Update: North Gate Bus Station Gridlock
4 March 2014, 07:12 | Updated: 4 March 2014, 07:16
Engineers working through the night putting in new road layouts and yellow box junctions around North Gate bus station.
Engineers have been working through the night to prevent further gridlock around Northampton's new £7m bus station.
It's after a crisis meeting was held last night with councillors, police and bus operating companies to find away to prevent further congestion this morning.
Some buses had to wait an hour to get into the interchange yesterday, causing chaos for motorists.
Overnight new road layouts have been put in, including at the junction of College Street and Bradshaw street, so North Gate has priority.
More police and ticket officers will also be around in the town centre, to make sure drivers are following the new road layouts.
The council say they'll monitor the situation this morning to see if that's worked.
Latest Statement From Northampton County Council
'The meeting tonight heard that the problems seemed to be caused by a sudden increase in traffic using College Street and Bradshaw Street which caused congestion around the bus station which was possibly compounded by the phasing of the traffic lights on Bradshaw Street and the Drapery, and pedestrians crossing the Drapery and Sheep Street against the traffic signals.
Immediate actions will be taken tonight to deal with some of these issues. These are:
- Create a new road layout at the junction of College Street and Bradshaw Street, to ensure that buses leaving North Gate are given priority
- Police officers and parking enforcement officers will have a high profile presence around the town centre to enforce the existing traffic regulations
- These include no vehicles except buses and taxis are permitted to use the Drapery, and no vehicles except buses should be travelling north from Sheep Street to turn into Lady’s Lane
- A yellow box junction will be created at the junction of Bradshaw Street and Sheep Street to stop vehicles blocking the junction
- Yellow box junction will be created at the top of Sheep Street junction with Greyfriars travelling north as a priority
- If time overnight, a yellow box junction will be created at the junction of Sheep Street and Greyfriars westbound
- Both the traffic lights and pedestrian crossings in Bradshaw Street, Sheep Street and the junction with the Drapery will be monitored throughout the day
The situation will be monitored closely throughout the day and contingency plans can be put in place if traffic begins to build up again. Longer term solutions to assist in the free movement of traffic around the bus station will also be considered.
Councillor David Mackintosh, leader of Northampton Borough Council, thanked the agencies involved for working together to resolve the situation as quickly as possible today: “Traffic moved through the bus station well during the busiest times this morning and the very difficult situation we faced happened very suddenly. I know that buses are vital to our town and it is absolutely critical we get it right, we are all committed to working together to make sure we do.
“Northamptonshire County Council engineers will be working through the night and we will be on the scene from first thing in the morning, closely watching how the day develops and ready to respond if things begin to go wrong."