Letter: Request For Temporary Shuttle Bus Service Turned Down

Published on: 10 Aug, 2019
Updated on: 10 Aug, 2019

From Brian Creese, vice-chair, Guildford Labour Party

As you may know, because of road works in Guildford, bus routes 25,36 and 37 are not running through Bushy Hill Estate from August 12 for a minimum of eight working days.

John Tester, a local resident (and Labour Party member), was concerned that many people without their own transport, particularly the elderly, disabled and sick, would be cut off for a considerable length of time.

John wrote to everyone he could think of – Guildford Borough Council, Surrey County Council, Anne Milton MP and Arriva buses – asking if a temporary minibus service could be run, and suggested a possible route. It did seem that Anne Milton’s intervention had been a success as a response was promised from Surrey County Council.

However, the response was as follows: “Arriva will not run a shuttle bus at their own expense. The relevant discretional funding would need to come from the Highways budget as they are undertaking the work in Bushy Hill Drive. I was advised this week that a decision on that had been reached by Highways colleagues and that a reply had been issued last week for Anne Milton’s office in response to her request for information on your behalf. The text of that is below. Despite the inaccuracy in paragraph 4 (the normal buses CANNOT be diverted around the closure – they would need to remain on the Epsom Road), the decision on not facilitating a shuttle bus has now been taken by Surrey Highways. Consequently, the Passenger Transport Team has had to place information on the Temporary Bus Changes page of our website to the effect that services 25, 36 and 37 will not serve Bushy Hill Drive for the duration of the closure, as was the case earlier this year.”

Very bizarrely, the response from Highways included the comment: “Access will still be available on either side of the carriageway on the footway for pedestrians and buses will be diverted around the closure. The length of the closure is only 60m. If the closure was longer e.g.; 1,000m then a shuttle may have been considered to assist residents / the travelling public.”

It does not seem obvious why the length of the roadworks makes any difference to those dependent on a bus to get to work, school, college, shopping or a doctor!

John has subsequently asked if Surrey County Council will put a notice on local bus stops informing residents of the disruption but the response seems to be that a note on the website is sufficient.

I hope that by bringing this sad tale to your attention local residents might hear about the bus cancellations and be able to look for ways around the issue. And secondly what a classic example of ‘too many cooks’. GBC, SCC, our MP, Highways and Arriva have all been involved and they can’t even put a sticker on the bus stops to let people know their service will not be running!

Share This Post