Station Bus Interchange takes shape

The County Council held a briefing meeting today to update Councillors on latest plans for the new bus interchange at the station.

Progress is being made - the current plan is for the whole of the station area south of Station Road to be developed by the end of 2012 - a planning application for the bus interchange should be brought forward in May. There is some urgency as the County Council has secured £4.5m of grants to develop the bus interchange and new bus link road to Hills Road, and the money must be spent soon.


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The good news is that this should bring significant transport improvements to the area:

- a new bus and cycle road from the Brooklands Avenue junction on Hills Road to the bus interchange
- a new bus interchange that will double the bus stop capacity at the station
- numerous new pedestrian and cycle routes in and through the site south of station road.

The details of the new bus interchange appear to be high quality, with good materials, and features such as real time bus information.

But my view remains that the station area plans are a wasted opportunity. The bus interchange will be surrounded close by on both sides by high density student accommodation - if nothing else it effectively rules out indefinitely using the station area as a significant new bus station due to space constraints - the whole area looks quite cramped - a problem that will be exacerbated when the new trees planned for the area mature. I fear it is too late now to change this.

In other developments, I have been trying to arrange a meeting with Network Rail to discuss a range of railway related transport projects - the City Council are currently taking this forward and trying to arrange a meeting for Councillors focusing on plans for a new island platform - giving local people a say in how these plans develop remains a key objective.