Bus stations - new plans/closures/redevelopment

[61653 HTAFC]

Speaking of Ant-Social behaviour TfGM have started to employ security at some of their Bus Station, I've seen them at both Wigan Bus Station and Bolton Interchange, in fact due to anti-social behaviour the centre entrance/exit from Wigan Bus Station is now locked daily after 18:00 and signs depict this on the doors.

Another Bus Station that suffers bad from Anti-Social behaviour seems to be Rochdale Bus Station although being there only during the day I've not seen security on there in fact for the last couple of weeks or maybe longer due to said Anti-Social behaviour the main toilets have been closed due to Vandalism with people having to use the disabled toilet instead.

The tactic at Huddersfield is playing classical music at quite a high volume... they also play regular safety announcements over the PA system at an ear-splitting volume, doesn't completely prevent it but it probably helps a little. Reminds me of those so-called "mosquito" devices that were talked about around fifteen years ago, which supposedly played a high-pitched noise that was only audible to younger people.

Until someone pointed out that this would be rather cruel to both dogs and very young children, neither of whom would be there by choice.

 

[GusB]

We are drifting a bit off-topic by discussing anti-social behaviour; let's stick to new plans, closures and redevelopment. Thanks

 

[NorthernSpirit]

I agree! It’s a privilege that West Yorks has such good bus stations, esp when compared to other places around the UK.

But a comprehensive network of buses that people want and able to use is surely more important!

Hopefully the next few years see progress on that front too, with the mayoral setup now in place, etc.

Funny you should say that. Arriva tweeted tonight that they won’t be serving Ossett Bus Station for the rest of the evening due to antisocial behaviour.

I believe Ossett, Batley and Cleckheaton are unstaffed, and due to them being fully enclosed buildings and fairly quiet on an evening, they are often taken over by youths and there is often boarded up windows, damaged doors etc

Brighouse bus station (rebuilt in 2008) now looks forlorn and ready to be demo'd, especially with the damaged roof panels, boarded up windows, torn pigeon netting and of course not forgetting the local youths (one of which had their school uniform on) who were trashing the place at 2pm on Tuesday 27th June. I recall one evening, in late 2022, when I got off a bus there I saw that one of the benches had been torn free off its mountings. Cleckheaton is staffed in the sense of a driver changeover point but no travel centre or security, but even then the local oiks have been causing issues there warranting Arriva to shut up shop after 5pm and the changeovers done at Heckmondwike instead.

Maybe West Yorkshire Combined Authority should take a leaf out of Nottinghamshire County Councils book on closing bus stations at 6pm and instead have a night stand or an alternate place nearby for buses to serve beyond 6pm. In Cleckheaton's case the two stops outside of the Town Hall or the two stops on Horncastle Street could be used instead, where as in Brighouse a stop should be installed by the underused taxi rank on Gooder Street facing the bus station.

 

[Bletchleyite]

One could ask if small town bus stations are needed at all, and whether recasting the service to a cross town service might actually provide greater utility as it might provide some useful through journeys as well as the option to board at more locations. Plenty of places work like that these days.

 

[WAB]

One could ask if small town bus stations are needed at all, and whether recasting the service to a cross town service might actually provide greater utility as it might provide some useful through journeys as well as the option to board at more locations. Plenty of places work like that these days.

If it's a small number of routes which can all be concentrated on two or three stops in the city centre, then yes you could probably get away with it. With more stops, it just becomes a confusing and chaotic mess. Worse still, multiple sets of stops makes changing buses difficult for most people. I find bus stations much more pleasant to wait in and prefer centralising routes at them in most circumstances..

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

One could ask if small town bus stations are needed at all, and whether recasting the service to a cross town service might actually provide greater utility as it might provide some useful through journeys as well as the option to board at more locations. Plenty of places work like that these days.

Two things really... Depends how small a town you're talking about, and the frequency of services.

Somewhere like Weston super Mare hasn't had a bus station for years and the services were cast out onto the streets. Yes, there were a few local services that run across town but mainly, it's terminating country services and at frequencies of every 20 mins at best, and usually half hourly or hourly. They have now had a bus station of sorts created but still lacking much in facilities.

Or Salisbury, which lost its bus station more recently and again requires a visitor (and there are plenty, not just Russians) to know which one of several streets to go to.

I guess that's the problem. Some places need a better facility but won't get them, and others seem to have something rather grander than they need.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

One could ask if small town bus stations are needed at all, and whether recasting the service to a cross town service might actually provide greater utility as it might provide some useful through journeys as well as the option to board at more locations. Plenty of places work like that these days.

Very few services actually start or terminate at most of the smaller bus stations, so on that basis a few well-appointed stops on the high street could probably do the job just as well. Without looking it up, I'm pretty sure there's only one route (120) which starts/ends at Batley bus station at the moment (which is also one of the only ones that ends at Ossett), and for everything else both are just a calling point. In the case of Batley, this includes two routes (212, and 281/283*) that only serve the station in one direction.

*-technically three routes, but the 283 is just an extension of the 281.