So, farewell then the 205 bus from Paddington
Living partly in central Cardiff and partly in North London I have regularly used the TFL bus route 205 from Paddington rail station to either Kings Cross or Angel Islington. Here one can change for a bus to Tottenham. I could of course use the tube but like Lenin in 1902 I prefer to observe London life overground from a bus (this and the beard are my only real connections with Lenin).
Last Saturday the 205 bus from Paddington was withdrawn by TFL. I took my last ride on it from there last Wednesday. There was a good deal of opposition from local user groups but TFL claimed passenger numbers had not returned to pre-pandemic levels (it was always packed when I got on it).
The 205 is now re-routed to run to Marble Arch replacing the 30 which now runs from Hackney Wick to Euston.
The 205 is not one of the historic London bus routes from Edwardian times (many of which still exist albeit mostly in truncated form). In fact it has only existed since 2002. I can’t help feeling however that like rail journeys cut by Beeching in the first half of the 1960s the end of sections of bus routes should be marked by a wake of some kind.
Of course here all that is solid does not melt into air. TFL is constantly changing bus routes, adding, deleting and rerouting.
In the meantime for those heading into central London from Paddington will have to rely on the 27 (change at Gower St)…
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