Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot

[cfm146g]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot

(31/07/2018 12:03)MTL0201 Wrote:  The busway is quite annoying for the low bridges they have over them, most of which are pedestrian bridges, i've counted 4 between Halton Hospital & Murdishaw, 3 of which at bus stops which have also a crossing over the roadway, the pedestrian bridges could well be demolished & replaced by crossings over the roadway, there is only one under the Halton Link Road which could be tricky, another on on the Southern busway towards the Arriva garage that crosses the expressway that could be tricky as well.

Double deckers are fine between the Shopping City and Arriva depot. The footbridge at Halton Lodge is high enough.

You can also get from the Shopping City as far as Palace Fields bus stop but have to turn off at the lights before Parkside as there is a low footbridge where a number of deckers came to grief in North Western days.

Going the third way from Shopping City towards Castlefields there is a road bridge which prevents any access to double deckers, immediately after the T-junction following the triangle. Traffic joining from Castlefields Avenue cannot pass in either direction without encountering low road bridges.

On the spur from Murdishaw to Whitehouse there is a footbridge which was the location of a lucky escape for a VR load of school children in the mid 90s when a child raised the alarm in time and all the upper deck passengers were able to hide behind seats and escape serious injury as the roof was torn off.

I have been puzzled for many years that, despite the risk of another bridge strike in so many locations, and pedestrian crossings now being cut across central reservations at road level, nobody has raised the issue of making the busway safe for all buses! There are just two road bridges where the busway would need an excavation to pass underneath [one was mentioned above, the other is between Tyrrell Way and The Park stop]. The rest would just need dismantling and road-level crossings installed.