17 October - Interim Transport meeting report
I
dragged myself to the Transport Users’ meeting last night using an SL3 which
thanks to the congestion engineered into Bexley’s roads delivered me to Room G08
with only a couple of minutes to spare. It was pleasing to note that a large
number of people decamped the electric Superloop at Lion Road proving that Councillor Davey’s mission
to have it miss a stop not in his ward is the nonsense that it always was.
Usually it is the Police who do not show up at Transport meetings but this time
it was the TfL representative; so no news about buses held up by constant Thames
Water works; speaking of which they are going to dig up Station Road, Sidcup, all
the way through to Chislehurst Road to renew a leaky main. 18 months of
disruption, one-way working and possible closures. When they have finished some
time in 2027 they have another four or five years of Bexley carnage planned. The
SL3 route is jinxed.
The report from Southeastern trains is usually the highlight of the show but
this time they had little to report and Network Rail said nothing. The Autumn
timetable reinstates stops at Falconwood and the ‘rounder’ trains that link the
south of the borough with the Elizabeth line at Abbey Wood is not well enough
used in the afternoon to justify more services.
Cabinet Member Diment said that the new lift at Bexley station is not
proving to be very reliable. I think Network Rail used Stannah again as they did at
Abbey Wood (and Sainsbury’s). Do these people never learn?
A Police Inspector was due to address the Committee but she baled out and threw
a hapless substitute into the deep end. With no time to prepare and speaking from
a noisy office he was not easy to hear and could not answer all the Councillor’s questions.
I learned that there had been a bit of a teenage riot on Bexleyheath Broadway
earlier in the day - what’s new? - and that there were only 20 Neighbourhood
coppers across Greenwich, Lewisham and Bexley combined. As Councillor June Slaughter
remarked, it is difficult to get information out of the police. Once again it
was a less than impressive performance by the Metropolitan Police which is
pretty much the norm. After the unfortunate policeman had gone the mutterings from
the Committee indicated that their opinion of it was pretty much the same as mine.
Despite the absence of the TfL rep. we did learn from the Agenda that they are
not impressed with Councillor Davey’s request for an extra SL3 stop in his West
Heath ward or by the campaign for a detour to Bexley station. The present
arrangement of Bexley Library to Sidcup Station non-stop allows for a multitude of routes
being used to dodge as much of the traffic congestion that
the Highway’s Department likes to create, as possible.
All the SL3 bus questions received the same answer. When will Bexley Council
recognise that the SL3 is supposed to be an Express route?
TfL also reported that bus journeys in Bexley continue to run slower year by
year which they attempt to counter by turning buses early. Once again Councillor
Davey was not at all happy about that because destinations are not served. Twice
recently I have waited for an SL3 at Lion Road - sorry John - and found two
arriving at once, one to Thamesmead and the other to Abbey Wood. At peak hours
with plenty of passengers, that does not seem to be unreasonable to me.
I had hoped that Councillor Hinkley would have something to say about the
new AW1 CPZ as she indicated she would at
the Places meeting but she did not. All we
learned about CPZs is that the West Heath scheme will likely start in December.
The Parking Manager told us about the operation of her department which was
probably quite interesting but despite her sitting only six feet from me I heard
barely a word of it. (The Councillors sitting furthest from me were easy enough
to hear.) The first few words of each statement were audible but her
voice immediately dropped to a whisper delivered far too quickly. There was a
slide presentation which looked to be a good one although as a follower of such
things I don’t think I learned anything new. As you might expect, parents and
grandparents delivering legless children to school, park reasonably when a CEO is
present and cause chaos when they are not. Some get to be very aggressive to the
extent that school teachers on gate patrol are told not to get involved with them.
Another thing I learned is that procedural errors by CEOs leading to penalty
cancellations run at no more than 1%.
There was a brief discussion on negotiations with TfL over a Bexleyheath to
Erith cycle route. Councillor Davey described it as a nightmare. He is not always wrong.
Note: This is an interim report pending finding time to review the recording
which due to the acoustics in the corner of G08 may not be a lot of help.