LLRA has learnt today, via resident feedback, that changes to the Route 20 bus service have been made due to long-term building work which has resulted in the imposition of a no right turn in Lincoln City Centre at Newland.
Buses departing from Lincoln bus station can no longer turn right on Newland into The Avenue but are diverted along Carholme Road/Carholme roundabout/A57 to access Long Leys Road. The longer route has meant that departure times from the bus station for some services have been brought forward by 5 minutes to keep to the rest of the timetable.
What has changed? Departure times from Lincoln bus station are now at 6:55am, 8:40am & 10:40am Monday-Friday (rather than 7am, 8:45am & 10:45am). There is no pick up on Yarborough Road at these times but there is a pick up on Carholme Road opposite Hewson Road. The rest of the timetable remains the same.
Update 2 August: It has been highlighted that the previous 17:15 departure from Lincoln bus station has also now been revised to depart at 17:20 due to a stand clash at the bus station, with subsequent times all 5 minutes later than previously.
LLRA have expressed disappointment that these bus service changes were not more effectively communicated to residents by Lincolnshire County Council Transport Services. Some bus users missed the bus on Tuesday due to the poorly communicated changes. LLRA have asked that timetables at bus stops in Long Leys and the West End are urgently updated. Thanks to John Shipton for alerting us to this.
We understand that the no-right turn on Newland, for all vehicles, will be in place until 2019.
Please do share this information with your near neighbours who are not on email or digital media.
It appears that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing between the City of Lincoln Council who owns the bus station building, the Transport Section at Lincolnshire County Council, and Stagecoach the bus operator. The changes were supposed to have been made when Highways made the decision to stop all traffic from Newland in turning right onto The Avenue at the junction. That was about two weeks ago when traffic signs were put into place. However, the monitor at Bay M showed the original departure times until last weekend. Then later starting from this week, the new departure times as shown above.
The time table leaflets for the St Georges bus route still showed the original departure times which I managed to obtain the last one (not sure) on Tuesday.
Out of the two councils contacted, none returned my calls to explain. However, Stagecoach did and were only obeying the instructions of the altered bus route and the revised timetable as laid down by County Hall.
Stagecoach were to put out the changes made on a either a new leaflet or on written paper for passengers and drivers to see as it is foreseen that the student flats being built, may take longer than a year.
Concerning the logic of using Saxilby Road that goes onto the Long Leys Road junction, there are no bus stops on the way. It has been suggested that the bus drivers use the old route of Carholme Road, then onto Hewson Road travelling right down West Parade turning left at The Avenue, etc. Stagecoach and passengers have already approached Highways on the subject matter, It could collect passengers on the way from the official bus stops. But Highways will not entertain the common sense approach!
City Hall cover story has been that there is currently a glitch problem regarding the information monitors as the Bus Station. Has been an on going problem. This could be due to the discrepancy problem of the 5 minutes.
So there you have it. We were the last to know!
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY ALL TRAFFIC HAS BEEN PREVENTED FROM TURNING RIGHT ONTO THE AVENUE? IT DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE AFFECTED BY THE BUILDING OF STUDENT FLATS AND ALSO WHY IS THE TRAFFIC NOT REDIRECTED UP ORCHARD STREET AND INTO YARBOROUGH ROAD AS AN ALTERNATIVE. ONE YEAR IS AN EXTREMELY LONG TIME FOR AN EXTREMELY BUSY JUNCTION TO BE PARTIALLY CLOSED FOR WHAT LOOKS LIKE NO REASON I CAN FATHOM