Re-Unification Progress
But the good news is that the bridge has been replaced. Hurrah!
Sadly, not quite yet!
… and the two lines are to be linked …
… albeit by bus!
South Yorkshire’s mayor has said bus franchising has been recommended as the best way to improve the county network.
It would mean the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) would decide services and timetables.
Mayor Oliver Coppard said the estimated cost of the whole transition to franchising would be £25m.
First Bus said it was confident it could help deliver change. Stagecoach said it was committed to working with SYMCA to make the network successful.
Bus services in England outside London were deregulated in 1986, enabling private operators to control routes, timetables and fares and to receive the revenue from fares.
However, the Bus Services Act gave city regions the power to introduce bus franchising in 2017.
Mr Coppard said an independent audit had looked at different options for the bus network in South Yorkshire and had recommended franchising.
He said he hoped it could be introduced by the end of this year.
“Franchising would be a publicly-controlled bus system where we decide what the routes, fares and timetables look like and we would use the money from the profitable bits of our network to reinvest in those vital services in other parts of our communities,” he said.
So no chance, then of Mayor Oliver expanding his frenchised operation into the best bus depot in South Yorkshire!
But to get to Blackheath it will need to cross the Thames. And that crossing is not finished yet. It will be known as the Silvertown Tunnel. immediate logic suggests that a route via the Blackwall Tunnel would be sensible …
… but not for SL4. it will use the new tunnel.
… and this is what the north portal looked like under constriction.
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The road (left) is the Silvertown Flyover, the water is the Royal Docks as was! And the railway (right) is Docklands Light to London City Airport and under the Thames to Woolwich.
The northern portal has a control room like something out of Doctor Who …
… and the southern entrance is at North Greenwich which is equally scary!
Here is a short video about the tunnel.
Did we hear aright? User charge? One lane for buses only? Just the SL4? 60 buses an hour (maybe that’s 30 each way?
Tomorrow we go from Streatham in London to Leeds, which isn’t!
1 Comment
Yes, I thought the 29×27 was too large, but doc seemed find with it how to take priligy
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