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Residents Raise Concerns As Rival Bus Firms Gear Up To Run Same Routes With Their Vehicles
Published on: 6 Jul, 2018
Updated on: 6 Jul, 2018
Two rival bus companies will soon be operating services over parts of the same circular routes around Guildford, meaning buses coming along roughly one every eight minutes.
An Arriva bus on route 27 in Rydes Hill Road.
It may be a service unrivalled in its frequency across Guildford, but residents from the Stoughton area, whose roads the buses pass along, are not pleased with the move that comes into effect at the end of July.
More than 40 of them attended a meeting held at Emmanuel Church, Shepherds Lane, on Wednesday evening (July 4) to voice their fears. These included the fact that the buses already passing their homes are making their buildings shake, not helped by the poor state of the roads.
The escalation of buses has come about over routes 26 and 27. Part of the routes pass through the Stag Hill campus of the University of Surrey, linking up with its student accommodation at Manor Park (adjacent to the Surrey Research Park / Royal Surrey County Hospital) and Hazel Farm (off Cumberland Avenue, Pitch Place).
The routes of services 26 and 27 are shown in dark green on this map of Guildford bus routes produced by Surrey County Council’s TravelSmart scheme. Note: this map was produced before the route was changed meaning buses now go along Shepherds Lane in one direction (west) and in the other direction down Byrefield Road (east). Click on image to enlarge.
Currently, the Arriva bus company has a contract with the university to run buses over land the university owns. The university has now given the contract to the Stagecoach bus firm instead.
However, Arriva intends to operate the same service throughout the rest of the route area, while not passing through university land, with its buses using the Chase instead.
The main area where residents have voiced their concerns is in the Rydes Hill / Stoughton area and Shepherds Lane and Byrefield Road in particular.
There, buses now go in one direction along Shepherds Lane and in the other direction down Byrefield Road.
In fact, on the parts of the routes on which buses use the same roads in both directions (such as Park Barn Drive) it will mean people living there will have 14 buses an hours passing their homes.
Residents have been in contact with their local Surrey County Councillor, Fiona White (Lib Dem), who represents the Guildford West division. On their behalf, she has been in contact with the two bus companies and the University of Surrey to find out more about the change of bus services. In some cases she has had little more than an acknowledgement of her email.
The meeting on Wednesday was organised by Shepherds Lane resident Claire Knowles. She began by saying she has noticed an increase in traffic over the past four years. She is now worried by the planned frequency and speed the buses travel, saying cracks have appeared in the walls of her house.
She said there must be a compromise between the bus companies to decrease the number of buses planned, but acknowledged the usefulness of the service. She also questioned whether the roads should have 20mph speed limits, speed calming, or pedestrian crossings.
Cllr Fiona White assisted Claire at the meeting. She pointed out the complexities of changing speed limits and installing traffic calming, but said she would support residents if they wished to pursue these ideas.
She said she has had some response from the university, Arriva and Stagecoach, but ideally wants the three to come together to discuss the matter. She also chaired the part of the meeting in which residents were given the opportunity to ask questions and give their views.
Among those were fears for the safety of children when walking to school with buses turning at the Rydes Hill Road / Shepherds Lane junction.
Others queried why the bus companies have not chosen to consult with residents.
It was pointed out that Shepherds Lane has a 7.5 tonne weight restriction, yet double-decker buses (approximately 11 tonnes in weight) pass along the road, but are in fact exempt from the restriction.
Some noted that the current buses always appear to be underused, while others stated that often the are full when on other sections of the routes.
Most agreed that a good bus service is welcomed, but not the frequency that is being planned, while the very poor state of the roads needs to be addressed.
The residents are now planning to raise a petition over the matter.
On Thursday (July 5), it was noted on local social media that Arriva has begun to advertise reduced fares on routes 26 and 27.
Arriva advertisement announcing new reduced fares.
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Responses to Residents Raise Concerns As Rival Bus Firms Gear Up To Run Same Routes With Their Vehicles
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Steve Grove
July 6, 2018 at 11:54 pm
Living in an area that is covered only by the Arriva bus company (Burpham/Merrow), I can only say that I would welcome Stagecoach to cover this part of town as well, as the service provided by Arriva is dreadful. Buses hardly ever turn up on time, if they turn up at all.
Some competition from another company (maybe Safeguard) might buck their ideas up.
Jim Allen
July 7, 2018 at 9:31 am
How come they give such good service while the bus service in Burpham has been cut in recent years.
On Thursday Jonathan Bore completed his public bit of the examination in public of Guildford’s local Plan. This will bring 45,000 to 47,900 additional vehicles into the area of Guildford, Woking and Waverley.
Part of the ‘excuse’ to allow them is the ‘sustainable movement corridors’.
Regular quality bus services are needed across the borough if we are to survive this catastrophic decision.
While I too would be concerned with road strengths and affects on buildings, do we want more buses (at sensible cost) or more cars?
The choice is now yours to ‘mitigate’, not solve the problems caused by Surrey County Council and Highways England’s claims there is no problem on our roads system.
I could say more, but no-one is listening. They are deaf to reality.
Brian Holt
July 7, 2018 at 6:29 pm
I hope most bus passengers will stay loyal to Safeguard Buses who offer an excellent reliable service and have modern clean smooth buses.
Because any lost passengers could mean a cut in their services, the saying is use it or lose it.
[Ed: Safeguard Buses operate services 4 and 5. These run from Guildford town centre to the Park Barn and Westborough area via the Royal Surrey County Hospital.]
Alix Tatlow
July 8, 2018 at 11:20 am
I wish some of these companies would offer us a service half as good out here in the villages along the Tillingbourne Valley.
Thankfully Sussex-based company Compass Travel is prepared to reach out and put the effort in to provide some service for us, and has surmounted the difficulties of the closure of Sherbourne very efficiently.
John Lomas
July 8, 2018 at 10:10 pm
Interesting that those Optare buses weigh in at around two-thirds of the weight of the Aldershot & District double deckers that used to ply the 26 and 28 routes every 15 minutes.
Paul Bishop
July 9, 2018 at 9:09 am
I think that ultimately the financial sense of the companies will resolve the frequency issue. This particular route has never been sustainable without the high student passengers who use it because of the heavy university subsidies. As soon as Arriva lose these passengers I doubt the route will make financial sense and they will further reduce or remove the route.
Also, regarding the comments about the vehicle vibrations damaging the buildings, this is extremely unlikely. The vibrations caused by heavy vehicles are very low frequency, this kind of vibrations are easily dealt with by the heavy structures and foundations on the houses. It is high-frequency vibrations which are generally the problem for structures. The low-frequency vibrations are more of an annoyance to residents rather than a genuine issue.
However, the heavy impacts of the buses (double deckers in particular) will certainly be putting a serious additional load into the road’s substructure. The full damage of this is rarely seen on the surface, but the cracks and damage apparent on any of the roads on these routes suggest there is some significant damage being done.
This damage, and the subsequent potential ground movements, are what the residents should be worried about and are actually a lot more dangerous that vibration induced damage. Of course, this should be for Surrey County Council to monitor and maintain.
Chris Carroll
July 9, 2018 at 10:44 am
As a Stoughton resident, I can only say what a bad idea this is. I regularly see the Arriva bus pass me with little more than a couple of passengers. It’s an underused service as it is. I refuse to use the filthy buses myself and opt to walk between Stoughton and the town along the beautiful River Wey.
Give it a year and the new service will be scrapped.
Trisha Lee
July 9, 2018 at 6:37 pm
Yes, the roads in Stoughton are residential but, from the sound of it, Arriva is cutting their 26/27 down to three buses an hour from the same date (currently four). So even when Stagecoach come in, it’s only an extra three buses an hour each way. Surely that won’t create carnage?
Paul Painter
July 13, 2018 at 2:34 pm
It’s a bit late now. The council should never have allowed Stagecoach to set up more buses through here. I blame the council for allowing it to happen
Fiona White
July 14, 2018 at 3:51 pm
The council has no power to stop a bus company from setting up more buses. Bus services were deregulated some years ago, I think in the 1980s. The only services over which the council has any say are the ones subsidised by the local authority.
It seems ridiculous to me that two companies are running services along the same roads but it is their choice. I hope that they will listen to residents’ concerns and come to a sensible decision about their services.
Fiona White is the Lib Dem county councillor for Guildford West.