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Post by northrob on Sept 4, 2012 18:48:31 GMT 1
Seems a bit unlikely to me. In my opinion the area seems too small. www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9908045.York_bridge_could_be_demolished_to_make_way_for_bus_station/YORK could finally get a long-awaited bus interchange under proposals to demolish a major bridge on the inner ring road. Council officials are examining the idea of demolishing the Queen Street bridge, between York Railway Station and Micklegate Bar, to create an interchange on land below. Passengers emerging from the railway station would only have to walk a short distance to catch buses to most destinations in York and further afield. Traffic which currently uses the bridge to progress along the inner ring road would use a new road at the lower level, with a junction allowing buses to access the interchange. Coun Dave Merrett, City of York Council’s transport cabinet member, stressed that the multi-million pound proposal was at a very early stage, with officers having started a detailed examination of its feasibility and the potential cost benefits only a month or two ago. He said the scheme might form part of a major capital programme bid for funding from a devolved transport fund which the Government was proposing to set up. “It’s a very expensive proposal, which we couldn’t fund ourselves,” he said. He said such a development would also need the agreement of both Network Rail and East Coast, which operates the station, and there would be consultation with the taxi trade. “Such an interchange could have benefits for bus services coming into the city which currently don’t go to the station, partly because of turning difficulties,” he said. “For example, the Easingwold service turns round at Exhibition Square, which makes it more difficult for us to make better use of the area for pedestrians. “And the Selby bus stops at Piccadilly and then goes through Coppergate and Clifford Street - an interchange would give such buses the opportunity to go through to the railway station.” |
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 4, 2012 19:27:06 GMT 1
It's a good idea in theory, but... What are the odds of this bus station bringing buses closer to the railway station? EYMS 744/746, yes – very handy to be able to turn them at the station instead of the war memorial, and will make things easier for the X4/X46 not having to fart about down Nunnery Lane. First 6 and 9 might be extended from the Station Road loop, which would be handy, although could well need an extra bus on the 6 at least to accommodate the time needed (compared with the current route turning left from Lendal Bridge straight onto Rougier Street). Maybe if we're really lucky the Reliance 30 and Stephensons 29/31 might nip round there after Leeman Road, although that could cause problems where diagrams are tightly times (although the 30 should be OK because it has so much slack at the other end). But what other routes terminate on the far side of town? - First 8 - would need at least 1 if not 2 extra diagrams to run through to the station - unlikely
- Reliance 19 - so tightly timed that I doubt it could manage the diversion from Station Road loop
- Stephensons 31X - unlikely to be achievable within current allocation, but complicated diagramming
- Transdev 35 - no scope within current diagram and only a single bus during the day
- Transdev 36 - so much slack I don't know what the bus does all day
- Reliance 40 - although some journeys currently run to/from Station Avenue, it would not be achievable throughout the day without an extra vehicle
- Arriva 42 - no scope within current diagram, but increasing PVR2 to PVR3 is not plausible
- Stephensons 181 - no scope within current diagrams
- Arriva 415/416 - would need an extra bus
It does seem like a whole lot of nothing – traffic from Exhibition Square and Piccadilly is so chronically bad that the extra running time needed to extend services would be prohibitive in most non-trivial cases, and the likelihood is that even for buses that already run past the station, the complications of the interchange would be likely to add time to buses' journeys compared with the current arrangements of stopping at the side of the road. Another way to distract attention from the farce that is York's Labour council and their ongoing blunders? The cynic in me is inclined to agree. |
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Sept 4, 2012 20:50:36 GMT 1
They'd probably do better developing a few Mini Interchanges/Bus Points (as we'd probably call them in Metroland) moving a few services that don't use any of the main stopping points to these areas. Rail Station, Exhibition Square, Rougier Street and Piccadilly. Try and make every service serve at least one of those locations and improve the shelters there.
Merchantgate is probably the most inconvienant stopping point and seems to cause a log jam of buses thesedays with so many services using the same two stops.
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Jack
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Post by Jack on Sept 4, 2012 21:08:21 GMT 1
They'd probably do better developing a few Mini Interchanges/Bus Points (as we'd probably call them in Metroland) moving a few services that don't use any of the main stopping points to these areas. Rail Station, Exhibition Square, Rougier Street and Piccadilly. Try and make every service serve at least one of those locations and improve the shelters there. I thought they were supposed to be doing this with Better Bus Areas Fund money they had won. |
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 4, 2012 22:00:49 GMT 1
They'd probably do better developing a few Mini Interchanges/Bus Points (as we'd probably call them in Metroland) moving a few services that don't use any of the main stopping points to these areas. Rail Station, Exhibition Square, Rougier Street and Piccadilly. Try and make every service serve at least one of those locations and improve the shelters there. Merchantgate is probably the most inconvienant stopping point and seems to cause a log jam of buses thesedays with so many services using the same two stops. The whole area round Piccadilly and Merchantgate is chaos. Terminating there, you've got the Arriva 42 and 415/416, Transdev 35 and 36, Stephensons 181 and Eddie Brown and Connexionsbuses 142/143 and 412/413 – that's about 8 buses an hour – plus the P&R 8, which adds another 6. Passing through, you've got the EYMS 744/746, 195/747, X4 and X46 and the Transdev 44, which run straight through, and then the First 10 and Transdev 24/26, which seem to wait for time there. That makes a total of over 40 bus movements an hour in Piccadilly/Merchantgate, and about 90 bus-minutes-per-hour of layover. No wonder it's chaos! We could really do with a mini-bus-station in that old building behind the Red Lion, with enough stands and waiting space that buses don't spend the whole time jockeying for position. And maybe then Arriva would run back down Piccadilly rather than getting caught up in the Coppergate mess (although what's really needed there is zero tolerance enforcement of the traffic restrictions). |
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Sept 4, 2012 22:11:39 GMT 1
You've also forgotten the 844 which goes that way as well now, not to mention the City Sightseeing service.
On multiple occasions I've seen for example a 35 picking up at the first stop, say a 44 behind that with a EYMS service picking up on the corner and the whole of Piccadilly blocked for a few minutes.
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jc
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Post by jc on Sept 5, 2012 21:09:51 GMT 1
Just making Rougier Street and adjacent Station Road into a 'bus station' would be achievable for most services - redesign Rougier St with new paving, bus stops, zebra crossing and small info kiosk opposite Jumbos (or in the newsagents).
The issue then would be what to do with the isolated stop on Station Avenue - leave as is, or remove and a) add an extra stop on Station Road so buses from Queen St/Leeman Road to Lendal Bridge loop around to use it (would affect access to West Offices so probably a political non-starter), or b) remove the gyratory so you have parallel two-way roads with buses avoiding Station Ave completely, though this wold significantly affect traffic - you would have to look into effectively splitting either junction to ease traffic flow, eg. Station Road - Rogier Street and Station Ave - Lendal Bridge as 2 parallel roads with a bus gate between.
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Post by glennt on Oct 10, 2012 22:56:33 GMT 1
Will never work.
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Post by PinkHours on Oct 11, 2012 12:49:51 GMT 1
Have they thought about having a Free Town Centre bus like in Wakefield, Huddersfield, etc to link all the major bus stops together?
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Post by stevieinselby on Oct 11, 2012 21:52:26 GMT 1
Have they thought about having a Free Town Centre bus like in Wakefield, Huddersfield, etc to link all the major bus stops together? Given the endemic congestion in the city centre, it's unlikely it would be necessary. The centre of York is pretty compact, and does have a lot of buses running across it, linking the various hubs together (the hubs being Piccadilly/Merchantgate, Stonebow, Exhibition Square/Theatre Royal, Rougier Street and Railway Station), with Station Road and Clifford Street being also-rans. The only hubs that aren't directly connected by a high-frequency service are Ex.Square/Theatre and Piccadilly/Merchantgate. I'm really not sure what value a Free City Bus would add, but it would cost a lot for a cash-strapped council, and would add to streets that are already overcrowded. |
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jc
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Post by jc on Oct 14, 2012 3:06:08 GMT 1
I would say 'go on?' but his accounts closed. To my mind Rogier Street is a complete mess - the pelican crossing outside Jumbo's having a long delay between crossing phases and the layout of the bus stops encourages everyone getting off the 4 & 6 eastbound to cross the road in front of the bus, disrupting traffic. Putting a zebra crossing in there would make it safer and formalise what already happens. Then again so would deterring car traffic in the city centre, and we can all see how far that's got. |
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jc
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Post by jc on Oct 28, 2012 1:39:58 GMT 1
CoYC have released a new bus map on the new iTravel site www.itravelyork.info/buses/bus-routes-and-journey-times/york-bus-route-map from the BBA funding. A few thoughts on it: - Now shows 5 hubs more clearly, though the route colours seem a bit messy (particularly between Rougier St and the rail station where Coastliner is missing) and Theatre Royal is on Gillygate, useful for showing the 2 doesn't stop there but then again neither does anything else along Bootham apparently - The 4 loop around Cornlands Road and Foxwood Lane is much more obvious than on Firsts own map, making use on the fact that the alternate 4s become 5s on Foxwood Lane anyway - The 13 still has it's own route colour even though it is no longer running every 30 mins (wishful thinking or trying to hide the fact?) |
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