Ten-month nightmare as buses reroute for Crossrail

• RESIDENTS and businesses along Newman Street and Goodge Street are facing a 10-month nightmare, due to a massive increase in pollution (potentially affecting our health), damage to the buildings we live in and own and acute damage to the quiet enjoyment of their property due to reroute of buses along those streets. 

One estimate is that there will be over 800 buses per day using Newman Street, approximately one bus every minute and a half. That is 800 more buses per day than have ever used Newman Street.

The “consultations” staged by Transport for London/ Crossrail were a joke. We had very short notice of them and they took place in the summer, usually late in the afternoon, so people were away on holidays or would be working or running their businesses. 

I also wrote to the Crossrail helpline to complain. I am still awaiting a reply.

I was shocked to find that no environmental impact evaluation was done until December, just before the reroute started. The environmental impact report is also something of a joke. It does identify that Newman Street will be especially badly affected by noise, air pollution, vibration. The report says damage overall will be limited but that seems to be based on the positive benefits on Oxford Street from the buses being rerouted. 

It’s a very false conclusion. The true conclusion that can be drawn from this report is that Newman Street and Goodge Street will be badly affected.

I appreciate work has to be done and I support Crossrail but why does it have to be done in a way that does real damage to people who live in the area? Why not have traffic lights controlling the flow of traffic around roadworks? Why send so many of the buses up Newman Street? It’s only routes with bendy buses that are going down Regent Street. Why not send more buses down that way? 

Another option would be to send the buses down Berner Street. It’s much wider than Newman Street. There are fewer residences. OK, the one-way system would need to be changed but that is not rocket science. Or why not reroute at least some of the buses up Regent Street and then along Mortimer Street? 

There are lots of alternatives. I’m still waiting to read the argument in support of the conclusion that Newman Street is either the only or best solution. If alternatives were not considered, and their relative environmental impacts carried out and compared, I think the whole rerouting decision might well be illegal. 

I hope Westminster and Camden will bring a legal challenge to protect the environment and residents from the bad decisions of TfL and Crossrail.

PROFESSOR LESLIE J MORAN
School of Law, Birkbeck College, WC1