Abridge-Passingford Bridge-Ongar: back on the bus map

Tuesday 25th August 2026 Among the many changes to bus routes on the western fringes of Essex at the end of last month was the introduction of new route 19 between North Weald and High Ongar taking in a circuitous route via Epping, Theydon Bois, Abridge, Passingford Bridge and Stanford Rivers. End to end journey time is 55 minutes, but as you can see from the map below, you’d never do that unless writing a blog about the route, as a direct bus from North Weald to Chipping Ongar (running every half an hour) takes under 12 minutes. Operated by Central Connect, the interesting thing about new route 19 is it reinstates a bus service not only between Abridge and Passingford Bridge (which last saw a bus five years ago when London General’s one shopping journey a day, route 575, was withdrawn between Harlow and Romford – which I blogged about in its final week in August 2021), but also brings a regular bus back to the road between Passingford Bridge and Chipping Ongar. As explained in that…