Sunday night at North Greenwich, and a familiar problem after an event at the Dome – a traffic jam of buses which can’t leave the bus station because the traffic lights are set to favour cars (which themselves then queue up through Greenwich Millennium Village). It was taking about 10 minutes for buses to negotiate their way out of the station, with the queue snaking around both corners on the left and right of the screen at one point.
This should be a simple, and cheap, problem to fix, but instead, TfL spent £26m on a cable car.
a couple of weeks ago we were stuck in a jam in the same place. The packed bus hadn’t moved for at least 5 mins with the driver refusing to let passengers off. In the end we pressed the emergency door opening button and walked back to GMV. It worked out quicker than the bus. Surely TFL are aware of this problem, presumably the bus drivers themselves have complained.
On 23rd November the 11pm 132 bus took a good 20 minutes to get into Greenwich Village. Very frustrating.
Ans as you say, it should be a higher priority than a cable car that shuts at 8 or 9pm anyway.
I forwarded your email to TFL asking if they solve the jamming problem, i.e. make traffic lights bus-priority over cars. and they have replied today, see below – I have cut and pasted as my email to you apparently arrived blank and your office suggest I write here.
From: ENQUIRE@tfl.gov.uk
Subject: Re: Traffic Signals
Date: 13 December 2012 12:13:49 GMT
Our Ref: 1011607722/EB
Date: 13.12.2012
Dear Ms Smith
Thank you for your correspondence regarding the traffic signals at North Greenwich Bus and underground Station.
Could I kindly ask you to provide some further information? Could you advise the exact location of the traffic signals you are concerned about? For example, street / junction name, nearby building number / landmark.
Thank you again and I hope I am able to assist you further with this.
Yours sincerely
Emma Burn
Customer Service Advisor
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{ticketno:[3191800]}
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What about returning to the original Millennium plan, and having no car parking at the Dome (except for Blue Badge holders)? No cars, and priority for public transport and cycles. Would that be so bad?
Aren’t TfL’s complaints/customer service people now based at North Greenwich?
It’s remarkable that we’ve ended up with such a poor layout when they started with a blank canvas. All they had to do was avoid the Pilot.
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