Imagine you can manage the bus once you’re on it, but the walk to the stop is getting harder. The big shop, a quick trip to the village and a journey to Hammersmith are three different problems.
By 2050, whether you can keep making those trips without a car may depend on how well four different services work together.
That’s what getting buses moving means for Barnes2050. On a peninsula with the Thames on three sides, Barnes SW13 needs buses that get us in and out, and buses for short trips within it. For some residents, the first hurdle is getting her or his front door to the bus.
That matters already in an ageing Barnes. In the 2021 census, 14% of Barnes households consisted of one person aged 66 or over, compared with 12% across Richmond, according to The Barnes Fund.
Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking: how do we help Barnes - the place and its people - thrive and be climate-ready by 2050? If this is your first visit, you might want to start here.
Two parts of the bus service Barnes may need are already running. The other two are ideas Barnes2050 thinks are worth testing.
Transport for London (TfL) red buses, in and out of Barnes. The network links Barnes with Mortlake and Putney and has kept a step-free bus link to Hammersmith bus station since the bridge closed to motor traffic in 2019 but TfL changes to several local routes in August 2026 has drawn some criticism.
FiSH bus, door to the big shop. FiSH Neighbourhood Care collects older and less mobile residents from home for the supermarket run.
e-hopper,around the village. A small electric connector for short local trips, for anyone who’d rather not drive.
Pod, across the Thames. An autonomous electric shuttle over Hammersmith Bridge for people who can’t easily walk or cycle it.
Some of these services would get you all the way there. Others could get you to the next bus, if the stops and timings make that practical.
By 2050, the test is whether you can rely on the four parts as one service for the trips that make up your week. Which would still be hard to make without a car?
If you think there’s a better way of providing Barnes with the bus system it needs, please get in touch with Barnes2050
There’s more from Barnes2050 about prioritising buses and vans.