Vocal Voices

Leeds knocked down some tired old buildings and its central police station and lost a muddy NCP car park in order to build the John Lewis "Flagship of the North" store in a development called "Victoria Gate". We also got a little pedestrian plaza for performing 'arts', seating, shrubbery tubs and covered walkways. Roads were reconfigured to make them bus only or one-way or both. Lovely.

Local councillor has just emailed new plans. Traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular, is not doing what was expected so a one-way bus route is to become two-way and we are now to get a totally new one-way system with 'super' junction at one side and at the other a spur to the "Leeds Loop" - don't ask, just do not ask.

£24m for pt. A and £21m for pt. B. These people certainly know how to spend other people's money when they get things wrong!

Town planners all seem to think that the way to rejuvenate things is a new shopping centre. It doesn't always work.
I used to drive regularly in Leeds in the 80's when I worked in the city centre. I'm not sure I'd fancy it today.

I used to go to Leeds when I was working. That was before I retired in 1996. Used to park by going under the arches on land behind the station. It was known a Canal Wharf Probably redeveloped now.
We had offices in East Parade.

A new bus staion has been built in our town. While it was being built, taxis were moved to a location which reduced a two lane road to one near traffic lights. This was so some buses could use the taxi rank.
Surprise surprise, the taxis have not ben moved back so queses develop at the traffic lights as one is a right turn.
There was a traffic island at a busy junction on a dual road leading to the M6. Replaced by traffic lights. After many crashes with cars trying to turn right. the layout has been altered with seperate right turn only signals. Now they want to alter it again as a new slip road is planned linking the M58 to M61.
Just glad we will not have to use it very much.

Back in the 1950's and 1960's, the vast majority of Corporation buses in Birmingham ran round the City Centre in a loop - down New Street, up Corporation Street past Rackhams department store (now House of Frazer, soon to be closed), round Bull Street to Snow Hill Station, and back to the Town Hall along Colmore Row. OK, it got very congested at rush hours, but it worked and public transport interchangeability was easy. Goodness known what the pollution element was but we didn't know about that back in those days.

Following 50 years of town planning, the central shopping area has become pretty much fully pedestrianised. Certainly a much cleaner environment, but buses became terminated at a number of "hubs" on the outskirts. These hubs are technically linked by a couple of bus routes - the 16 and the 24, but to get across the Birmingham city centre, say if travelling from Longbridge to Walsall, you'd have to change buses twice, or walk 10 minutes or so between the interchanges. Not so good.

Nowadays the current solution is to run the (not that frequent) tram through the pedestrian area, recreating most of the original city loop, albeit clockwise instead of anti-clockwise. What goes around comes around, in more ways than one!