Bus station bonanza

Tuesday 10th December 2024

It’s been a bumper year for bus station rebuilds and Transport Hubs. Already featured in blogs this year have been Belfast, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Crewe, Durham, Halifax, Inverness and Stockport and just in the last few weeks there’s been two more – Kingston-upon-Thames and Porthcawl with another ‘frozen-in-time’ rebuild in Porth. So let’s have a quick tour of these latest additions to the bus station scene.

Kingston-upon-Thames

Kingston-upon-Thames’ rebuilt Cromwell Road bus station is the bigger of the two in the town. It has 19 departure bays, three sited along the main Cromwell Road (together with a set down stop) and 16 drive in and reverse out bays (DIRO) within the bus station itself.

The rebuild cost £16.5 million which ended up £9.5 million more than the original budget as well as taking a few months longer than expected when it closed in August 2023 with a hoped for reopening this summer.

It was back in business on Saturday 16th November and is now a much more pleasant place to wait with a better covered walkway along the heads of the departure stands which is in keeping with the styles adopted for the small retail and office buildings at either end making for one long joined-up building.

As you can see, I visited on a lovely sunny day a couple of weeks ago, but I can imagine the protection offered from wind and rain for waiting passengers using the seats is minimal, which is unfortunate.

The seats themselves are comfortable to sit on. There are eight at each departure stand with one designated as a priority seat.

The design doesn’t accommodate buses with centre doors on the 16 DIRO bays so a novel approach has been adopted for passengers using wheelchairs or large buggies needing to board at the centre doors through the creation of an extra departure point towards the exit of the bus station…

…where buses can stop…

… and pick up any waiting passengers, who presumably are expected to wait under that minimal cover in the rain and any carers with them will need to stand. This is certainly a practical solution but it does rather smack of discrimination against those with accessibility needs who need to form a special queue to board. I wonder if it’s legal?

All passengers are set down (using the centre doors) at another designated stop on Cromwell Road itself meaning there’s no differentiation between passengers for alighting.

At either end of the departure bays there’s a poster showing the departure bay number for each bus route…

… except route 715 (which has been missed off) and there’s, thoughtfully, an “Information and Assistance” window with a “Position Closed” blind.

Busy routes 71, 111 and 285 have each been given two adjacent stands to use…

… so you need to be savvy to know which of the two stands to queue at for the bus scheduled for the next departure.

TfL style departure listings are posted at departure stands except for those routes overseen by Surrey County Council…

.. where there was no information when I visited, although Surrey are generally very good at such displays so perhaps it’s been done by now. As well as missing off route 715 from the listings, another TfL oversight was thinking route 461 was still operated by Hallmark with that information covered over.

There’s one accessible toilet in the building at the western end which isn’t RADAR key operated so is available for anyone…

… and at the eastern end building there are staff facilities on the first floor…

… with space for a small retail outlet…

… on the ground floor which is so far unlet.

There are four layover spaces at the eastern end and one at the western end.

The bus station is sited very close to the railway station which is indicated on signs but although there’s an arrow pointing passenger towards stop T for route 65 to Ealing Broadway and the SL7 to Heathrow (which don’t stop in Cromwell Road) there’s no indication where stop T is located.

You need to know to cross over Cromwell Road at the pedestrian lights…

… and then cross over Clarence Street…

… and know to look left, where you’ll see it in front of you. Don’t look left and you’ll miss it.

Sadly TfL don’t see fit to publish a “Spider Map” showing where bus stops are located in Kingston any more so you have to either be psychic or use Google Maps.

You’d hope for £16.5 million the new bus station would be a great improvement on what went before.

It is.

Porthcawl Metrolink

Next up, and opening a couple of days after Kingston’s Cromwell Road last month on Monday 18th November, is a new bus station in Porthcawl which has been given the grand title of Metrolink.

I’m not sure why, as there are no plans for a ‘metro’ or anything like that, but I suppose it makes a change from Transport Hub which otherwise seems to be the ‘go to’ name for creative ‘PR types’ who want alternative names for the humble bus station these days.

It’s a rather strange looking structure comprising one long tunnel for passengers to wait at the four drive on, drive off departure bays fronting The Portway.

As you can see it’s location looks a bit odd as it’s in ‘the middle of nowhere’…

… with no immediate adjacent buildings or activities. When Google’s camera car passed by work hadn’t yet started on construction on the left hand side of The Portway.

There is an Aldi supermarket a few minutes walk away and the town centre and seafront are also a few minutes away, but it hasn’t stopped locals from claiming it’s been built in the wrong place and complaining about the lack of toilets, although, oddly, you might have spotted there is a water fountain provided.

However Bridgend County Borough Council has had a “Placemaking Strategy” for the area since May 2022 …

… which, if it comes to fruition, will see a mixed use development close by…

… including flats and leisure activities as well as enhanced public realm in the area leading to the seafront and Esplanade.

For now though, it does feel very isolated and…

… as you can see, surrounded by barriers on both sides of the road making for a long circuitous walk to access it from the other side of the road (where the town centre is located)…

… and the interior is what one can best describe as basic…

… although there are electronic departure screens.

It’s used by two main bus routes – the half hourly X2 from Cardiff and Bridgend to Pothcawl and the 63 which links Porthcawl, Pyle and Cefn Cribwr with Bridgend taking a much longer route than the X2. Both are operated by First Bus.

There’s also a local town route numbered 861 operated by Peyton Travel which calls by four times on Mondays to Saturday mornings…

… linking residential areas east and west of the town centre…

… and on Sundays, Stagecoach’s route 172 from Aberdare to Bridgend extends five journeys on to Porthcawl.

You’ll appreciate Metrolink’s four departure bays aren’t exactly overwhelmed with use but looking at it positively there’s plenty of scope for bus service expansion if the ‘Placemaking Strategy’ is the success the Council aspires it to be. One day perhaps, all the parked cars in the Google satellite image, which looks like it was taken in the summer, could be replaced with new developments and everyone modal shifts over to bus travel. Perhaps.

I took the circuitous route 63 from Bridgend down to Porthcawl – it takes about an hour compared to half that time on the direct X2 – and when we arrived at the penultimate stop before Metrolink – which was the former terminus in John Street…

… it was interesting to see all the passengers alighted except for myself.

They were heading for the shops which as you can see in the satellite image above are south of those bus stops, which are still marked as the bus terminal on street signs. The bus shelters have certainly seen better days.

It doesn’t take long to reach the new Metrolink from John Street but it was noticeable just how few passengers were using it, which perhaps isn’t surprising on a rather windy and miserable December day and with no reason why anyone would want to get on and off there.

The roof has sedum grass planted on it. It’s a “hardy plant that thrives in full sun, as well as tolerating excessive amounts of water; it sprouts to create a carpet of leaves that turns a darker shade of green in the winter, but a yellow / brown colour in the summer, as the plant moves into self-preservation mode.” Here’s an artist’s impression of how it will look together with passers by, including someone using a wheelchair, three cyclists heading for the bike rack and a mother/carer and child pointing.

How lovely it’ll be.

In the meantime, this is it in real life.

Metrolink has cost £3.8 million with funding coming from the UK Government, Welsh Government, Cardiff Capital Region and Bridgend County Borough Council.

It might seem good value compared to Kingston’s new bus station (which was four-times-the-cost) but that £16.5 million caters for an impressive 102 departures an hour compared to Metrolink’s £3.8 million for five buses per hour plus those four journeys across the morning on the 861.

Porth Transport Hub

Next in this bus station bonanza blog, taking the ‘cawl’ away from Porthcawl gives Porth, so while I was in South Wales last week I also visited that town where there’s more controversy over a brand new Transport Hub constructed alongside the town’s railway station costing £6.6 million.

Transferring ownership of the site from Rhondda Cynon Taf Council to Transport for Wales seems to be taking much longer than expected and until that’s complete there’s no movement on getting the Hub open and in use.

Work began at the site in January 2022 with an anticipated opening in Spring 2023. As we head towards the end of 2024 contractor Econ Construction Ltd has long confirmed to local media its work on the site is complete.

But there is still no sign of when the hub will be open as the plants take root and grow.

Back in July, a TfW spokesperson told WalesOnline they were “working to open [the hub] by August. We’ll be able to share an official opening date shortly.” We’re still waiting.

The Hub comprises seven drive in, reverse out bays adjacent to the railway station. It’s been funded by the Welsh Government and Cardiff City Region City Deal with around half the money coming from the Levelling Up Fund. The new Hub building has a lift to a first floor landing from where access has been constructed to/from the station’s footbridge linking the two platforms…

… thus providing access for those unable to use stairs on to the Cardiff bound platform for the first time. A ramp has been added on the Cardiff platform side of the footbridge but is frustratingly closed off until the Transport Hub is open and the lift becomes available.

It looks as though the main entrance to the railway station and directly on to the Treherbert bound platform will be at ground floor level through the new building by the footbridge …

… as inside there’s a waiting area fronting both the bus station and the Treherbert bound platform…

… and I’ve no idea what these metal girders could be for in the adjacent room – something to do with ticket gates perhaps…

… they look very peculiar.

I’m sure all will be revealed when the building finally opens. Whenever that might be.

Harlow rebuild is underway

Meanwhile, in other bus station news back in South East England, the monstrosity that was Harlow bus station is now closed and ready for demolition…

…with a temporary replacement opened on a nearby former car park…

… with Harlow Borough Council doing a good job with notices advising passengers of the new arrangements…

… as well as a leaflet giving details.

Shelters have been installed with timetable information…

…and lighting has been added.

All in all a good arrangement for what might be a couple of years temporary arrangement and we all look forward to the new build when it’s complete.

Walthamstow safety enhancements

And finally, in north London work is underway to revamp the bus station alongside Walthamstow Central station to improve safety features for pedestrians following a fatality in December last year …

… but also give it some resurfacing treatment too.

It’s due to reopen on 20th December.

Roger French

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