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Bus Shelter built Not on a Bus Route

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Lucan

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From the Metro :-
"Residents have been left baffled after a blundering council built a brand new bus shelter – on a road with no public transport.
The twice-daily bus service running along a street in Rotherham was axed in March.
But that didn’t stop officials spending £6,000 of taxpayers’ money on a shelter with seats and a roof in May."

https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/17/bus-shelter-built-road-no-buses-9582629/

You couldn't think it up :rolleyes:
 
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Kite159

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Without clicking on the advert infested website, is that the one in the Sheffield area or has another one popped up when the bus route has been axed/rerouted?
 

Ianno87

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We have a bus shelter opposite our house for one bus a day.

Why?

It generates advertising revenue on a busy road, pure and simple.
 

PBarnesHST

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May be buses run more frequently when the shelter was built?

From the article;

The twice-daily bus service running along a street in Rotherham was axed in March.

But that didn’t stop officials spending £6,000 of taxpayers’ money on a shelter with seats and a roof in May.

Red-faced council chiefs have since apologised for the gaffe and have had to attach a sign, reading: ‘Please note that this bus stop is no longer in use.’
 

robk23oxf

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I've noticed in Oxfordshire lately that the council have actually been busy removing bus shelters, including at a few well patronised stops.
 

Lucan

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May be buses run more frequently when the shelter was built?
No, there had been a service but it was axed two months before the shelter was built.
(I have now edited my original post to give a bit of background.)
 

Kite159

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Yes, sorry, I did not originally give the quote. A mod asked me to add a quote to give context.

And I was working a PC at work which doesn't have adblock software so clicking on anything like the Metro website brings up lots of annoying adverts including auto-play videos.

Probably not the first time it has happened, nor probably won't be the last time. I can remember a case in Andover going back a few years ago when a new retail park was opened up, the developers put in a bus stop shelter with the idea one of the local bus routes would be changed to serve said retail park, but none actually did [something to do with the turning circle at a roundabout not being large enough to safety turn a bus around]. The shelter has gone (got 'visited' by bored drunken youths overnight) but the bus stop markings are still visible
 

Tetchytyke

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No, there had been a service but it was axed two months before the shelter was built.
(I have now edited my original post to give a bit of background.)

The shelter will have been ordered before the bus route was canned. Procurement takes longer than two months.

It's the ongoing problem with bus operators demanding street furniture then abandoning routes with 56 days' notice.
 

Megafuss

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The shelter will have been ordered before the bus route was canned. Procurement takes longer than two months.

It's the ongoing problem with bus operators demanding street furniture then abandoning routes with 56 days' notice.

Swings and roundabouts. A few years ago I was working on a project to serve a new housing estate as part of a addition to a bus route. It had no hard standing area for safe hail and ride (all grass verge). It had no physical bus stops and no NAPTAN stops either, but we were under pressure from the local councillors to put the bus around it as we were promised the infrastructure would be installed in time after 56 days registration.

Guess what happened? Precisely nothing! The bus stops were never put in and therefore nobody used the bus. We reverted back to the original route and got stick from the very people that asked us to put the new bit of route on in the first place.

At the time of cancellation we were contacted by a parish councillor that we were on good terms with and he advised us that some residents had actually complained to the county about bus stops being installed - 3 months before our service was registered, so plenty of time for someone to tell us "actually, can you put that on hold"

We were basically mislead by those at county hall at a cost to us of one extra bus, three extra drivers a day and thousands of pounds of publicity/timetables - and some people wonder why bus operators have a problem with local authorities when it comes to infrastructure projects.
 

kevjs

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Red-faced council chiefs have since apologised for the gaffe and have had to attach a sign, reading: ‘Please note that this bus stop is no longer in use.’
One of our local stops had a similar sign put up after having no services for about 12 months. About 6 months later ended up with 3 services (1 Sunday & BH only service, 2 weekday services) running to it...
 

Dr Hoo

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There is always going to be a tension between the greater importance of a shelter on a route with an infrequent service (because it is rather miserable standing in the pouring rain for two hours) and the fact that such services are often most likely to disappear.
In the Peak District tired walkers will often arrive at a stop in the middle of nowhere in an area with no mobile phone signal (so they have been unable to plan their connection). Quite a few routes have been cut or diverted in recent years.
I realise that Rotherham probably doesn’t have the same demand characteristics.
 

Tetchytyke

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A few years ago I was working on a project to serve a new housing estate as part of a addition to a bus route.

I imagine there was more to it internally to the council than that, a huge new estate would normally have a s106 agreement and the developer would be expected to install the street furniture under it. Not that it helps a business that's been misled as yours seemingly was, but IME it does tend to be more common that the street infrastructure gets installed but nobody runs a bus up it or cans the bus the second the s106 money runs out.
 

CanalWalker

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There is always going to be a tension between the greater importance of a shelter on a route with an infrequent service (because it is rather miserable standing in the pouring rain for two hours) and the fact that such services are often most likely to disappear.
In the Peak District tired walkers will often arrive at a stop in the middle of nowhere in an area with no mobile phone signal (so they have been unable to plan their connection). Quite a few routes have been cut or diverted in recent years.
I realise that Rotherham probably doesn’t have the same demand characteristics.

I have noticed a number of bus stops around the White Peak bearing the legend "No buses stop at this stop"
 

randyrippley

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The bus stop on Ovangle Road outside Asda in Morecambe was there for over 20 years before a service stopped there
 
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