Following our March reports about the traffic gridlock in Northampton when the new bus station opened, here's an
update from a local bus user. It doesn't sound good!
Our
new bus station continues to prove the inadequacies of the design,
location and layout. Indeed, much of the time it only works because
of the goodwill of drivers. It is particularly annoying when buses
are unable to access stands and therefore passengers are held captive
on the buses until the stand becomes free – frustrating when you
sit and watch your next bus leave the bus station without you because
you couldn’t alight from your arriving service.
Since
the opening chaos the town has been gridlocked again when a set of
traffic lights failed. Enforcement
by police, wardens and Council Officials that was in place following
the opening chaos has largely stopped, so things have deteriorated.
 |
| Gridlock when the new bus station opened in March 2014 |
There
is a lack of any layover provision and the roads around the area are
often littered with buses. There is no real provision for visiting
coaches now that Victoria Street is the National Express stop and
usually well occupied with Stagecoach buses on layover or awaiting
crew changes.
Meridian
Bus are withdrawing their service 29 to Gladstone Road and quote the
bus station as the principal cause for their decision. They say that
delays caused by accessing and leaving the bus station mean the
service cannot operate to the registered timetable without an
additional bus in the cycle which would then make it uneconomic.
The
footpaths to access the bus station from Drapery and the town centre
still have temporary crowd control barriers and the footpaths are not
wide enough to accommodate the pedestrian movements. It is difficult
to pass an approaching pedestrian. Intending passengers waiting at
stops on Drapery – particularly for the busy service 9/9A –
obstruct movement along the street.
Buses
still have to wait for stands to become free and this sometimes means
buses obstructing the main road. Drivers unable to access their
correct stand sometimes use nearby ones and it is easy to miss your
bus as this is not reflected in the bus station displays.
Today,
Thursday 21 August 2014, I was waiting for a Kingsthorpe service and
the service 17 bus was waiting behind a service 8 on the run through
road for stands to become free. He waited and waited and.. eventually
driving through the bus station to stop on a roadside stop to unload.
I boarded at this point, not wishing to miss my bus. After a short
while the driver lapped the bus station and re-entered only to find
all the stands still occupied and he was now behind the service 16
that should have been following him. We waited and waited and the
stand eventually became free and the service 16 bus pulled onto it!
We again drove through and stopped on the roadside stop whilst the
driver went off to find the supervisor. He returned and, yes you’ve
guessed it, we lapped the bus station and re-entered it for a third
time and managed to access the stand. We left considerably late and
out of sequence. How can the public be expected to have any
confidence in using public transport when this sort of the situation
happens and how can the bus companies be expected to operate an
efficient service?
March reports here and here
March reports here and here
Focus Comment
This a serious situation and requires immediate attention by those responsible and those that should be enforcing the traffic regulations. If you are being inconvenienced in Northampton in a similar way to the correspondent above please let us know and we will consider publishing your comments. If you have photos illustrating the problems please send them to us.
