New call for Oxford Street shuttle bus to boost West End shopping
Published: 12 February 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM
BUSES should be rerouted away from Oxford Street, and plans to install a shuttle bus resurrected if the street is to hang on to its place among the world’s top shopping districts, according to a report published this week .
The London Assembly transport committee has warned that bumper-to-bumper buses, up to 300 an hour at its busiest, are gaining the upper hand in the conflict between shoppers and transport in the heart of the West End.
Oxford Street is on the brink of breaking European Union air quality limits, which comes with a stiff £300million penalty if exceeded, and also holds the alarming statistic of being the site of a bus-related accident every three days, the report reveals.
The committee calls on mayor Boris Johnson to work with Transport for London and Westminster City Council to assess the feasibility of rerouting buses, as well as proposing the oft-vaunted shuttle bus and pedestrianisation solutions.
Victoria Borwick, who led the investigation on behalf of the committee said: “The wall of slow-moving metal running along Oxford Street tarnishes what should be a world class shopping experience, delaying and endangering residents, workers and visitors.
“We are talking about a vital retail destination that generates £5.5billion a year for the UK economy.
“There has to be a better way to strike the balance between the needs of shoppers and pedestrians and the demand for transport links.
“A number of our contributors expressed concerns that current efforts to fix the situation are progressing slowly and ultimately may prove merely to scratch the surface.
“It’s time for the agencies involved to stop talking about solutions and actually put the work into a radical re-examination of central London bus routes so genuine improvements become a reality.”
Talks of how to relieve congestion in Oxford Street have been raging since the 1980s.
Former mayor Ken Livingstone unveiled plans to ban vehicles from the street in 2008 but they were abandoned after he lost his position at the last mayoral election.
With the Crossrail project swallowing up money, and the Olympics on the horizon, the likelihood of ring-fencing money for any major project on the street is slim.
The mayor’s office did not take up the invitation to comment.