Track works: for whatever reason the trams are not running, again, to and from New Addington, causing huge delays and gridlock on the roads
Getting to or from New Addington by public transport has become a nightmare journey in the past week, due to the latest tram closures coinciding with road works. Reporter GIANELLA A BASILE has to make the trip into central Croydon every day
Bus stopped: even the buses are on diversion around New Addington and Shirley
It’s grey outside when I open the curtains to get ready to go into work. By the time I’m walking to the tram stop, the rain has eased off to a few droplets every so often. It isn’t enough to pull my hood up, but enough to be a reminder that February weather is awful to travel in when you don’t own a car. Or possess a driving licence.
I can see the bus stop ahead of me, and the queue’s looking long. This is a regular feature of working life in New Addington: this week there’s more tram works, or repairs, or whatever reason has been given for the trams not to be running again.
I join the back of the queue. It’s cold, as well as wet. I realise I’ve been waiting for 15minutes by the time I reach for my phone, my hands already feeling numb from the cold.
It’s fine. I’ve still got time to get in to work. My feet ache from standing for hours yesterday, but there’s nowhere to sit. So I shift my weight from one foot to the other.
At last, a tram replacement bus comes round the corner. They are supposed to be every 10 minutes, like the trams they are supposed to replace. The queue comes alive, expectant, as people move up, pressing closer to try get on the bus sooner.
But the bus doesn’t stop. It drives by, taking a right near the GP’s surgery, and parks. The queue settles back into place once again. I have my headphones on, but the grumbles are still audible.
I’m looking at my phone again, wondering when the next bus might come. But there’s little real-time information available online.
Bad signs: tram works, road closures and burst water mains have coincided to cause transport chaos
I’d been happy to wait the 15 minutes. By now, it’s been almost 20. My earlier optimism about getting to work on time is beginning to feel misplaced.
I keep clicking my phone on and off, as much as anything now just to do something with my hands.
Another bus comes. And goes. This time, no one in the queue moves.
The general feeling of shared impatience and frustration is palpable.
This bus doesn’t take a right. This one instead continues further down towards King Henry’s Drive.
There’s a strong gust of winter wind. I shiver. The chill adds to the pain in my lower back, and I try to keep moving despite the growing numbness in my toes.
The queue is longer now. It goes round the corner. The grumbles are no longer muttered. I can hear someone on the phone to someone, complaining loudly about the wait. It’s 9.36 now, and she’s been waiting since 9. Replacement buses, every 15 minutes… I need to be at work for 10.
I open Uber to look at the prices. Their dynamic pricing system has just priced me out of getting a minicab into work. I message my manager to say that I’ll be a little late. How late, I don’t know.
When the third bus comes, the queue springs to life once again. This time, it is coming to the bus stop. I’ve been waiting more than half-an-hour for a service that’s supposed to be every 10 minutes.
It’s a scramble to get on to try to get a seat. The driver opens the back doors as well as the front, and I slide past several people trying to get upstairs.
Behind me, the woman who had been complaining on her phone is complaining again now, loudly, angrily shouting over the phone that it isn’t fair to be waiting for so long.
The person next to me nods in agreement. After a while, the last person from the queue squeezes on to the bus, the doors close and we are, finally, on our way.
Grim reading: information about the bus diversions can be found… once aboard the diverted bus
With each stop, more people push on. I feel for those who have been standing since New Addington, and who are now pressed against the windows to let even more people on. Even if I wanted to give my seat up for anyone, I can’t. There’s no room, even to stand. People are standing on the stairs, which is against all the usual safety rules.
The bus driver drives on.
On this morning journey, the road traffic is light, but this is not a fast service into Croydon. I’m already running late. There’s a growing ache in the pit of my stomach at the thought that this could happen every day that there are no trams.
After what feels like an age, we reach Lloyd Park. By now, the traffic has seen us come to a complete stop. I can’t help my panicking at being late. It is such slow progress towards East Croydon.
Maybe I should have booked that Uber after all.
Read more: MP writes to TfL over New Addington’s ‘inadequate’ transport
Read more: Kent Gate Way closure compounds New Addington tram misery
Read more: TfL report confirms decade delay over Croydon’s new trams
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This vivid account of the difficulties of getting from New Addington to central Croydon at peak times when there are no trams reminds me of when I made the same journey in the 80s, before the tram system was built.
At that time people living at the Fieldway end of New Addington sometimes travelled back to Homestead Way at the other end of the estate, where the buses started from, as that was the only way to be fairly sure of getting on a bus.
The trams have greatly improved matters generally. But TfL needs to have better systems in place when the trams aren’t running.
This is appalling service. What is the reason there are so few busses in place of the trams? Surely TFL knows the answer and can improve the service. Our MP’s need to make a massive effort to get this sorted.
What’s the Mayor of Croydon doing? Perry is happy to turn up at New Addington to try and get publicity and votes for himself, but he’s nowhere to be seen on this urgent matter