Bus route extensions to Wood Green and Hornsey set to finally go ahead

The extension of bus routes 91, N91 and 232 were approved by Transport for London two years ago but required Haringey Council to implement new traffic orders, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Buses in Wood Green and (inset) Gio Iozzi

Bus route extensions in Wood Green and Crouch End are set to go ahead more than two years after being approved by Transport for London (TfL).

Measures needed to extend routes 91, N91 and 232 were signed off by Gio Iozzi, cabinet member for climate action, yesterday (Thursday 23rd).

The 91 currently links Crouch End with central London, while the 232 runs from Turnpike Lane to Wembley via Wood Green and the North Circular, but they will now be extended towards Wood Green and Hornsey.

Extensions to the services were approved by TfL back in March 2024. But progress stalled when, two months later, the council decided against implementing some of the changes needed for the extensions, arguing that “a suitable location for bus driver units had not been identified”.

A council report prepared ahead of Cllr Iozzi’s decision concluded that the location of these units “has now been resolved”.

The route extensions are being carried out to support Haringey Heartlands, a “car free” 2,000-home development on a former gasworks site.

The 91 will be extended beyond Crouch End, through Hornsey to Wood Green, while the 232 will stop running to Turnpike Lane and instead terminate at Haringey Heartlands.

The updated routes will serve Mayes Road, Coburg Road, Western Road, Mary Neuner Road and Clarendon Road in and around the housing development.

According to a council report prepared ahead of the decision, the 232 service will have a temporary route in place until 2028, “with changes to the permanent route after this date”.

Outside disabled parking spaces, the local authority says it plans on prohibiting parking permits for “future occupiers of the residential element of the development”.

The local authority had to carry out an additional statutory consultation before it could sign off on the agreed changes through a new traffic order. This consultation started on 17th June and ended earlier this month, on 8th July.

In its minutes published after Cllr Iozzi’s decision, the local authority said it had “considered all feedback, including objections received to the proposed traffic management orders”.

Revised proposals for a bus stand in Coburg Road were also approved, following a request from TfL. This will see the stop extended from 12m to 23m to allow two buses to use the stand “simultaneously”.

Cllr Iozzi also gave the local authority’s head of highways and traffic delegated authority to make “all necessary” traffic management orders (TMOs) for the delivery of a bus stand at Coburg Road and a bus stop in Mayes Road.

TfL ran a consultation between October and December 2023 on changes to four bus routes that serve Wood Green High Road and Turnpike Lane.

The consultation followed a review of “bus operations and future bus service needs” in Wood Green. This was part of TfL’s ‘Bus Action Plan’, aimed at meeting an increased demand for bus services in the area.

Wood Green and Haringey Heartlands were previously identified by City Hall as an ‘opportunity area’ with potential to for up 4,500 new homes and 2,500 new jobs by 2041.

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