Residents in Coulsdon and Purley have been echoing legendary rocker Chuck Berry, sort of, by demanding that Transport for London “take the highway that’s the best” (for passengers), and let them get their kicks on the old-style route 166.
Passenger petition: the delegation of Coulsdon residents’ associations, the East Surrey Transport Committee and councillors Parker and Davis met with TfL officials this week
It is 12 months since Transport for London diverted the 166 bus route which runs between Banstead and Croydon via Coulsdon, and instead re-routed it along Pampisford Road, away from the Brighton Road at Purley.
Route 166 on its revised route no longer serves Purley Hospital or Purley town centre.
Passengers from Coulsdon West, Chipstead Valley and Woodmansterne are now faced with changing buses or a quarter-mile walk, with steps, to reach Purley town centre and the hospital from Pampisford Road. Passengers with reduced mobility or in wheelchairs face an even longer walk from Pampisford Road to avoid the steps.
Which is why earlier this week, a cross-party and no-party delegation of members of the Coulsdon West Residents’ Association, East Coulsdon RA, the East Surrey Transport Committee, and councillors Ian Parker (Conservative, Coulsdon Town) and Rowenna Davis (Labour, Waddon), presented a petition of almost 800 signatures to TfL requesting that the 166 be restored to the original Brighton Road route.
Richard Walker of Coulsdon West RA said that the route change “has caused considerable inconvenience to many people”.
Walker said: “It is important to reroute the 166 as Coulsdon West has a large elderly population and Purley Hospital is important to them, especially as the NHS has moved a number of services to Purley, including an out-patient department, a new diagnostic centre and the GP minor injuries unit.”
Charles King, from the East Coulsdon RA and a member of the East Surrey Transport Committee, said, “The needs of passengers should be considered in bus routing.
“Diverting the 166 via Christchurch Road, Purley, would go some way to resolving the issue. We will be pressing Croydon and TfL to do this.”
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If any changes are made, firstly the route needs to get some decent buses. The current single deck buses on the 166 (and 312) out of South Croydon Garage are a disgrace – dirty, bumpy and unreliable. Of course the state of the roads doesn’t help. Roll on September when we understand that new “electrics” may be operating.
Also in many cases both the 166 and 405 buses travel in convoy along Pampisford Road, so the timetables really need to be adjusted to make a sensible gap between the services.
Congrats on the Chuck Berry link. IC’s hip young readers may not have heard of the man who invented rock and roll, but there IS a bus connection. Chuck wrote a song, ‘Promised Lane’ about his journey from Norfolk, Virginia to Los Angeles but the bus broke down leaving him stranded in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. He took the train instead.
How did I not know about this? I live on Chipstead Valley Road and would have signed for sure.
TFL have made some quite odd bus decisions in the last few years. Caterham’s services are a mess (407 is increasingly less reliable, and the 434 takes the same route…. the 439 still isn’t going up to Higher Drive.
The 412 to West Croydon still not restored despite the rebuilding of Whitgift not proceeding.