Proposals for changes to the routes of the 108 and 422 and the creation of a new route, the 129, have been made by London Buses. The 129 will initially run a short shuttle service from Greenwich Town Centre to North Greenwich Station via Sainsbury's etc.. It would later be extended to Peckham. The proposals for the 108 and 422 indicate both now exit from Westcombe Hil through a new link on to the A102/Woolwich Road slip road. It is not clear where the exit point will be or how it will be managed. The routes will then proceed via the East Greenwich Gyratory to Peartree Way. The original informant on the proposal from L.B. indicated they would then use Bugsby's Way and turn right on to the bus-way at the rear of Filmworks and proceed to North Greenwich Station.
London Buses have now confirmed that this information was in error and that all routes will service Sainsburys, Comet, B&Q and Filmworks via the dedicated bus lane that runs in front, rather than reach North Greenwich Station via Bugsby's Way to the rear, as stated on L.B's original letter of notification.
Although these changes provide a much-needed connection from Greenwich Town, Lewisham, Blackheath and Charlton Village to the superstores and cinema, residents of Woolwich Road will have no service to North Greenwich and Blackwall Lane would now be served only by the 188.
4 comments:
Woolwich Road will still have a link to North Greenwich Station - the 129.
Apologies for the error. You are perfectly correct.. but from what has been said by local residents this is apparently considered to be insufficient.
The Society is now in receipt quite a severe reprimand of TfL for their lack of consultation with existing users of the services over these proposed changes, and their current recommendations based on the feedback they have received.
1. Route 108.
The Council welcomes the change providing a service from Blackheath and the Standard to Sainsburys/Filmworks and a faster link to North Greenwich.
2. New Route 129.
The Council welcomes the changes, but would like a modification such that after FilmWorks the route travels *east* instead to serve Asda, Matalan and the new Greenwich Shopping Park, terminating at the old, largely unused Charlton Station interchange. There would be a need for driver facilities there, or in Greenwich to deal with this, but it would reduce the number of extra journeys (17) on the Peninsula Bus Way about which GMV residents are managing to complain, despite having bought next to it.
3. Route 422.
The diversion at the proposed bus gate from Westcombe Hill is welcomed, removing northbound buses from Combedale and Westerdale Road, but it is recommended the route then proceed as before along Woolwich Road and Blackwall Lane, continueing on to John Harrison Way where the Council have already built a zebra crossing, thus servicing the Millennium School and Health Centre directly as now. The Council further consider that diverting both the 108 *and* 422 from Woolwich Road/Blackwall Lane would remove easy interchange with routes on Woolwich Road as well as making Blackwall Lane reliant upon a single service (the 188) from Central London, fed from the west and often subject to delays and curtailment at Greenwich Town Centre. There is a need to have one service approach from a generally less-congested easterly direction. Furthermore, the Annandale School site and the proposed development at the Greenwich District Hospital site, at the top of Blackwall Lane and at Lovells Wharf will demand a better, rather than a reduced, service.
More generally, the Council have roundly criticised TfL/London Buses for a relative lack of publicity about these proposals aimed at existing passengers, stating that they are not funded to do this job, and that they have also not been supplied with the origin and destination surveys that should have been carried out by TfL or the forecast model demand figures and economic appraisals. It cannot therefore respond properly to queries from residents, nor properly challenge the assumptions made by TfL.
Not sure what you mean by this last comment.
If the Council's revision to TfL's original proposals were to be put in hand then *no*, the 129 would no longer serve the Station.
It is true that *if* the original, and still, AFAIK, non-existant 129 service, were to follow te originally designated route, then *yes*, North Greenwich *would* be served, but *not* under the Council's revised proposal.
Whatever, the whole scheme is back with TfL and highly unlikely to move forward at this time since TfL seem to have made their proposals while being totally unaware of the Greenwich District Hospital site development proposals (see the 'New Heart for East Greenwich' item).
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