PASSENGERS will have to wait until August for TfL updates on a “desperately busy” bus route.

Commuters are struggling at 6.30am to get on the 158 bus which runs from Chingford Mount to Blackhorse Road, ending up in Stratford.

Kelly Harrison of Manor Road, Walthamstow, has been campaigning for updates and called for “at least two more 158 buses per hour” back in September last year.

Ms Harrison now boards the bus three stops earlier than she used to, to “be in with a chance of getting on”.

Councillor Tim Bennett-Goodman, of Higham Hill ward, called the situation an “intolerable state of affairs” with passengers on the “increasingly overcrowded” and "erratic" route becoming “desperate”.

The Labour councillor and chair of the transport liaison consultative group (TLCG) also heard “pressure being felt on the 97 bus” which travels down Chingford Mount.

TfL recently confirmed to Cllr Bennett-Goodman and Ms Harrison that updates to the 158 bus will begin in August after maintaining an “unclear” ‘summer’ timescale.

Passengers currently have to wait 12 minutes to catch a 158 and it is understood this will drop down to seven and a half minutes.

Cllr Bennett-Goodman has his “fingers crossed” that “residents will start to see an improvement” but he is not clear whether the service will continue later with a night bus.

The councillor expects the recent TfL announcement to be tied in with the new London Mayor’s August go-ahead for Night Tube services on Victoria and Central lines.

Concerned passengers can attend a TLCG meeting on Tuesday, July 19, in Walthamstow’s Town Hall which aims to clear up the issue further.