A council audit of 480 Richmond bus stops found The Quadrant, the ninth busiest, has no shelter, seat or countdown. TfL has been asked to fix timetables.
A council audit of Richmond’s 480 bus stops has found that one of the busiest, on The Quadrant in Richmond, has no shelter, no seating and no countdown sign.
The stop serves nine regular routes, more than any other in the borough. About 1,078 people board there on an average weekday.
The audit went to the council’s Transport and Air Quality Committee on Monday 9 November. Its report says “an unacceptable number of bus stops have no or missing bus timetable information”. Officers have asked Transport for London (TfL) to add, update or replace timetables where they are missing or out of date.
The committee noted the audit and agreed a list of priorities for improving stops, subject to funding and to the views of ward councillors.
What the audit found
Officers checked each stop for timetables, shelters, seating and countdown signs. They also checked the pavement and kerb height, which decides whether a bus ramp can be lowered for a wheelchair or buggy. The report found:
- only a few stops have kerbs too low for bus ramps, but five of them are clustered in the West Twickenham and Heathfield area
- few stops have countdown signs, and Barnes, Kew and a large part of the west of the borough have “virtually no stops with countdown”
- an “unacceptable number” have missing timetable information, so many stops have neither countdown nor a full timetable
- about two-thirds of stops have shelters, with Whitton “a notable outlier with very few shelters”
- most stops have a bin nearby, except along Mortlake Road and Sandy Lane/Park Road
The boarding figures come from TfL crowding data published in March 2026. The appendix counts 480 stops, leaving out hail and ride sections and stands. Eight stops take 1,000 or more boardings on a weekday. At the other end, 204 stops, 42.5%, take fewer than 50.
The busy stops it singles out
The appendix picks out eight well-used stops that officers think most need work:
| Stop | Ward | Weekday boardings | What the audit found |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Quadrant, Richmond | South Richmond | 1,078 | No shelter, no seating, no countdown; nine routes stop here |
| The Admiral Nelson, Whitton | Whitton | 332 | No shelter, no countdown; four routes share a 19m stop marking |
| Teddington Lock | Teddington | 323 | No shelter, narrow pavement in parts, some timetable information missing |
| Trafalgar Road / Prince of Wales | West Twickenham | 306 | No shelter, seating or countdown; stop markings faded |
| Cambridge Park | Twickenham Riverside | 288 | Small shelter with two seats, no countdown, missing timetable and route map |
| The Prince Albert, Twickenham | West Twickenham | 223 | No shelter, seating or countdown; stop markings faded |
| Fulwell / Sixth Cross Road | South Twickenham | 202 | No shelter, seating or countdown; some timetable information and route map missing |
| White Hart Lane | Mortlake and Barnes Common | 116 | Narrow pavement, no shelter, no seating |
At The Quadrant, members of RUILS, the local independent-living charity, told officers it was “difficult to see if your bus is coming”. They also said bus drivers “can’t tell who is waiting”. The Admiral Nelson, Teddington Lock and Cambridge Park stops were also raised by RUILS members.
Quieter stops in poor condition
The audit also names quieter stops that are hard or impossible for some people to use:
- Hampton Care Nursing Home, Hampton (route 216): the stop next to the care home “requires critical attention”. It has no dropped kerb from the north side and is “completely inaccessible for those with mobility needs”. The stop on the other side of the road has a shelter in poor condition and heavily overgrown shrubs.
- Staines Road, Fulwell (routes 290 and 481): the pavement between the advertising panel and the kerb is 0.7m wide. The audit says that makes the stop “completely inaccessible from the north to those with mobility devices”.
- Stain Hill Reserve, Hampton (route 216): heavily overgrown shrubs and an extremely narrow pavement, with no room for a shelter.
- Church Grove / The King’s Field, Hampton Wick: no shelter, seating or countdown, and some timetable information missing.
- Church Road, Richmond: very narrow pavement, no bin and no shelter.
Who pays
Shelters, seats, timetables and countdown signs are TfL’s job. The report says it is “disappointing that TfL regularly claim they have no budget for improvements in Richmond upon Thames unless paid for by the Council”.
The council is responsible for the pavement around the stop: fixing broken paving, raising kerbs and widening pavements. The report says it can only do that “at scale” with TfL money. Small repairs will come from existing budgets.
The council’s order of priorities is:
- TfL to replace missing or incomplete timetables, which officers have already asked for
- repair poor pavements and raise low kerbs where the road allows
- lobby for countdown signs at every shelter, starting with stops served by several routes or by infrequent ones
- widen narrow pavements at stops, subject to TfL funding
- lobby for shelters where the pavement is wide enough
The council expects to bid for TfL money for bus stop improvements in its annual funding submission, due at the committee’s December meeting.
The same meeting refused separate plans to speed up the SL7 Superloop through Hampton and Teddington. The audit report noted requests for a second SL7 stop in the borough, such as Hampton Hill or Fulwell, and said most stops along the route “lack key facilities”.
What it means for you
If your stop has no timetable, or one that is out of date, the council has already asked TfL to fix it. You can report a stop yourself through TfL’s contact page.
Anything needing building work, such as a new shelter, a raised kerb or a wider pavement, depends on money from TfL. That bid goes to the committee in December, and ward councillors will be asked which stops to put first. If your stop is not on the list, your ward councillor is the person to tell.
Current closures and diversions are on our Richmond roadworks page.
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