Following consultations which took place last summer a response to the latest Council's letter of 30th November 2005 has been received from TfL/London Buses.
The revised proposalsd include retaining the 422 on its current routing via Woolwich Road, Blackwall Lane and John Harrison Way. This is likely to be welcomed as good news and reflects the strong views expressed by the Council, local residents and Millennium School parents during the consultation process.
Route 108 will be diverted via Sainsbury's/Odeon, as originally proposed, and supported by the Council, to provide a new direct link between Blackheath Village, Blackheath Standard and Sainsburys.
TfL have turned down the Council's proposals for the new route 129 which were that instead of following all the other routes along the busway through the Greenwich Millennium Village (GMV) to North Greenwich, it might run on from Sainsbury's/Odeon via Bugsbys Way and terminate at Charlton Station, thus providing residents of Greenwich and East Greenwich with a direct service to Asda and the new retail stores on both sides of Bugsbys Way, as well as to Sainsburys. The main reason given for turning down this suggestion is the need to provide extra capacity for passengers from the GMV to North Greenwich in the morning peak, although no figures have been provided to quantify this problem, as requested.
There has also been no response to the Council's suggestion that a cost benefit study could be undertaken to examine whether longer distance passengers (eg from Thamesmead, Woolwich and Eltham) could be provided with peak hour express services to North Greenwich to take the pressure off existing routes through the GMV. The proposed changes will result in an additional 11 buses/hour in each direction through the GMV, totalling 39 buses/hour each way (daytime) with route 422 continuing to provide a further 6 buses/hour each way along John Harrison Way.
Should anyone wish to comment on the revised proposals please do so by Friday 17th March 2006, in time for the Council to meet TfL's statutory consultation deadline of 24th March 2006.
Please send any email responses to: aneta.popiel@greenwich.gov.uk
7 comments:
Surely the objective should be to get people off the roads and onto trains to places like Woolwich and Plumstead at the closest station. There used to be special services from North Greenwich for this very purpose to the nearest DLR and Rail stations (M1 & M2)
I'm not sure I understand the relevance of this comment.
The whole point about buses, surely, is that they 'get people off the roads' at least as far as them being car drivers is concerned.
People use buses to get near enough to-and-from their front doorsteps. Trains can never achieve that.
Furthermore, why would people leaving the tube railway network at North Greenwich, or the DLR at Greenwich itself necessarily *want* to get back on a train again??
Perhaps I have misunderstood you...?
Peak hour limited stop express buses still create pollution. Although no plans of proposed routes yet exist I should be extremely surprised it they did other than parallel the train line with - probably - not many more stops. But they would be slower than the train. By the time they reach Charlton, the trains are less crowded than the buses would be and could absorb the North Greenwich passengers.
As a commuter from Blackheath Standard I find it bizarre anyone would object to the 422 being moved as well as the 108. The route is packed every morning and evening with commuters going to North Greenwich who want to get there as quickly as possible and not get stuck in the inevitable jams on the Woolwich Road and Blackwall Lane. Moving the route would save considerable time for everyone (and even for the beloved parents who have a stop nearby anyway). Strikes me as the vocal minority spiting the majority.
At one level I would agree with 'anonymous' - two services, one from the Blackheath direction and one from Charlton, feeding in to the Peninsula by this route would be better than one.
However, what TfL did not properly take in to account under their original proposals was the fact that the Greenwich District Hospital site is going to be developed in the next few years, along with the Durkan development at the old Annandale School just coming on stream, *and* the requirements of the Restell Close residents when the old nursing homes are fully developed.
Leaving only the 188 to service their needs with regard to a route to North Greenwich Station.. and to the O2 Arena when it comes on stream next year is limiting the options somewhat.
Living on Annandale Road, we rely very heavily on the 108 to take us to my see friends in Blackheath and up to North Greenwich for the Tube. I have two young children and the 108 is the only bus that can consistently accommodate my pram.
We don't have a car so losing the 108 will seriously impact our lives.
Grouch has commented that any 'limited stop' bus would likely mirror (parallel) the trains lines. This would almost certainly not be the case.
Clive Efford, M.P. for Eltham, has long been a proponent of a 'limited' stop bus from Eltham via the Kidbrooke Estate/Station to North Greenwich Station. Far from mirroring existing train lines, this would provide just what is missing in the current transport links - an inter-train line service with hopefully a reasonable journey time down the A102 direct from Kidbrooke to North Greenwich.
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