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Commuters face 18 months’ disruption as bus station closes

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West Croydon Bus Station closes this weekend, with 18 months’ worth of disruption ahead for bus, tram and rail passengers as works are undertaken to reconfigure the interchange at the north end of the Whitgift Centre.

An artist’s imagining of the new West Croydon Bus Station. Notice how few buses, or people, there are …

Each year, eight million passengers use West Croydon Bus Station, which as well as being an interchange with the Overground service into Canary Wharf and east London and other rail lines, plus Tramlink, is also served by 23 bus routes, nine of which terminate there.

Around 150 buses pass through the bus station every hour.

Until early 2016, those buses and passengers will be re-assigned to stops and bus stands on other nearby roads, some several minutes’ walk from the railway station.

The proposals for the bus station will be familiar to anyone who has used the interchange at Stratford, next to another major shopping mall operated by Westfield, one of the partners behind the £1 billion Whitgift Centre redevelopment. Rail commuters, taxi drivers and car drivers will hope that TfL makes a better job of the roads re-design than they have managed at East Croydon, where bottlenecks caused by bus drivers around the bus stops cause frequent tailbacks in both directions on George Street.

And while all the disruption at West Croydon begins, there are also highway works on-going on London Road until the end of November, which will cause further diversions southbound from Broad Green to West Croydon.

In a press release issued from Transport for London yesterday, it was said that TfL “has worked closely with Croydon Council to develop the plans, which are fully integrated with the ‘Connected Croydon’ urban realm development programme.

“Supported by an £18 million investment by the Mayor of London, ‘Connected Croydon’ is a £50 million programme of high street, public space and transport improvements to transform the town centre by creating a more attractive environment to live, work, socialise and do business.”

All change please: The 1983-built West Croydon Bus Station will close this weekend for 18 months

TfL is promising better lighting and “a more spacious environment” (that appears to mean less cover for passengers waiting for their bus), with better customer information systems, as well as fully accessible bus stops and CCTV coverage for continued passenger safety.

They claim the new, more open bus station will cope with a 20 per cent increase in passengers.

TfL advises that:

Stephen Aselford, of a local community transport group, has provided this, more detailed guide to the bus stops and routes during the works:

Details of stopping arrangements and route changes during the works are also available on the Transport for London website – www.tfl.gov.uk/west-croydon-buses

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