North Street – Bus Station agreement

GBC Executive approve Bus Station Plans.

A major hurdle to developing plans for the North Street site has been resolved by the Guildford Borough Council Executive approving the high-level design and specification for the retention of the bus station on its current site that needs to be agreed prior to exchange of contracts with St Edward. All designs will require planning consent which may require design/material alteration at a later stage.  As a reminder we have put three pictures of the proposed development using different styles as used in the North Street Consultation.

The approval unlocks the ability of St Edwards the developers to finalise proposals for the rest of the site for circa 430 Dwelling units. It is likely these will be subject to a consultation exercise by St Edwards the Developers.

Bus Station

The bus station will be extensively modified so it will become a ‘U’ shaped layout with all traffic entering from the north via Woodbridge Rd.  Bus Stands will mainly be located on the West Side as at present, but the facilities will be rebuilt.

You can see see two pictures of how the Bus Station might look as published in the Public Material to support the GBC Executive meeting.  

North Street

North Street will be shut to traffic up to Leapale Rd (Which will become Two Way) with some access allowed for deliveries similar to arrangements in the High Street.

Concerns

The location for the Bus Station has been subject to much debate, with arguments for it to move to Bedford Rd to be near the station, and even located at the Station to form an integrated transport hub.

The Society accepts that there is no ideal bus station location as Guildford’s geographic Layout and separation from the main station makes acceptable location difficult to find.

As detailed plans come forward, we will be interesting to see how the following issues are addressed:

1. The proposals appear to reduce the number of bus stands from circa 20 plus to circa 15 with parking for buses also removed.  This will require bus operators to sharpen up operations with less lay over time.  Will they have to rely on less congestion or more bus lanes to make this feasible?
2. Buses will move to alternative fuels (Oxford has just applied for funding for 150 electric buses).  It is surprising that no allowance is made on the proposed canopy structures for overhead charging capabilities as top up charging can be very effective in reducing vehicle weight and increasing range.  (A picture of a Schipol charging station is below). 
3. A number of bus routes in Guildford have recently changed to be cross town, it will be interesting to see how these operate in practice.  The proposed bus station has very few rapid bus stops (The bulk being Drive in and Back Out) this may impact cross town services. The Society has proposed that Park and Ride services should cross the town to improve the efficacy of the ‘intercept principle’ for Park and Ride.
4. North Street up to Leapale Rd will primarily a pedestrian area, although it looks as if Taxis will still use the road to exit from the Taxi Rank.  A proposal to route Taxi’s back onto the one-way system via a left-hand turn looks as if it isn’t included in the final proposals.

Attached is the full document that supports the GBC Executive Decsion making.

Images

Downloads

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