Going back to the Guardian article referred to by MarkA, there are a number of questions raised that are not addressed by what I thought was something of a rambling, unfocused piece.

Firstly, there's no mention of the impact of other competing modes of public transport. The reduction in the number of journeys since 2013 quoted (300m), most of which occurred after Covid, is not that different to the number of passengers now carried by the Elizabeth Line (254m) which opened at about the same time. The Overground seems to have improved and is now marketed much more actively, and although the traditional tube lines have (I understand) lost out to the Elizabeth Line, this must make them more attractive to anyone who used buses in the past to avoid the crush of the Tube. Is this as much a "modal shift" caused by investment in other modes of transport?

Secondly, there seems some confusion in the message or conclusion of the piece. It starts off on the tack that "delays are driving passengers from the buses in London", but later produces some international comparisons showing that actually bus speeds have not declined significantly in London compared to the selection of 11 other major cities overseas for which comparable figures have been obtained. Having waffled on about Livingstone's bendy buses, Boris's "new" Routemasters and Kahn's electric buses (none of which are relevant to the issue of what is causing any delays), there's then an attempt to explain growing delays on various causes, ignoring the international comparison graphic showing just a 1% reduction in bus speeds since 2013, and not instead looking at whether the greater delays in cities such as Singapore, Paris or Dublin have resulted in even greater reduction in passenger numbers.

Thirdly, the graphic showing the increase in delays across Greater London does show a marked geographical variation that is not commented upon nor investigated. There's a sector across the west, largely between the A40 in the north-west and A3 in the south-west where almost all routes show the higher reduction in speeds (annoyingly, the scale is not shown, but if the colour segments are consistent, it looks like most are 12% slower or more, whereas there are many areas where the delays are under 4%). Why is this? Is it reflected in a greater decrease in ridership in West London?

Is it just me, or is anyone else frustrated by the lack of insight shown by so many transport articles like this that appear in what is meant to be "the quality press"?

 
When a central door is fitted the wheelchair access is normally through the central door due to logistics with the interior created by the central door. The layout between single and double door buses are quite different.

Most central door buses can’t use bus stations as wheelchair users have no way of accessing the bus, due to the platform length not reaching the centre door.

 

Historically, might it be because the central doors proved something of an incentive for fare dodgers in the past?  On a crowded bus and away from the eyes of the driver it would certainly present such opportunities especially in the days before onboard cameras were commonplace.

 
My experience in Bristol is that dwell times are a lot longer than they used to be - something that the Guardian article did not refer to, perhaps because it's less of a problem in London.

Passengers are now told not to get out of their seat until the bus comes to a stop. I can understand why this is - it's plainly safer - but coupled with the time taken to tap out, it can be quite a while before everyone who wants to get off has cleared, and only then can passengers start to board. The Metrobus vehicles have a central exit door, something which was common on city routes in the past. Can't help wondering why this is not a feature on other city buses?
 

 
The conclusion of the article touches on successful new bus routes that provide for changing travel needs, but what the answer is for people who will not consider a bus or are totally unfamiliar with the concept I don't know. Staying with friends in the suburbs I was shocked to find that despite living there for twenty years they didn't know where the nearest bus stop was to home, or where the buses ran to - and I recalled at one point that the school run had imposed on them a daily journey that was more than a little insane and could only realistically be done using a car - but that had been their choice. If people do experience the buses at morning or evening school run times, depending on the route, they'll more than likely get the message that fare evasion is endemic, something that lowers the sense of personal security.

 
Quite a long article here, detailing how cycle lanes, road works, traffic and many other factors are slowing down buses in London and elsewhere:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2026/sep/23/london-buses-in-terminal-decline-why-public-transport-in-global-cities-is-slowing-to-a-crawl-visualised