Ikea to open Dartford depot next to Amazon – can roads cope?
Ikea are set to open a 450,000 square foot depot directly next to Amazon’s vast 2.3 million square foot depot beside the Dartford crossing.
The crossing is a mess of queues once again today, as covered earlier, along with approach roads.
Even by the standards in the area, the last two weeks have seen extremely heavy congestion on a daily basis.
Can the area cope with Amazon and then Ikea?
The depot is set to serve shops in Greenwich and Croydon.
It’s not just a question of lorries and vans, but also staff driving to work.
Amazon have established a bus route, though there is still sizable car parking and the company themselves have encouraged 1,300 staff to drive and park near Dartford station.
There’s a lot of waffle from Ikea and the company letting the units, but curiously little said about the huge issue of congestion in the area.
A further distribution centre on the former Littlebrook power station site is yet to be let.
That is due to complete by Autumn 2022. Amazon are in the process of fully opening right now and Ikea will follow.
As for today, queues are extending back miles from the Dartford Crossing back to near Swanley.
On a good note it will create much needed employment opportunities. However, traffic congestion will be a problem.in the area. More bus routes are needed in the area but as Dartford is out side Greater London and TFL area.
This would be a matter for Kent County Council, Dartford Council and IKEA to see if IKEA could fund a bus service like Amazon have reccently done or provide a local bus service to serve the area possibly operaated by a local bus operator in the Dartford area like Arriva with IKEA and Amazon funding the service for Kent County Council.to help ease traffic congestion in the area.
I agree with the employment potential the new IKEA warehouse would provide.
This is just a thought. If the Rapid Transport System from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet which was consulted on recently finally gets the go ahead and any construction work completed.
Possibly One of the two new rapid bus routes may be able to serve the area around Dartford where IKEA and Amazon warehouses will be located. This would then benefit employees and local residents and go towards reducing traffic congestion in an already heavily congested area.
The added traffic congestion is the main issue here as roads struggle to cope with the extra taffic. Sadly public transport has declined a cross the UK with cuts to services and lack of major investment in the public transport infrastructure.
If planning permission granted for the new IKEA warehouse the new jobs would be welcomed
But the Government need to provide more Training Centres so people who are unfortunately unemployed can be given the opportunity to be re-trained for new careers. As their is a real skills shortage at the moment.
** There **
@Kevin: Dartford is not outside the TfL area. Two TfL routes – the 96 and 492 – go to Bluewater from Dartford station.