Route 6, Willesden to Victoria via Maida Vale, Marble Arch and Park Lane, will be the first run by Buses for London, the new TfL-owned company, from late 2027.

Route 6, the bus that runs from Willesden down through Maida Vale, Edgware Road, Marble Arch and Park Lane to Victoria, will be the first route operated by London’s new publicly owned bus company. Transport for London announced on Friday 25 September that the company will be called Buses for London and will start running route 6 in late 2027.

Every London bus route is currently run under contract by a private company. TfL says it contracts its almost 700 routes to eight privately owned operators, and that owning an operator itself “will afford TfL greater control over how services are run, enabling it to boost reliability and safety while crucially reinvesting profits to further improve the capital’s transport network.”

“A historic moment for London’s buses”

James Small-Edwards, the Labour London Assembly Member for West Central, sent The Westminster Post his reaction through the Assembly’s Labour group on the day of the announcement. He said:

“This is a historic moment for London’s buses.

I’m particularly pleased that the Number 6, which serves communities in Westminster from Queen’s Park down to Victoria, will be the first to operate under this new model.

Public ownership gives us a real opportunity to put passengers first, with more reliable services, greener buses and greater investment.

This is an exciting new chapter for London’s buses, and I’m looking forward to seeing the benefits for Londoners.”

A red double-decker bus showing route 6 to Willesden, turning at Marble Arch beside the Underground station entrance
A route 6 bus bound for Willesden at Marble Arch. Photo: Metroline VWH2091 on Route 6, Marble Arch by wltmauc (CC BY 2.0), via Flickr

What TfL has announced

The details in TfL’s release are these:

  • The first route is the 6, between Willesden and Victoria station, from late 2027.
  • Four more routes will be named “over the coming year” and are due to come into operation from 2028. TfL has not said which.
  • The first base is Park Royal Depot in west London, which will initially support around 100 zero-emission buses. The site will be electrified.
  • The depot is leased only until 2033. It sits within the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation’s regeneration area, and TfL and the corporation will look for another site for the depot before the lease runs out.
  • TfL says the proposal was developed “following engagement and collaboration with Unite the Union”, and that plans for a public bus company first appeared in its 2026 Business Plan.

The Mayor, Sadiq Khan, said in the release that it was “an opportunity to really reimagine our bus network so that it provides better value for money, supports our climate goals, makes our roads safer, and overall just works better for passengers and drivers alike.”

Lorna Murphy, TfL’s Director of Buses, called it “an important first step in exploring how a publicly owned bus company could support the future of the capital’s transport network.”

Buses for London in five facts: route 6, Willesden to Victoria, is the first route from late 2027; four more routes will be named over the coming year, running from 2028; Park Royal Depot will initially support around 100 zero-emission buses; the depot is leased until 2033; TfL currently contracts almost 700 routes to eight private operators
Graphic by The Westminster Post. Source: Transport for London release PN-239, 25 September 2026.
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Where route 6 runs in Westminster

TfL’s stop list for route 6 starts at Bertie Road in Willesden and runs through Kensal Rise to Queen’s Park station. From there towards Victoria it calls at Shirland Road, Elgin Avenue, Warwick Avenue station, Clifton Road, Church Street Market, Edgware Road station, Praed Street and George Street, then Marble Arch, the Dorchester and the London Hilton on Park Lane, Hyde Park Corner, Wilton Street and Buckingham Palace Road before ending at Victoria Station.

What it means for you

Nothing changes on route 6 yet: the switch is more than a year away. TfL’s announcement does not say that the route, its stops, its frequency or its fares will change when Buses for London takes it over, and it has not said what will happen to the company that runs the route now. What TfL has promised is testing “new approaches to innovation, operational efficiency, safety, decarbonisation, customer experience and driver welfare” on the routes the new company runs, so route 6 passengers in Maida Vale, Paddington and Mayfair will be among the first to see whether that makes a difference.

For the rest of the borough’s journeys, see our Westminster Tube and train times and the weekly Westminster roadworks and travel page.