Bus shelters in Plymouth’s Royal Parade will be ripped out this month with no idea how long before some are replaced. From Monday, January 13, all 12 remaining JCDecaux bus shelters along the east-bound side of the road will start to be removed. The last removal will take place on Tuesday, January 28.
The shelters are being taken down by JC Decaux after it lost the contract to provide the shelters. The plan is now for new provider Clear Channel to install 15 bigger shelters along this key route with upgraded seating and more space for wheelchair users and pushchairs. It is all part of Plymouth City Council’s £5m Royal Parade Bus Improvement scheme upgrade.
But the council today said negotiations around the improvement scheme contract have proved “unsuccessful” and while the authority is working quickly to resolve this, it means there will be no shelters on Royal Parade between Courtenay Street and St Andrews Cross for “a period of time”.
The council said: “We are aware this is far from ideal and are sorry for the inconvenience this will cause. We are urgently looking for some form of temporary shelter with seating and will give details if this is confirmed.”
Each shelter in Royal Parade will take one day to remove. The work will start with the shelters between Courtenay Street and the Armada Way crossing.
Buses that normally use the stop being taken away will be temporarily relocated to the large stainless steel shelter at the bottom of Royal Parade, outside Premier Inn on Derry’s Cross roundabout. Plymouth Citybus said each bus stop removal is expected to be completed by 4pm on the same day.
The council said posters will be put up in the existing bus shelters telling people when the shelter will be removed and where to catch their bus while the works take place. The Plymotion Team will also be on the ground so bus passengers know where to go.
Bus shelter removal programme for Royal Parade
(Image: Plymouth Citybus)
Once the old shelter has been taken out, bus services will return to their original stopping/pick up locations on Royal Parade and while there will be no shelter there will be a temporary bus stop flag with the service numbers and a timetable attached to the pole.
The council said there is shelter under the shop canopy along most of Royal Parade, but those who prefer a shelter with seating may wish to wait for their bus at the next available stop. A spokesperson said: “We are still looking at other temporary options in the meantime.”
Citybus said: “Shelters will still be available at the next stop for all services, either on Exeter Street Viaduct or Charles Street, depending on the service, except for service 25 where passengers can still get this service at the bottom of Royal Parade at stop A9.
The council said that as soon as the plans for the Royal Parade Bus Improvement scheme are finalised, the council will give full details of the temporary plan for buses during the main construction phase.
The spokesperson added: “We had looked at bringing forward the installation of the new shelters while preparation work on the improvement scheme is finalised, however this would mean some bus users would still be without shelters for some weeks while they were installed on a temporary basis – they would then need to be taken out shortly after for the main scheme’s site preparation works.
“We were worried about the confusion and inconvenience this would cause passengers being asked to move to temporary stops several times. It would also cost around £100,000 to install, take them out and then reinstall on the rejigged road.”
The removals are part of a city wide project which began in 2023 as a cost cutting measure. About 600 shelters throughout the city are being taken down, with only about 400 of them being replaced with an upgraded one.
When it announced the bus shelter cull in 2022, Plymouth City Council said the city had a disproportionately high number of bus shelters for a city of its size. It said the cost of cleaning and maintaining them was significant. The shelters in Royal Parade were included in a list of those that would be replaced.
The council said the final scheme will reduce delays by cutting queues and double stacking of buses, making services more reliable and helping to make going by bus a more attractive option than the private car.
A council spokesperson said: “We also need to change our travelling habits if we are to tackle climate change. Transport accounts for 30% of the city’s carbon emissions. We have committed to encouraging people to consider alternatives to the private car. To do that, we need to improve our public transport offer.”
Cllr Mark Coker, cabinet member for transport, said: “Unfortunately works have had to be delayed by a few months. We are conscious that this is not an ideal time of year to remove shelters and we are asking you to please bear with us.
“We have wrestled with what is the best approach to take and believe that installing new shelters, taking them out and then putting them back is simply too confusing. I am all too aware that it’s cold on Royal Parade so have instructed officers to see if they can come up with a plan B for providing some form of shelter with seating.
“This scheme aims to reduce congestion and improve the reliability of bus services in and out of the city centre – so we are keen to get this right.”
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