Roadworks preventing use of bus services

With Route de Cobo closed from its junction with Le Villocq Lane to its junction with Courtil Simon Lane for four days to allow a utility to carry out works, we were told that bus routes 41, 42, 62 and P2 would be affected or – as the sign boards placed at bus stops said – suspended.

As well as Route de Cobo this also affected Rue Cohu. Was the deputy or his officers at Traffic aware of the fact that this affected residents, and any visitors to these, of four care homes who would wish to travel by bus; one States Housing development that is specifically for the older generation, as well as one other at L’Aumone?

Also the many residents of the Le Villocq and Courtil Simon Lane were left with no service to their usual stops. This disregard for those of us that have our own transport but may wish to travel by public transport, and indeed for those with no choice, leaving them with a half-mile walk in the conditions usual at this time of year, ie wind and rain and dark in early mornings and evenings alike, is why many of us will continue to disregard any of the reasons the deputy and his committee give to encourage use of public transport.

Surely there was an alternative to simply isolating these areas, leaving them with no service. Alternative routes could and should be found even if it means the use of mini-buses and the reversal of some current one-way systems, especially for those with no choice but to rely on the public bus service.

JOHN MOXON

Editor’s footnote: a spokesman for Traffic & Highway Services replies:

When organising road closures, and in this instance an unscheduled emergency road closure, staff at Traffic & Highway Services in conjunction with CT Plus do their utmost to minimise disruption for the travelling public.

In this particular instance, care was taken to ensure that the majority of service buses (Routes 41, 42 and P2) served L’Aumone and the adjacent care home by ‘looping’ services via Rectory Hill and the Castel Hospital. Unfortunately, it was not possible to do something similar for Rue Cohu due to the confines of the road junction at Rue Cohu/Les Friquets which meant that service buses were unable to serve this road for a total of four days.

Whilst not ideal, there was no practical alternative on this occasion. The nearest available stops were at the northern end of Rue Cohu at its junction with Le Friquet (Route 41) or the bottom of Mont d’Aval (Route 62).

It is important to recognise that a) this was an emergency closure and b) there are practical and financial considerations associated with facilitating diversions of this nature. Had we had more time to plan this particular closure it is possible that an alternative solution might have been engineered, but it is not as easy as simply replacing a service bus with a minibus as for large parts of the day the service bus would exceed this capacity and operating a long diversion would also have an impact on service scheduling.

Thankfully closures of this nature don’t impact the same area on a regular basis and during such times it may be necessary for the travelling public to make alternative arrangements to overcome these difficulties. Importantly, notification of bus stop suspensions has improved significantly in recent years with signs being placed at key bus stops to inform the public in advance of when services are to be suspended. This is particularly relevant when buses can’t access roads that aren’t actually the subject of the road closure, so the public are at least forewarned in advance of a closure and can make alternative plans, albeit not in this case as it was an emergency closure. Traffic & Highway Services continues to do its utmost to limit the impact of road closures and wishes to apologise for any inconvenience caused during the recent closure of Route de Cobo.