News: Jam today and jam tomorrow, fears as Crossrail works begin

Published: 29 January 2010
by TOM BROOKES-POLLOCK

TRAFFIC jams brought misery to Fitzrovia residents after Crossrail work began in Oxford Street – with 800 buses a day diverted past ­people’s homes.
Transport for London has been accused of “riding roughshod” over local concerns about congestion, noise and vibrations, by sending cars and six bus routes, including night buses – 7, 8, 10, 55, 98 and 390  – down Newman Street, Goodge Street, Chenies Street and Gower Street.
And residents fear things can only get worse with Crossrail planning to send heavy vehicles carrying waste material or “spoil” from the site down the same route, possibly until 2017.
The traffic diversion came into effect on Saturday after Crossrail began relaying water and gas mains under Oxford Street.
Westminster City Coun­cil Labour group leader Paul Dimoldenberg called for an “urgent review” of the diversion by TfL and Crossrail, in consultation with Camden and Westminster, the two councils affected.
He said: “Newman Street residents have been treated very badly, with many Oxford Streets buses and Crossrail construction traffic being forced up their very narrow street.”
Penny Abraham, a Labour council in Camden, whose ward is also affected by the diversion, said: “TfL rode roughshod over both councils in the end.”
She said TfL had used laws which usually allow emergency road works on water mains to be carried out to force through the roadworks and the diversion.
Martin Moore, 54, an environmental manager at nearby University College Hospital and whose flat on Goodge Street overlooks the junction with Newman Street, said: “On Sundays this street is usually quiet as a church. Now, in the evening and on the weekend, it is non-stop engines and horns beeping.”
TfL, which says the bus diversion will last until September, is accused by local residents’ groups, the Charlotte Street Association and the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association, of ignoring an alternative plan which would have allowed two-way traffic to continue down Oxford Street, removing the need for a diversion; and failing to carry out an “environment impact assessment” into the consequences of noise and pollution on the diversion until December – just before the it began.
Newman Street resident Les Moran said: “The joke is that the report concludes environmental 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.”
But a spokesman for TfL said the diversion was the least disruptive option for the “the wider road network and bus service reliability”.
He added that the residents’ alternative plan was rejected on the grounds that it would delay the works by two-and-a-half years and “resulted in significant queueing traffic”.
A spokesman for Crossrail said Newman Street was the designated lorry route until November but “the lorry route beyond then is still under negotiation with Westminster and Camden councils.
He added: “The maximum number of lorries [travelling up Newman Street] by the end of the year will be 50 per day, but will likely be a lot less.”