27 February 2015

More room to stop

New Bus Stops on Royal Parade

Welcome news from the City Council:
Work to create two new bus bays on Royal Parade will get under way on Monday 2 March. The new bays, which are being installed on the westbound side of Royal Parade (the side nearest the Civic Centre), will help tackle congestion along this busy route and improve service reliability.
They will help prevent problems with buses crowding around stops during peak times of the day and also provide space for buses to wait between services, so they don’t block busy stops. The new bays will be built on either side of the pedestrian crossing, near the existing stops outside the Guildhall (A4) and the Civic Centre (A5). They will each accommodate an additional bus and a new double-length waiting shelter.
Local bus companies welcome the new bays and are working with the Council to make the best use of the extra space, which will include relocating some services. Work to create the bays is expected to take around nine weeks and the new shelters will be installed early this summer. The works should not affect traffic along Royal Parade.
Councillor Mark Coker, Cabinet Member for Transport, said: “Royal Parade is the city’s main bus interchange and buses are often jostling for space at busy times. By creating these extra bays and providing more space we can help bus companies to ensure services are on time and keep bus passengers, drivers and other road users safe.”
Richard Stevens, Managing Director of Plymouth Citybus, said: “We welcome this additional space on Royal Parade. These new bays will be of significant benefit for our bus operations and our passengers.”
Robbie Lamerton, General Manager of First South West, said: “I'm pleased to see this investment towards improving the bus network in Plymouth. The new bays are in prime locations and will deliver much need capacity.”

Its good to see some effort going in to finding some more space on Royal Parade as it is very overcrowded with buses at times. Its hard though to see how any more space can be found.
Personally I would like to see a one way system introduced around the whole City Centre with one of the carriageways on Royal Parade being given over completely to Buses, but I can't say I can see this happening as it would be very unpopular with car drivers!
Royal Parade, Plymouth, c.1951
Talking of Bus Stops. life could get more interesting at Derriford Hospital as the works outside the main entrance move on a stage today (Friday) as new pavements are put in place. All parking at the front is closed off which could help a bit but expect even more traffic congestion while this work takes place!

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3 comments:

  1. On the old picture, note the tramlines at the bottom right - a relic of the old street pattern. I can remember those tramlines being there well into the 1960s, although from the buses i should think the one you have used is mid-1950s.

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  2. council could always put in a sub way remove the level crossing in the centre off royal parade and create aboutt 6 more bus stops on royal parade.

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  3. A subway and remove the crossing - just like it used to be...! A much better arrangement than what we have now (in my opinion anyway!).

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