Thursday, January 08, 2009

Redbridge Public Transport Liaison Group




This is where I spent yesterday evening. The meeting was efficiently chaired by Cllr Ashley Kissin and took presentations from two members of the public. First up were residents of Coventry Road in Ilford who requested a diversion of the 364 bus away from their street. Since the council installed speed tables there have been complaints of excessive noise and vibration along the route. Second was a resident of Wanstead who told us that the help points at the Central Line station were not working. Obviously this is not the sort of high minded strategic stuff that we deal with at City Hall, but it is vital to constituents and they expect TfL to get it right.









Bus Matters






Concerns were expressed about unruly behaviour of school children on the 275 and 167 routes - an unwelcome legacy of Ken's ill considered free travel giveaway. More police were travelling on buses now, but they could not be everywhere.






A request to extend route 247 to Queens Hospital was being considered. With services moving there from King Georges there was a growing need for a direct link between Ilford and the hospital which is not convenient for Romford Station, where the buses terminate at present.






TfL and Cllr Sue Nolan had worked together to agree a new bus route serving New Wanstead and people along the proposed route were being consulted. Hopefully the service would be running by the Summer.









Central Line






The Western exit from Snaresbrook station was closed outside peak times, owing to very low demand. I suggested that London Underground consider allowing elderly or disabled people to use the help point to request access rather than having to cross over the bridge. They agreed to consider this.






Pigeon nets on the bridge at Hainault station had been removed during repainting, resulting in a subsequent flying rat infestation. Work to replace the nets was being tendered, but why were they not replaced as part of the painting contract? Indeed, why does a relatively small job require complex and time consuming tendering? Here is one way that Metronet could save our money.






At Gants Hill, there was good news for once. The steps which were demolished by a lorry last year had now been replaced, allowing easy access to the subways from Cranbrook Road.









Major Projects






Despite the recent hysteria about cancelled projects there is still plenty happening. Crossrail will begin tunnelling in July and work is due to start at Tottenham Court Road station. In Redbridge, Ilford Lane is soon to be reconfigured in preparation for the East London Transit scheme. Concerns about parking were expressed but Redbridge officers assured us there would be enough spaces to allow businesses to operate.









An interesting meeting, and useful to get opinions from the sharp end.






5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was sorry not to be at the meeting; I was on the final stage of driving home from a holiday in Austria and Slovenia.

Having since read the agenda I am horified at the lack of "progress" on many items. As past Chairman of the Group I recognise some items in which TfL is consistent - consistently fails to make any progress. So whilst I am content to give two cheers for one or two of the items I have to say that TfL needs a good boot up the nether parts to get things moving.

Roger Evans said...

Happy New Year Morris, you were missed. Hope you had a good holiday.

Roger Evans said...

I met Peter Hendy - transport commissioner - yesterday evening and he undertook to investigate the Hainault Bridge pigeon net fiasco.

Anonymous said...

Roger - what about the latest potty proposal from TfL to remove a bus bay in Sth Woodford High Rd?

I drive along this road regularly whilst on grandparent duties, and the congestion at rush hour and school journey times is dreadful - so what is the point of doing something that will make it worse?

TfL still seem to be motivated by hatred of motorists.

Anonymous said...

"TfL seems to be motivated....". Would that they were motivated by anything at all!!

Some weeks ago now they promised action to reduce the noise levels of public address systems at South Woodford and Grange Hill stations. Nothing has happened.

It's about time the odd P45 was handed out among this incompetent bunch.