Transport chiefs have defended a "ghost bus" which runs once a week from Ealing Broadway to Wandsworth Road - but does not stop for any passengers. Every Tuesday - at 9.45am precisely - the 50-seat executive coach draws up at a bus stop F outside Ealing Broadway station in west London. No one ever get on and it departs, empty, on a 70-minute trip to Wandsworth where it waits for two hours before returning, again carrying no passengers.
This mysterious phenomenon occurs when a section of railway track becomes unuseable and a replacement bus service has to be implemented to cater for passenger needs. Rather than follow the lengthy and expensive public consultation procedure to shut down a railway line or station, which is a legal requirement, the Government instead keeps a bus service running that costs a fraction of the price.
