Delhi’s busiest bus stops

Some Delhi bus stops are terminals in disguise. You arrive expecting a shelter and a queue and find a stand where well over a hundred different route numbers call. They are the places where almost any journey can be joined, and where it is easiest to get on the wrong bus.

The busiest stops by route count

Each number below is how many different route numbers call at the stop, with both directions and variants of a number counted once. Delhi has 754 route numbers in total.

Why these stops and not the famous ones

The list counts routes, not passengers. A stop ranks high because it sits on a corridor many routes must use, which usually means one of three things:

• It is on a ring or arterial road. Every route running that stretch calls there, whether or not many people board.
• It is next to a terminal or depot, picking up routes that start, end or lay over nearby.
• It is a forced funnel: a bridge, a chowk, or the one road through a dense area.

How to use a stop with a hundred routes

• Know your number before you arrive. Reading destination boards is hopeless when something pulls in every twenty seconds.
• Check direction, not just number. The number alone never tells you which way a bus is going.
• Find where your route actually stops. Big stands stretch a hundred metres or more, with different routes pulling in at different points.
• Use a live map. Each stop page on BusPe lists the buses heading to that stop right now, and how many stops away they are.

The counting caveat

Route counts come from the published schedule, so they reflect how the network is planned, not how many buses turn up on a given afternoon. A route that runs twice a day counts the same as one running every four minutes. Stop names also come from the feed and sometimes differ from the name on the shelter.