The Anonymous Widower

Crossrail Will Affect The Buses

This article from GetWest London is entitled Improved bus services for Hayes to prepare for Crossrail.

The article talks about how Bus Route 90 is going double-deck and buses through Hayes will be improved as Crossrail, with the new Hayes and Harlington station is constructed

Provision of improved and rerouted bus services will happen at many of the new Crossrail stations.

My nearest Crossrail station will be the double ended giant at Liverpool Street that will serve both the current Liverpool Street and Moorgate stations.

From close to my house I can get a 21 or 141 bus to just outside Liverpool Street station, although coming back I have to walk to Moorgate for a northbound bus.

After Crossrail is opened, I predict that when I use Liverpool Street station, I will get a bus to a stop that will be connected by weather-free subways to any of the existing lines in the area and of course Crossrail. Coming back, these or other subways will connect me to a northbound stop to get a bus home.

I actually suspect to get the bus, it might be best to be at one particular end of a Crossrail train, so that you use an entrance to the station, that is convenient for your bus. Getting the carriage right could save you quite a walk with a two-hundred ,metre long train.

If what is provided, is not better than the current interim arrangement at Liverpool Street/Moorgate, I will be very surprised and will complain like an irate rhinoceros.

Most of the stations on Crossrail are served by London buses, also under the control of Transport for London. So improving the buses, as at Hayes and Harlington will be a matter for Transport for London, with input from the appropriate London Borough.

But what will happen at places like Brentwood, Burnham, Iver, Langley, Maidenhead, Reading, Slough, Shenfield and others,which are outside of Transport for London’s influence.

So that Crossrail has one holistic design from East to West, buses at these outer stations must conform to the rules that apply in the London area.

1. Buses must be cashless, with payments either by Oyster, contactless card, concessionary pass or an extension to an orange rail ticket.
2. London-style bus spider maps must be provided at all stations.
3. A state-of-the-art bus arrival system must be provided in the same manner as in London, either by display or text message.
4. All buses must be fully-accessible to match the fully-accessible stations.
5. In an ideal world, all buses must display the next stop and be front entrance and centre exit, to help blind and disabled passengers and speed the buses on their way.

Looking at text message bus alerts like TfL’s Countdown, allowing a sixth digit to the text system would probably enable every stop in the South East to be covered.

Incidentally, according to this article in The Guardian, there are less than 500,000 transport stops in the whole UK, so six digits and one text number would cover the whole of the country.

But would the Scots, Mancunians and the Cornish, embrace a system that was designed in and for London?

Crossrail is a rail system, but it is going to affect lots of parts of our lives.

August 23, 2015 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Buses, Contactless Ticketing, Crossrail, Text Messaging