Bus stop signs set for change
Transport For London has been re-thinking where the popular bus ‘Countdown‘ live information boards will live from its 19,000 bus stops across the London area.
As well as introducing a new generation of these boards, all existing and potential new locations have been scored according to passenger numbers, proximity to population, interchanges and key local services. Approximately 35% of existing information boards will be moved to other locations where they can benefit the public more.
For the Teddington area this currently translates into the following proposals:
- New On-street Sign Locations: Broad Street, Teddington Memorial Hospital, Stanley Road (Prince Road)
- Existing locations to receive new On-street Sign: Kingston Road (Fairfax Road), Hampton Wick Station, South Road/Fulwell
- Existing locations to have On-street Sign removed: Sandy Lane, Hampton Wick High Street (Lower Teddington Road), High Street (Cambridge Road), Broad Street (Elmfield Avenue), Kingston Road (Kingston Lane), Kingston Road (St Mark’s Road)
TFL are keen to point out that even if your stop currently has a board which will be moved elsewhere, live updates are scheduled to be available online and via text messages (starting from 2011). The 2,500 new information boards will also be rolled out in 2011 and include new features such as travel information/service updates and audio information for the visually impaired.
Local politicians have made their objections public with Tony Arbour (councillor for Hampton Wick) “particularly unhappy about those being lost in Teddington”. If these proposals happen then Ham will not have any Countdown signs at all which will make journeys very difficult from an area without a train station or frequent bus service.
Proposed changes to local Countdown signs mapped here (Note, locations are difficult to map from supplied list, let me know of any mistakes. Broad Street stops are listed as not currently having signs, but this isn’t the case.)
[googlemaps http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108028249133060542252.000481e09224bda082d18&ll=51.423939,-0.328903&spn=0.02676,0.04283&z=14&output=embed&w=500&h=500]
Source TFL documents:
Borough Information Pack.pdf (TFL introduction)
Countdown communications tracker.doc (list of changes to stops)
Richmond Countdown.pdf (map of proposed boards)
