A perfect storm of road works and diversions at the Kent Gate Way near Addington Village, the closure of the tram network from East Croydon to New Addington with an inadequate bus replacement service, plus a ruptured water main on a diversion route is causing massive delays on the surrounding roads.
Locals in New Addington are becoming concerned that the blocked roads will significantly hamper the response time of emergency services in the area. while temporary crossings have been declared to be dangerous for pedestrians.
The Kent Gate Way is the road that runs from the bottom of Gravel Hill, past Addington Village and off towards Soparrows Den and Bromley. That road is closed for maintenance, the works expected to continue for the rest of this week.
Yesterday, TfL’s replacement bus plans were thrown off course when a water main ruptured on Upper Shirley Road. “This impacted local bus service and our tram replacement buses, and also meant we were unable to serve Coombe Lane or Lloyd Park stops,” TfL told Inside Croydon.
Lodge Lane, the road from New Addington north to the Gate Way, often has queues at busy times. “It was like a car park at the weekend,” according to one Inside Croydon reader.
The road closures coming at the same time that there is no tram service to or from New Addington has just forced more traffic on to the roads. Bus services, including tram replacement buses, are being caught in the traffic, with commuters and other travellers relating waits of at least 30 minutes, in some cases close to an hour for a tram replacement bus.
Meanwhile, the No64 bus is stopping at Gravel Hill, creating another significant inconvenience for passengers.
As one reader noted: “On Saturday the tram replacement bus took an extra 30 minutes because the road by Addington Village was closed – it ended up travelling through Bromley, West Wickham then Shirley to get me into work in Croydon.”
Another reader emailed this morning after arriving at work in central London more than an hour late.
“I drove to Coombe Lane tram stop from Forestdale around 8.30am to get the 466 to East Croydon, in order to complete my journey to Clapham Junction. I waited approximately 25 minutes for the 466 before deciding that it was probably not going to arrive.
“I had hoped to get the 466 to East Croydon.” Relating that “the TfL website was unhelpful”, the reader “then decided to walk to the tram replacement bus stop… I met a lady there who had already been waiting for 20 minutes… She had seen several going in the opposite direction.
“After just over an hour of waiting a tram replacement bus did arrive. When I asked him why it was taking them so long, the driver said that despite the signs saying it was a tram replacement bus stop, they were not supposed to be driving along Coombe Lane as there was a diversion by Shirley.”
TfL staff with clipboards at East Croydon “just looked confused and muttered about a diversion”.
The frustrated commuter is not looking forward to trying to make a business meeting at 9.30am tomorrow, and their day off to take their children into London for a half-term treat is probably going to have to be cancelled.
“There is a complete lack of up to date information on the TfL website,” they say. “If buses are not supposed to be a tram replacement service, they why have TfL put up bus stop signs saying this?
“This is not working. I have made a formal complaint to TfL and am still waiting for an explanation from them. I have put them on notice that should I incur any further costs I will be seeking this from them.”
Long wait: promised tram replacement buses for New Addington are few and far between
On social media, others have highlighted further dangers as a consequence of the simultaneous road works and tram closures.
“The temporary crossing at the bottom of Gravel Hill is really dangerous,” said one resident.
“Cars aren’t slowing down to let you cross.” In the absence of any temporary lights for pedestrians to cross, the local wrote: “It is a matter of taking a chance to cross the road or wait until every car has passed before you cross the two lanes.
“I’m scared someone will get run over.”
And another put the situation more bluntly: “It’s fucked. End of.”
Transport for London’s “essential engineering works” on the trams has seen the line from East Croydon to New Addington, Elmers End and Beckenham Junction closed since last Wednesday, and not due to be back in service until Wednesday February 25.
The burst water main on Upper Shirley Road was an unforeseeable complication to TfL’s plans. “We quickly amended some services to lessen the impact on the tram replacement buses, which included running a shuttle service between East Croydon and Gravel Hill which allows us to serve Coombe Lane and Lloyd Park,” a TfL spokesperson said.
“We are looking to organise some more buses to keep this in place until the issue on Upper Shirley Road is resolved,” they told Inside Croydon.
Read more: TfL report confirms decade delay over Croydon’s new trams
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Everything going swimmingly, in more ways than one!
Can you drive from addington up to selsdon?
You have to go to the lanes around the White Bear Pub down Featherbed lane.
You have no choice but to drive through narrow lanes with roads like a 3rd world country, that southern part of Croydon borough is one of the worst places in London for the layout.
That part of Croydon borough is the worst place I’ve ever visited. I still can’t understand how one road serves entire areas. Kent gateway takes seconds to drive through but the diversion is an extra 15mins+, the back road is dangerous becauseof the amount of cars on narrow roads. I really feel sorry for people living in parts of Croydon borough, cut off and isolated with diabolical infrastructure and non-existent urban planning, horrible place to live.
We live in Fieldway, N/Addington.
I have had to drive my husband to work every morning since the works started, he doesn’t drive, and he can’t trust that the bus will turn up on time, if at all.
I’ve got severe health problems, so it has been doubly exhausting, out of the house before 5am. But I can’t really complain, I count myself as one of the lucky ones, at least, we have a car!!!
He works for Southern, he can’t be late, it’s his job that’s at risk if he can’t make it. 😡
Hey, remember when the trams started, we had feeder buses going round the estate, so that Addingtonians could access the wider Croydon -and thus London- infrastructures?
Whose clever idea was it to remove them (despite promising that would never happen)?
Ah, if only they were still in service when the trams are offline, no? 🤷♂️