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Transport Group News
Coulsdon Inner Relief Road
Transport for London mounted an exhibition in Coulsdon of
their proposals for the Coulsdon Inner Relief Road at the beginning
of October. We note that the road is designed as a single carriageway
with a bus priority lane and a shared pedestrian and cycle route
paralleling it. Many people consider that good Road Safety practice
requires pedestrians and cyclists to be kept apart. We would
expect a substantial proportion of pedestrians, cyclists and
bus passengers currently using the A23 through Coulsdon to wish
to travel to or from Coulsdon town centre. Consequently we do
not understand the logic of a bus priority lane and the shared
pedestrian and cycle route by-passing the town centre. We are
questioning Transport for London on these points.
Moreover, we have not received any response to our letter
requesting a justification for building this road in terms of
its benefit to the Borough as a whole. There is no question that
building this road will improve the environment in Coulsdon Town
Centre but it is almost impossible for anybody to judge its impact
on traffic congestion elsewhere in the Borough when there is
no information in the public domain of the number of people travelling
through Coulsdon. Moreover, while there does appear to have been
some consideration of the likelihood of generated travel by car,
there does not appear to have been any consideration of the number
of people who might divert from rail and bus travel to private
car should congestion in Coulsdon be reduced: this could aggravate
traffic congestion elsewhere.
Tube To Croydon
It has been announced that the East London line is to be extended
to West Croydon. The announcement came almost at the same time
as the Government caused Railtrack to go bankrupt. We all know
that the Hatfield train crash was caused by inadequate maintenance
of the track -- it became clear very quickly that Railtrack's
expenditure on track maintenance was inadequate over much of
the network and the company did not have the money to make good
the backlog of maintenance. The Government has long admitted
that there is a serious backlog of maintenance on the London
Underground and has to accept the blame for it because London
Underground has been a Government responsibility since the Greater
London Council was abolished. Consequently, we doubt if there
will be enough money to properly maintain the East London line
extension. In correspondence with London Underground, it became
evident that the planners expect the great majority of travel
on this extension either to be generated travel or travel diverted
from other railways. They expect very little travel to be diverted
from the private car, which means that no reduction in traffic
congestion can be expected. Moreover, we would expect that the
majority of passengers originating at intermediate stations on
the extension would prefer their service to operate between East
Croydon and London Bridge rather than West Croydon and Whitechapel.
In the medium term, the East London line extension will generate
travel. As it is frequently cheaper and quicker for the motorist
to use the car he would otherwise leave in the garage than to
use public transport, we expect the result will be increased
car travel and consequently increased traffic congestion because
people's activities will be dispersed over a wider area. Moreover,
it will make us as a community more dependent on our overstretched
and poorly maintained transport system.
Buses In College Road
The Transport Group has been concerned about bus stopping
places in Central Croydon. There are a number of routes where
we consider that the nearest stop to East Croydon Station is
too far away. There are others where the nearest stop to Surrey
Street Market is too far away. In our discussions, we have found
it difficult to identify better locations or improved routeings
that the authorities might find acceptable. One of the possibilities
we have discussed is re routeing those eastbound buses that currently
stop in Dingwall Road via College Road instead with a stop near
the western end of College Road. When the council was asked if
this had been considered, the reply was that the weak structure
of College Road made it unsuitable for use by buses and the junction
almost opposite Dingwall Road was unsafe. We did not understand
this reply as College Road had been used while buses were diverted
for Tramlink works. We have now discovered that it has now been
decided that College Road is going to be a diversionary route
for buses whenever George Street east is blocked. We still have
reservations about the use of College Road but have been convinced
that minimal thought was given to bus stopping places in Central
Croydon when Tramlink was being planned.
Chloride
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