Bus service proposal: routes 103 & 128 Consultation Summary Following requests to improve bus connections at Rainham Station and for improved links to Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Transport for London (TfL) recently consulted on proposals to extend route 103 from Rainham War Memorial to serve Rainham Interchange and to divert route 128 along Rom Valley Way to the Queen’s Hospital to help improve access and links to the hospital. Route 103 (Rainham – Chase Cross) Route 103 operates between Rainham, War Memorial and North Romford, Chase Cross every 10 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes and every 20 minutes Sundays and all evenings. A total of 15 responses were received, 11 from members of the public, all of which were received online. Of these 10 were generally supportive. One was negative about the change, though no reason was stated. We also received responses from the following stakeholders: London Borough (LB) of Barking & Dagenham, LB Havering, London Riverside (BID Ltd) and the Metropolitan Police Authority, all of which were generally supportive. Route 128 (Romford – Claybury Broadway) Route 128 operates 24 hours a day between Claybury Broadway and Romford Station, every 12 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes and every 20 minutes during Sundays and all evenings and every 30 minutes throughout the night. A total of 36 responses were received, 28 from members of the public, all of which were received online. Of these 22 were generally supportive, four were not in support of the proposal and two were generally neutral. We also received responses from the following stakeholders: LB Barking & Dagenham, LB Redbridge (Councillor Moth), Metropolitan Police Traffic Partnership Unit; Oak Tree Medical Practice, Havering & Redbridge University Hospital NHS Trust and Redbridge Residents Association, all of which were generally supportive. Outcome After carefully considering all responses, we plan to go ahead with the changes as proposed. We are planning to introduce the changes to route 103 from early autumn 2012 and for route 128 from 9 June 2012. Rainham Village – changes to routes to route 165 and 287 Two other routes in the area will also be changing. As part of the Rainham Village development, alterations are being made to the road layout in the area. Routes 165 and 287 will be diverted as follows: Towards Abbey Wood Estate Buses will run along Viking Way before rejoining Upminster Road South for its current route. This road will be one way eastbound. Towards Barking (287) and Romford (165) Buses will continue running along the current route in Upminster Road South. The road will be one way westbound. The introduction of this change in Rainham depends on completion of the works. TfL Response to Issues Raised Route 128 (Romford – Claybury Broadway) Can route 128 turn into the hospital grounds from Oldchurch Road, serve the hospital, then return to Oldchurch Road? This would maintain route 128’s links to the western end of Oldchurch Road and the Crow Lane area. Our proposed routeing will generate more new trips to the bus network than the suggested alternative. The Crow Lane area can be reached by changing from route 128 to routes 103 or 499 at Becontree Heath. We are aware that some passengers lose out as a result of this scheme and this was included into our assessment. At Romford station, can the 175 and 365 buses going towards Queens Hospital both stop at the same stop? At the moment they stop at two different bus stops. Where possible we try to group routes going in the same direction to serve the same stop so passengers to the same general destination can wait at one stop. In this case buses towards the Hornchurch area (including route 365) serve stop Y at Romford Station and buses towards the Becontree area (including route 175) serve stop T, which we acknowledge is not ideal for those for the short journey to the hospital. However we will continue to review which routes serve which stops within the town centre. The 174 is a far busier service with a greater number of staff and visitors travelling in to the hospital from Harold Hill and Dagenham. It would make more sense to increase the frequency of 174. Route 175 already provides most of the same links to the hospital from Dagenham as far as the southern end of Heathway. Route 174 provides a high frequency service to Romford town centre, from where it is possible to take a number of high frequency routes to the hospital. The current frequency of Route 174 provides sufficient capacity Please consider extending route 86 to come into Queen's hospital, as this is the only bus that runs along London Road and stops at Romford station. We have considered whether other routes could serve the hospital including extending route 86 from Romford. This would cost about an additional £250,000 per year which we consider could not be justified. Passengers can interchange in Romford to high frequency routes serving the hospital. Can route 247 be extended from Romford Station to the hospital? Whilst extending route 274 would give a direct link from the Barkingside area, route 128 also serves the Ilford area which currently does not have a direct link to the hospital. .As many other routes serve Ilford this means a wider range of locations can access the hospital with just one change of bus. Could consideration also be given to a bus route from Romford to King George Hospital in Goodmayes? Members of the public also need to take this journey for clinics etc transferred from Queen's. It is possible to make this journey with only one change of bus at a number of locations, with most routes offering a high frequency service. We are aware that the local hospitals NHS Trust is considering changes to provision in the area and we are liaising with them to ensure that any future implications for the bus network can be reviewed. Route 103 (Rainham – Chase Cross) Better lighting and a Countdown timer sign are needed at the bus stop at Dagenham East station. We will check that the lights are working as intedned. Passengers are now able to access bus arrivals information for any bus stop using either a web enabled phone or by texting the code displayed at the bus stop. Route 103 should also serve Tesco Rainham. Unfortunately we are not able to justify the additional cost of running route 103 to directly serve the Tesco site. However, as part of the Rainham Village improvement works the London Borough of Havering are planning to improve the walking route from the bus stops at Rainham War Memorial to Tesco. Could route 372 also serve Rainham Station in both directions? Route 372 serves bus stops in both directions on Wennington Road around 150 metres (about 2 minutes walk) from the station entrance. Could the frequency of route 103 be increased in the evenings and on Sundays or a 24 hour service provided? We have reviewed the current frequency of route 103. Demand is well matched by capacity on this route; we are therefore not proposing to increase the evening or Sunday frequencies. We do not believe there to be sufficient demand to operate a night service. .