please empty your brain below
You (and that ranty blog, and the ranty local press) seem to be assigning the entire cost of the slab to the bus station, when AFAIK its primary purpose was always to allow flats to be built.

Given that level of fact-bending, I'm also completely disinclined to believe the cost figures (I can't see a solid cite for them), or at least the idea that that's the net cost to the public purse of installing the slab, once the income from the flats is deducted.

Graham | 06.06.11 - 9:12 a.m. | #

But the flats were built to offset the cost of the bus station. If the bus station is useless then the flats would not have needed to be built.

Rational Plan | 06.06.11 - 9:14 a.m. | #

However much this cost, it is a stupid waste of money. Lets hope that they don't start breaking up bus routes so that more of them can enter the station in order to justify it.

It must be possible to identify the people responsible for this, I wonder whether they actually use buses themselves. There are some of bad bus stations in London which slow down through journeys, Euston in particular, had any of the planners tried taking a bus through Euston?

Max Roberts | Homepage | 06.06.11 - 9:18 a.m. | #

London bus stations seem, all of a sudden, to have fallen completely out of favour. In Walthamstow, the towns most recent masterplan calls for the demolition of it's bus station, and conversion into a park! The bus station is only 5 years old.

I'm very much in favour of this trend, bus stations work as terminuses for routes, but en route, they just add unnecessary delay.

Dan | 06.06.11 - 10:09 a.m. | #

Perhaps the scheme was also a convenient way of eradicating a (human) rat infestation at the root of a long established local social problem?

B | 06.06.11 - 10:24 a.m. | #

I wonder if the bus station could have been made (slightly) more useful if its direction was reversed? Southbound buses pull in, drop off outside the station entrance, and then continue their journey via Forest Road.


martin | Homepage | 06.06.11 - 11:58 a.m. | #

However much it may, or may not, have cost, a major bus station built for one service (departures only) is surely an unnecessary expense.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 06.06.11 - 6:03 p.m. | #

DG, going completely off topic here for a bit, wondering if you'd seen this - http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/mapsearch.aspx it's a map of listed buildings, specifically because it works on London postcodes, thought you might find it of interest (forgive me if you've already mentioned it, and I missed it!)

Also wanted to mention that your name came up today. I'm reading Charles Stross' "The Atrocity Archives" (which I'm very much enjoying, it's about an IT boffin who ends up as a kind of secret service agent, almost by accident) and features a brilliant quote -
"Bogons - Hypothetical particles of cluelessness. Idiots emit bogons, causing machinery to malfunction in their presence. System administrators absorb bogons, letting the machinery work again. Hacker folklore..." (p42)

Anyway, the reference is p156, where a Lance-corporal Blevins is told what to do with the boffin, and replies "Diamond Geezer, mate". I had a quick look, but couldn't figure the etymology of your name. Maybe when you've run out of other ideas, you could blog to explain it to us?

Thanks for letting us enjoy your work!
Deb

DebF | 06.06.11 - 11:28 p.m. | #

I thought the Parkhouse Bus Station in Hatfield was bad enough - 6 stands and all this new technology for bus times... unfortunately built parallel to the 2 main corridors in the area, The Galleria - St Albans and The Galleria - Business Park. Used to get an every 30 minutes service serving the local railway station, along with another bus every 30 minutes that ran between St Albans and Welwyn Garden City (the 2 nearby towns). Local service has been cut back and is now either late or packed, the other bus route was diverted, now 6 buses per hour, 4 of which go nowhere terribly useful without getting another bus, 1 going to north London (which is arguably useful, getting to civilised transport ;) and one meandering around Hertfordshire for a while, eventually ending up in Borehamwood. Meanwhile about 20 buses an hour serve the main road a few minutes away!

Daniel | 07.06.11 - 12:31 a.m. | #

It's easy to blame the planners but projects like these are massive. The real decision makers are politicians and developers who unlike planners, never take the bus.

p.s. What exactly does "repurpose" mean? Not a work I've come across before.

ganching | Homepage | 07.06.11 - 8:20 a.m. | #

Good to see you inspire a post at London Reonnections!

NLW | 07.06.11 - 6:15 p.m. | #

Wasn't it Boris Johnson who cancelled all the extensions to local bus routes that would have had them terminate here?

Also, the slab construction was for the flats to help offset the development of the entire railway here, including the station below. The bus station was just an add-on.

Paul | 07.06.11 - 11:17 p.m. | #

Graham, on 6.6.11 at 8:12am, has fallen for TfLs "regeneration" hype when he says its wrong to assign "the entire cost of the slab to the bus station, when AFAIK its primary purpose was always to allow flats to be built". Do housing developers usually spend £63million to create a 2 acre building site when brownfiled sites in the area cost about £8million per acre at the time? TfL's consultants argued that there was nowhere else for the much-needed bus turnaround to be built so there would also have to high-revenue housing and commercial development on the Slab to pay for it.DG is spot on saying "the real blame must be down to the deluded optimist who gave the go ahead for the bus station in the first place" Unfortunately the deluded optimists personally endorsing the scheme included the Mayor's of Hackney & the GLA, their most senior plannning officers, the Chief Executive and senior officers of Hackney Council and the LDA, the wise men of CABE, the executives of architects John Macaslan Associates and Drivers Jonas and the Secretary of State. They all endorsed the scheme and continue to seek to justify it.

Ranty Blog | 10.06.11 - 12:50 a.m. | #











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