If you’re sick of the overcrowded morning buses to North Greenwich, then some relief could be at hand – extra services have quietly been thrown on from Charlton station.
Despite various enhancements, route 486 has struggled to cope with rush-hour demand to get from SE7 to the Jubilee Line ever since it was introduced nearly 14 years ago. Some of us more long-in-the-tooth commuters look back wistfully to the brief interlude when fast route M1, the 486’s predecessor, linked Charlton to the Millennium Dome every five minutes – and carried a full load each rush hour.
Now action has quietly been taken – under the guise of adding extra weekday “school journeys” to neighbouring route 472, which are scheduled to start at Charlton station at 7.50am, 8.00am, 8.10am, 8.20am, 8.30am and 8.40am, before heading up the usual route to North Greenwich.
Whether these buses will disappear during school holidays is unclear (how big is demand to get to Millennium Primary School from Charlton station?) considering they now appear in the full timetable, but they’re a welcome addition. If you can time your bus journey to coincide with one of the Jubilee Line trains that start at North Greenwich, you’re in for a winner.
Now, all we need to do is sort out next year’s Thameslink issues on the rails, and the horrific overcrowding of North Greenwich in the evening (oh, and unannounced closures of the busway), and everything could be wonderful.
The Charlton Champion 
I’d be much happier to see more buses along the whole route of the 486, and totally agree about the bun fights at North Greenwich to get a bus back to Charlton and beyond every evening from about 4.30pm for 2 hours or more. Mostly, though I am very sad to see direct service trains stop from Charlton to Charing Cross and all our services or most of them be routed to Cannon Street 😦 It was such a boon to have the trains as an alternative to the Tube every now and again for me and then an enjoyable walk through St James’s Park to get to work. Thanks for the good blog and informative articles: I may not always like the news in them but I like to be informed…
It is busy; but it doe not help that a lot of people park in SE7 as it is free and then take the 486 to North Greenwich. Maybe the parking also needs to be looked at as well.
I agree, the parking at b&q was great for commuting, but that little arrangement has been ruined with the 5 hour limit, seems so senseless when there’s so much space there.. would never happen on the continent..
Er, the space is for shoppers, not lazy commuters. My wife has difficulty walking but does not qualify for a Blue Badge so she stopped going to Sainsbury’s to shop because selfish commuters blagging free parking took up spaces meant the walk was too much for her.
Now she goes there again.