Is Greenwich Peninsula Busway transfering to Greenwich Council management?

A little notification has popped up which could see the notorious Greenwich Peninsula Busway transferred from TfL control to Greenwich Council.

The busway was built for the Millenium celebrations at the dome and has remained since though plans are afoot to remove it. It’s a confusing layout that has claimed lives.

It appears to be a normal dual carriageway yet is actually a pair of two-way roads that are adjacent; one for buses and one for general traffic either side of a central reservation.




With a huge new school opening in two months, more homes being built, Ikea coming and a 4,400 capacity venue just approved, the need to improve the Peninsula’s roads is pressing.

The busway is one of only two areas of public highway that TfL manage on the Peninsula. The other being the A102 Blackwall approach. On the map below blue is TfL controlled and red is Greenwich Council.

On Greenwich’s website, it states “West Parkside, Pilot Bus-way Section 8 works agreement and 38 Highway Act 1980 road adoption”.

Section 8 works are when “local highway authorities may enter into agreements with other such authorities (eg TfL) for or in relation to the construction, reconstruction, alteration, improvement or maintenance of a highway.

Section 38 adoption means transferring roads from private ownership to the Highways authority. Would that still apply if transferring from TfL to Greenwich Council?




Could TfL be regarded as a private landowner here? I will do some digging to see. It may sound silly, but to give one example, council housing estate land is technically private land when it comes to issues such as parking enforcement, and that is one reason in the past there have been calls to transfer some estate greenery to other departments away from Greenwich Housing to better enforce parking problems.

Whether or not the ownership of the busway moves from TfL, work does look like it’ll commence after years of campaigning.

Greenwich maintained

What happens will be keenly awaited. The rest of the Peninsula’s roads are Greenwich maintained and often in poor condition.

A popular tactic for Greenwich Council is to point at other authorities to distract from a lack of action. This has been prevalent with the road network in Greenwich. Most of it is already under their control and far from acceptable.

Lets hope this new scheme is good quality and a comprehensive reworking of roads such as Bugsby’s Way, Millennium Way and more is incoming.

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J Smith

I've lived in south east London most of my life growing up in Greenwich borough and working in the area for many years. The site has contributors on occasion and we cover many different topics. Living and working in the area offers an insight into what is happening locally.

9 thoughts on “Is Greenwich Peninsula Busway transfering to Greenwich Council management?

  • It’s about time (in fact long overdue) for the road layout to be changed; it’s never made sense since the whole guided busway idea was dropped, and that would have been of dubious value. I’ve nearly been caught out by it a couple of times and only just avoided stepping out in front of a vehicle coming from the “wrong” direction. It also makes every junction unnecessarily complicated, creating conflicting moves between buses and other traffic where there would otherwise be none, making the two types of traffic have to wait at lights for the other to cross.

    Perhaps they could also get rid of the ridiculously oversized roundabout at the south entrance to the bus station, which quite understandably no bus I have ever been on has negotiated correctly.

    Reply
    • It does fit in nicely with the rest of the area though. The free-for-all roundabout by the flyover on Woolwich Road and the bizarre cut-out for the buses at the bottom of Westcombe Hill will one day see some hapless Uber driver smack into an oncoming 422

      Reply
      • Well Charles, you tried to make a point then you humiliate yourself with the immature Uber comment

        Reply
        • I’m afraid I’m being quite literal. The turning by the old police station has caused confusion for a fair few of the Uber drivers I’ve been collected by as they’re not generally expecting a bus to cut across them to join the A102. For the uninitiated, the gap next to the bus stop looks exactly that – a gap – and for a first time driver relying on GPS it can be a problem navigating that area.

          Indeed you often see the odd car still driving the final part of Westcombe Hill instead of turning into Westerdale Road.

          Reply
          • Not only but also…….I have on several occasions, during peak traffic buildups, witnessed cars leaving the A102 to come through the aforementioned “gap” to drive through pedestrian crossing to confront oncoming traffic along bottom of Westcombe Hill toward Coombedale Road.

  • It was announced some time ago that it will become a normal dual carriageway.

    Reply
  • It was announced back in 2016! It’s dragged on far too long given the problems it causes. Let’s hope something will now finally happen.

    Reply
  • The split between TfL and RBG has made it difficult to change the road layout. There are published proposals to switch to a conventional system with bus lane plus normal lane on each side and this consolidation of road ownership should make it easier to do.

    @Andrew S – the developers, Knight Dragon, are proposing to remove the junction at the top of West Parkside, move the road to the west (and expand the park) so it goes straight to the roundabout. That will mean most of the buses come straight in/out of the station without navigating the roundabout.

    Reply

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