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Wolverhampton buses get ‘holding pen’
Friday 16th September 2011, 11:29AM BST.
A holding pen for buses in Wolverhampton city centre will be completed in mid October – three months after the bus station opened.
Broad Street car park lost 93 spaces in February and is getting 23 back.
Six buses will be able to park there while waiting for a space at the station. They used to just queue at the old one but there is nowhere for them to do so now even though one third of buses no longer go there.
The car park was reduced from 300 to 207 spaces in February when work began. It will go back to 230 spaces when complete.
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Why? There is an empty bus garage within a hop skip and a jump of the bus station. I do not believe Tesco will use that part of the site they are developing for their store. It should be pressed back into use.
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The Old Bus Depot is a car park garage; “The Big Garage”, so unlikely to happen any time soon. Tesco’s are submitting a planning application to redevelop the neglected Royal Hospital in October.
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Judging by the plans, the whole site is to be used, with the garages becoming a few streets of houses.
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It defies belief that a new bus station is built which will be basically underused due to many services not calling there and now a holding pen is to be provided for buses to wait their turn to enter the bus station – Did someone have a brain haemorrhage?
The bus station SHOULD have been planned to accommodate ALL the services which served the old bus station PLUS had sufficient space for buses to park during driver breaks and/or before departure. Obviously neither seems to have been taken into consideration hence the farce we now read about.
Do the planners at Centro etc know anything about designs and how to make everything suit it’s purpose without having an extra this or leaving out that?
It makes me wonder!
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When will they accept that they made a monumental mistake with the new bus station?
All it needed was new stands…
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Centro should reimburse the people of Wolverhampton who pay their council tax for this disaster of a bus station.
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Of course, had they used the space occupied by the slip road from the ring road into the bus station and created access only from Piper’s Row, there would be adequate space for all services. There would be a much better turning circle etc.
Buses should not be standing idle for lengthy periods in any event. If they are they are being inappropriately scheduled.
Apart from the fact that the bus station is in the wrong place it was a gross misuse of land to build a single storey entity and not to utilise the space above it. There could have been an ice-rink or a bowling alley or even a bingo hall above the thing.
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or even a car park!
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I’m sure we’d all be interested to know:
a. the qualifications
and
b. the salaries
of those who make such bizarre decisions.
A “holding pen ” (smirk); the only justified “holding pen” in Wolverhampton was when it used to have a cattle market in Pipers Row.
This sounds on a par with the attempt to stop the buses going through Queen Square and Lichfield Street.
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Nothing about the bus station surprises me anymore…I’ve spent so long arguing with Centro & National Express that it’s completely lost its sense of absurdity.
Incidentally, both Centro & National Express have assured me that there *is* capacity at the bus station for all of Wolverhampton’s buses; the reason that they don’t stop there is that the majority of respondents to the review specifically said that they didn’t want buses to go there.
…no, I don’t believe it either.
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The fact that they need this “pen” suggests a design flaw. Also, why the huge open space in the middle? Yes I know the buses need to turn – but that much space? To be fair, as a bus user the new station is a nicer place to be and I hope it stays that way. But, as it is more enclosed, when the evenings get darker and colder – will the hoodies swarm to it?
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We were saying this pen was needed when the initial plans were drawn up. Months before it opened. Everyone pointed out – just evidence the planners don’t listen to anybody but those they pay for. If we saw the flaw why didn’t they?
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What does West Bromwich bus station & Merry Hill Shopping Centre bus station have in common? They were both designed and built with parking spaces for buses. How much of a problem was it for Centro and the designers they hired to incorporate the spaces required? 22.5 million? Talk about a rip off!!
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I had to catch a bus from town back to Pendeford last week and couldn’t believe the hassle I had. I walk to the new multi-million pound bus station that I help pay for and waited at the stand I was told my bus would depart from.
When a bus arrived I was told no buses to Pendeford actually leave from the bus station and I’d have to walk back into town to get one. I was told the No 4 was the bus I wanted. I got on the No 4, only to be told by an extremely rude driver that he didn’t go to Pendeford either and that I actually needed the No 6.
I finally got the bus I needed, only for the driver to pull around the corner, park up and get off. When I asked him where he was going, he said his shift was over and another driver would come. I waited half an hour before the second driver arrived. I was also charged nearly two pounds for the privilege and it took nearly two hours to get home.
This was a one off journey for me as my car was in for it’s MOT. Is it any wonder that few people use public transport nowadays? I will never use buses again. The next time I’m without a car I will gladly get a cab to where I want to go.
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