Update on Dorset House bus stop

We are advised that the trench outside Dorset House on the London Road (opposite Sandfield Road) will be filled in and tarmacked over on Wednesday 7 December. It is possible that the bus stop will be back in use by tomorrow late afternoon/evening but it will certainly be back in operation by Thursday morning at the latest

We are still communicating with bus companies, county officers and utilities companies to find more effective ways of communicating planned works and their implications to residents and local councillors. This is trickier than one might think!

Inbound bus stop out of service at Dorset House

Photo by Paul Anderson

The bus stop outside Dorset House has been temporarily closed due to the work on neighbouring pavements. This is the stop that people use to catch the bus into Oxford, and is also the stop at which local residents alight after shopping in Headington. This is causing a great deal of inconvenience to local residents, particularly those with mobility problems.

Oxford Bus says that someone was sent out yesterday to investigate the possibility of putting in a temporary stop but could find nowhere suitable that didn’t interfere with traffic lights or provide adequate safety for passengers

Stagecoach confirms that the location of temporary bus stops  is the responsibility of the local council. Oxford City Council informs us that this is the responsibility of the County Council, and there is no out of hours number for the County Council’s Public Transport Dept. on a Saturday.

We have contacted the Construction Director of Berkeley Homes and he is investigating. It appears that the fencing was put in place by SSEB and we’ve left a message for the appropriate County Officer.  The SSEB depot in Oxford is shut over the weekend but we are informed that the works will be completed next week -possibly Wednesday 7th. but this is yet to be confirmed.

What we don’t understand is why neighbouring residents and ward councillors were not informed in advance

Dorset House is at the junction of London Road and Latimer Road. The bus stop on the Sandfield Road side of London Road is fully operational

Advice from bus companies on silver surfer fares

The subsidy for 50% concessionary fares for people over 60 or with a disability will end on 31 October. It was costing the Government £20 million per year, including £15 million to the UK’s largest scheduled coach operator, National Express.
This will affect nearly all scheduled coach services except Megabus (which was never subsidised in the first place), Stagecoach X5 between Oxford and Cambridge (which is registered as a bus and therefore free of charge to NCTS pass holders) and Swanbrook 853 between Oxord and Cheltenham (which is also registered as a bus and therefore free to anyone with an NCTS pass).
From 1st November each coach operator will introduce its own concessionary fares for people over 60 or with a disability.

  • Oxford Bus says: The majority of our fares will still attract a discount of 25%. There is still time for customers to purchase a 12 trip product on our key smartcard at a discounted rate of just £35 for 12 trips. Any trips bought will be valid for 12 months. Smartcards can be shared so that a group traveling together can use the same smartcard.
  • Stagecoach will offer a discount of about 25% on the Oxford Tube
  • National Express will reintroduce its CoachCard. This will cost £10 for 12 months and will give the holder 33% off.
  • Megabus will be the same price as before, as it was not subsidised in the first place.

Any journey on National Express up to August 2012 can be booked by 31 October 2011 at the 50% discount rate. If you can plan and book that far ahead, you can save yourself the fare rise!

Bus route 10 diversion route

Thanks to Ross for comments confirming the no. 10 bus route diversion while the roadworks are in place.

This has now been confirmed by the County Officer too – see below

From our discussions with Stagecoach, they are apparently not using the traffic diversion route via York Road but rather continuing along The Slade, then Wood Farm Road, Masons’ Road and Titup Hall Drive.  Sorry for any confusion.

2012 scheme:outbound bus lane for London Rd.

We are grateful to County Cllr Roz Smith for sending us the following information from County Traffic Planners:

OCC’s successful bid for money from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) includes £500,000 towards an outbound bus lane on London Road (total cost £1 million).  The length of road in question is from the end of Headington shops to the Gladstone Road bus stop from where there is already a short length of outbound bus lane up to Green Road Roundabout.

The programme for the bus lane is as follows:

  • Oct 11 – Jan 12 Outline design
  • Feb 12 – April 12 Consultation
  • May 12 – Sept 12 Detailed design
  • Oct 12 Scheme approval
  • Jan 13 – April 13  Scheme preparation
  • May 13 – Sept 13 Construction

This is an indicative schedule only at this stage.

STOP PRESS Old Road (eastern) road works delayed till Wednesday

Here is the latest on next week’s roadworks and temporary diversions

Temporary Road Closure Notification

Oxfordshire County Council is due to carry out carriageway and footway works at the following location:

Old Road – from Windmill Road/The Slade junction to York Road junction

These works form part of the council’s New Headington Transport Improvements scheme that will provide infrastructure to improve conditions for cycle and pedestrian road users, thereby encouraging people to walk and cycle and helping to reduce the number of car journeys. 

The closure is scheduled to commence on Wednesday 12 October 2011 and be in place for 4 weeks or when the work is completed which ever is the earlier. 

In order to carry out the works safely and efficiently, it is necessary for the road to be closed from house no. 90 to house no. 112a, Old Road.

The closure will be in operation on a full-time basis while the works are being carried out and diversion routes will be signed.

Please click on link below for map

S-000248-IFC-100_005-rev1 06-10-11[1]

Old Road works and bus route change

There was traffic chaos in Headington yesterday as motorists tried to grapple with the road works in the Old Road area. The level of consultation and information-giving to residents and road users appears to have been inadequate and we have complained about this on your behalf

Here is our latest information from the County officer

It is our intention to close the eastern section of Old
Road as part of the overall traffic management plan allowing the system to operate under 3-way control (and a pedestrian phase) to ease congestion in the area and specifically at the junction.  This does mean that traffic, including the number 10 bus will be diverted onto adjacent routes; to the north, the diversion route is via Margaret Road and York Road, and to the south, via Titup Hall Drive and Wood Farm Road.
Currently the closure of this section of Old Road is planned for Monday next week and will continue for approx 3 weeks whilst the works are completed and new permanent traffic signals are commissioned.

There is going to be a meeting today (Tuesday) to confirm that the changes above will definitely go ahead and to review whether suitable alternative routes will work. There is a lot of concern about the safety of Wood Farm school children during this period as the traffic volume near the school will be high

We shall update you as we get more information.

Safety first: London Road bus gate

You will remember that we have been calling for the County Council to make the junction of Osler Road and London Road safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Following comments made by residents at a ward focus meeting, our colleague and county councillor Altaf Khan asked the county officer to conduct a further inspection.

County officers have responded that they want to highlight this risk without encouraging people to cross there.  They believe that the most practical way of achieving this is to apply white direction arrows on the road surface to emphasise the fact that there is two-way traffic beyond the bus lane.  These are commonly used symbols that people are familiar with and, although primarily there to guide drivers, they feel that the meaning should be clear to pedestrians too.
 
We are continuing to press for eye level signs to alert pedestrians to the need to look right when crossing from the central platform, but we welcome the implementation of  the directional arrows to see if they work. We’d welcome your comments on this!

FAQs: taxis and bus gates

Following questions at the Osler Road residents’ meeting with various agencies including County, a senior officer has checked to see if taxis trigger bus lights – at the bus gate, it is only the general traffic lane that is signalised. (Sorry, his word not ours!)

Buses trigger a red light for traffic, but taxis do not.  There is a give-way marking at the end of the bus lane, so that taxis, cycles and anything else that does not trigger the red light for traffic can get out of the bus lane, giving way to any traffic in the general traffic lane.

When will joint bus ticketing happen?

At the Carbon and Natural Resources Board meeting yesterday it was stated
that a date has been set for implementation of the Qualifying Agreement
– not a Partnership as that was abandoned some time ago. The date
remains a secret – but the bus companies are correctly wanting to be sure that the software really works – it was not a question of their dragging their feet but a genuine failure of the software to do what it should.

The provisional date we had been told for introducing joint ticketing before yesterday’s meeting  was the end of the summer. This is ground-breaking work so the timing is tricky to predict!