or having their disability allowance cut, or who are deterred from going to college because of the £9000 a year fees, or whose pensions are under attack by the government, or who find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet because of the hike in VAT, or who fear the consequences of the privatisation of the national health service, or who will see their provision for special needs decimated.
At least you will be able to say in your manifesto for the next election, that you kept your promise to get a W7 bus stop moved. Unlike all the other promises that got you and your fellow Liberal MPs elected under false pretences in 2010.
It won’t unfortunately prevent you being unceremoniously thrown out of office. But you can live in hope that some preferment will be granted to you for your contribution as a government minister to the destruction of our public services — such as a seat in the House of Lords. The title Baroness Featherstone of the W7 Bus Stop would be richly deserved.
Yours sincerely,
Robin Beste
” But rest assured, until that bus stop is permanently accessible for local people, we will not stop fighting!”
As the anniversary of the announcement approaches, the fight seems to have gone out of them! Still no sign of the stop being moved.
At least you will be able to say in your manifesto for the next election, that you kept your promise to get a W7 bus stop moved.
Nope, she won’t even be able to say that.