I know, we have only really offered service changes so far in the Solent area and it has gone a bit quiet since the bus operators reached their “New Normal” service. We are still watching that so there is a new announcement, but also something else to talk about.
Changes to Portsmouth’s 25
This was originally a new service introduced in COVID. The First Solent 25 is a hybrid and amalgamation of a few routes in the Portsmouth City area. When the service was announced and introduced, I questioned what the benefit of the service was, compared to the 6, 15 and 16.
The meandering route between Gunwharf, Southsea, Devonshire Square and Hayling Ferry now takes a new meander from 8th November, if the local political parties are accurate, adding more time to the journey.
For the benefit of many people that have no idea where Spice Island is, Microsoft Paint is easy enough to mock up a small map of the extension. The current route through Old Portsmouth is shown in Black and the expected route of the extension is shown in Green.
Now, we are guessing this is the route on a number of assumptions that buses have previously used this route, albeit with not a lot of custom or popularity outside of the Summer.
So this is a strange move from the local Portsmouth Liberal Democrats. The route is probably going to add around 5 to 7 minutes to the service, which is already quite tight on it’s 45 minute frequency. I am not sure that the service is going to be getting many of the locals of Spice Island out of their SUVs and onto a bus.
This is also to add that there is not anything official from the bus company to say this route change is taking place yet. We are still a week away of course and bus operators have gotten use to the 72 hour announcement window running during the COVID crisis.
SEHRT – New Funding
The South East Hampshire Rapid Transit (SHERT) scheme is moving forward in Gosport, with the BRT busway extending to Rowner Road, but there are new bus improvements now funded in Portsmouth too.
This is a range of transport funding to try and make it easier and more attractive to use public transport, rather than just introducing a substantial congestion charge. Lynne Stagg, Cabinet Member for Traffic & Transport, briefed councillors this week for £26.4m of funding across walking and cycle schemes; but more importantly for us changes to bus priority schemes.
You can access the slideshow directly on this link. I will refer to the particular slides as we go along.
It should be noted that these are proposals that are not yet set in stone and are planned for implementation after due process. The indication is that there is approximately a 2 to 3 year plan in these notes.
Firstly – the Claimed Benefits
The presentation is proposing a number of benefits like reliable journey times, increased opportunities, but also made some specific suggestions:
- 20% journey time saving from Paulsgrove, Cosham and Farlington to Portsmouth City Centre
- Improvements to the Park & Ride Service
Commercial Road North
Bus services to and from the north end of Commercial Road are to benefit from new proposed bus lanes and dedicated bus roads.
If you excuse the second poorly executed Microsoft Paint picture, buses coming into the City are to benefit from a new bus lane into Cascades Approach (highlighted in orange) and a new dedicated bus road from Cascades Approach to Unicorn Road (highlighted in red).
In the reverse, buses heading out of the city will stop in Commercial Road South as normal, use the same dedicated bus road to Cascades Approach and then use Charlotte Street (highlighted in green) to get to Commercial Road North.
I can see the logic in avoiding the traffic lights at Unicorn Gate, although I wonder how the de-pedestrianisation of parts of Charlotte Street will affect footfall in that part of town. Of course, if you take other local examples of semi-pedestrianised roads, Southampton Bargate is an example of where this already works.
Slightly north of the Commercial Road area, new bus lanes along Commercial Road towards the M275 (outside the old ABC Cinema – remember that?) and the petrol station will apparently also be added to “traffic flow improvements” at the bottom of the motorway.
Commercial Road South
Changes to road priorities are also now planned for the Commercial Road South area. This includes the introduction of a new bus lane around Portsmouth and Southsea station.
Shown here in orange, the section of Commercial Road that goes under the railway and past the new Premier Inn [PS – Who at Google decides what is important to show at this zoom level?] will become restricted to buses only.
As a result, the mini-roundabout at Stanhope Road / Station Street will be replaced by crossroads and the width restriction under the railway bridge will be removed. The idea is to allow a better flowing bus route on this busy stretch of road, where the vast majority of the traffic is buses, and students walking to Guildhall Walk anyway.
To be fair, with the number of bus routes that use this road to and from Albert Road, Southsea, Fratton; I am surprised that is not already in place, and I think it would be a very cheap and easy win, subject to planning!
Lake Road
The introduction of new elements around the Lake Road / Holbrook Road roundabout are not quite as clear though. There are some obvious elements, but it is not quite clear how it will tie in together.
What the documents to the Cabinet do show, is that the Lake Road roundabout will be replaced with traffic-light controlled crossroads, bus priority measures and a new pedestrian and cycle crossing on each of the four approaches.
In the same graphic though (slide 16 of the PDF – if you are interested) shows that out of the city, there is a bus lane along Lake Road, where we have highlighted in orange. This is not evident in the graphic for the new Lake Road Crossroads though, so one has to question where the bus lane will end and how it will be prioritised towards the junction.
Cosham – Red Lion Roundabout
Changes at the A3 / Southampton Road roundabout, near to the Red Lion pub, are more straight forward.
The subway is planned to be closed, in preference to better crossing facilities at street level, a bus lane will be introduced along Southampton Road towards the roundabout, as well as in both directions to/from Farlington.
Portsbridge and Hilsea
No maps for this one, as there is nothing that will substantially change in the road layout.
The existing bus lane from Cosham towards Hilsea will remain, but with enhanced bus priority measures.
We can only assume this means the introduction of some type of traffic light system on the north side of the Portsbridge Roundabout. A new pedestrian crossing will also be installed on Northern Road between McDonalds and the Roundabout, crossing the main road and then the bus lane.
Once onto Portsea Island and passing Hilsea Lido, the junction of Northern Parade and London Road is proposed to become a traffic light controlled junction.
The only other significant change here is that the popular U-Turn, to get to the Shell Garage, or for buses to access the First Solent bus depot, will be banned.
Rudmore Roundabout
Lastly, we move to the notorious Rudmore roundabout, where access to the Continental Ferry Port, Stamshaw and the M275 creates a perfect rat-run in the rush hour.
Changes to the roundabout layout and the introduction of a bus lane from Portsmouth City Centre onto the roundabout will potentially allow buses to avoid the queues, but the images shown on slide 22 of the PDF also suggest reducing the number of lanes on the slip road.
I am not convinced of their plans, which is why I have not mocked up a pretty ugly Microsoft Paint demonstration.
and Finally….
There was a cursory note, just a small one, about a new bus service from Leigh Park to Portsmouth City Centre. It was only a one liner of a Brand new service from Leigh Park to Portsmouth and there are plenty of options!
I am not sure what sort of routing, bar a Coastliner 700 style service express from Havant / Bedhampton to the City, would not already be largely covered. We await the plans with baited breathe!
Overall though, I think that as long as the planning processes do not throw up any anomalies, most of these proposals from Lynne Stagg make some, if not complete sense. We have not even included the walking and cycle schemes that they are proposing in Fratton, south of the City Centre and in the wider of South East Hampshire.
I don’t like admitting that I think they are on to something here, but this City Council might just be onto something!