General musings about radial vs cross-town networks

[LexyBoy]

Reading Buses seem hellbent on making the network entirely radial from the town centre (which, if you're not familiar with Reading, does not have a bus station). A few years ago the 22 was split, and most recently the 2 has been split, leaving only the 17 as a cross-town route.

Now, this is somewhat irritating from my perspective as I generally want to go somewhere other than the town centre*, but I can see that most people will be fine with it. What I am interested in is the pros and cons of a radial as opposed to cross-town system, and what works where.

The radial system seems pretty ubiquitous in smaller cities and towns - I know of Oxford and Gloucester for example which have little connectivity between the suburbs, and even quite large places like Nottingham seem to have the same.

On the other hand, it seems that Edinburgh has most routes crossing the centre and that works well there. Similarly Glasgow seems to have plenty of cross-city routes though it's on a different scale of course. And almost all metro/tram systems do this. Are there other examples of places which succeed with a cross-city route? What are the problems with each system?

* On the plus side if I walk to town to get a bus I can get a PlusBus ticket for £2 instead of paying £1.90 single on the bus.

 

[Searle]

As a resident of York, I can say that it has quite a mix of the two. For example the 4 runs from the university and then through the centre and out to Acomb, whereas the Park and Ride buses just run from the centre to the respective P+R.

Nearly all of the cross city buses run between the city centre, the bus and rail station before going out to a suburb on the other side of town, so it's kind of the same as two separate services I suppose.

The main drawback as a passenger from the University is that the railway station is on the other side of town, so you have to wait for passengers to Acomb board at the bus station/city centre, meaning it can sometimes double the length of the journey, which can be frustrating when you're in walking distance of the railway station.

 

[Hassocks5489]

Crawley New Town is an excellent example of a smaller settlement with good cross-town connections. It was always planned this way: the Master Plan of 1949 proposed that all bus services should operate in this fashion via a central bus station (see the Victoria County History of Sussex (link here) for some info), and the same concept continues today, by and large. Excluding long-distance routes starting/terminating at the bus station, these are the main routes in Crawley (all Metrobus-operated), summarising the parts of town they cover:

• 1 (Broadfield-Bewbush): south > centre > west > southwest
• 2 (Tilgate-Ifield): south > southeast > centre > west > northwest
• 4 and 5 (County Oak-Pound Hill): northwest > north > centre > east > northeast
• 10 (Bewbush-Gatwick): southwest > south > centre > north
• 20 (Broadfield-Horley): south > centre > east > north
• 100 (Maidenbower-Redhill): southeast > east > centre > north
• 200 (Horsham-Gatwick): southwest > west > northwest > north (avoiding town centre)

So, not quite diagonal, but pretty good overall! There is also a decent circular service (526/527) taking in a magical mystery tour of surrounding obscure villages, outlying bits of the airport etc. and many of the estates in the northeast and northwest of Crawley.

 

[neilmc]

An obvious advantage of cross-town services is that the standing time can be spent at outlying termini rather than in the town centre, thus preventing bus-blocking.

An obvious disadvantage is the loss of flexibility to switch buses between services.

Leeds has historically had lots of cross-city services, even going back to tram days.

By contrast, Manchester appears to have had very few, possibly because the routes are quite long anyway and most services terminate in town; Piccadilly for example is way too overcrowded with parked buses, but the city centre road layout doesn't really make for through journeys either.

 

[radamfi]

By contrast, Manchester appears to have had very few, possibly because the routes are quite long anyway and most services terminate in town; Piccadilly for example is way too overcrowded with parked buses, but the city centre road layout doesn't really make for through journeys either.

The same could be said for most of the suburban centres in Greater Manchester. Nearly all routes terminate in bus stations and there is generally plenty of space to park up. The main exception is Oldham, which historically mainly used on street bus stops. For a long time it had a small bus station at Town Square, which was only used by some routes. Now it has a proper bus station (albeit in two parts) but routes still mostly cross town.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Nottingham scrapped cross town routes in favour of radial routes (for NCT) and introduced increased frequencies at the same time, so the service actually improved. TB also has radial routes but I'm not sure when they started that

 

[starrymarkb]

Exeter City routes are almost all Cross City (only the Park and Rides terminate just short of the high street)

 

[LexyBoy]

An obvious disadvantage is the loss of flexibility to switch buses between services.

And, I would imagine, that delays incurred going into town would knock on to the service on the other side. However, I'd think that this could be mitigated by turning back delayed buses in town, which would be fine as long as the service frequency is sufficient - say every 10-15 minutes.

Alternatively (as for the 2 in Reading prior to its severing) there can be a long layover in the centre - still more convenient for cross-town passengers than changing, but occupying a bus stop for a while.

Actually in Reading buses are very rarely swapped to other routes as they are coloured by route - I can't think of the last time I saw one on the wrong route. There are a few generic buses used in this case though.

 

[Deerfold]

Nottingham scrapped cross town routes in favour of radial routes (for NCT) and introduced increased frequencies at the same time, so the service actually improved. TB also has radial routes but I'm not sure when they started that

At the time they explained that passengers were not impressed by disrupton in Clifton delaying buses in Sherwood or some similar tale.

They used to have some impressively long routes - I may have been one of the few people to catch the Clifton to Hucknall service 70 along its whole route.

I suspect it reduced the attractiveness of the West Bridgford area for Nottingham Uni students. I used to know a few who lived there and got the cross-city 12 every 15 minutes.

When they made all these changes there were some sleights of hand. The "Go2" services every 10 minutes were not always more frequent than the services they replaced - the Bilborough to Carlton route 28 used to be every 5-6 mintutes.

However the links I really miss are the "ring road" type services. Nottingham's 53/54 and Leeds 8/9 both used to be every 15 minutes at the peaks and could save significant amounts of time by avoiding the City Centre. Both then became hourly so were only useful with careful planning. In Leeds they've then become combined with other supported services whilst in Nottingham the frequency seems to have gone back up to every 30 minutes.

 

[quarella]

The number 2 route from Morriston Hospital to Oystermouth changed from being a cross city service to 2 separate routes and back again a number of times. I think the problem there is in good weather losing all your buses in the heavy traffic down the Oystermouth end. More than once I walked the 5 miles faster than travelling by road.

 

[Mitch in Notts]

There are some routes in Nottingham that while starting in the city link a number of suburbs such as the 25, 35, 79 which all have one or more shopping areas on their routes.
Council funded routes such as the L11 Beeston to Arnold cover some of the lost links. But certainly recent cutbacks usually make it necessary to change en route.
When I used to travel from Clifton back to Nuthall 20 years ago I used to find changing in town quicker than using the Ring Road due to queues at every major junction on the then 53/4.

 

[hassaanhc]

In Slough the "7Series" group of routes are booked to have a few minutes wait in both directions. They run from Heathrow to various places via Slough, and in the country direction they wait inside the bus station while towards Heathrow they do it in a lay-by type stop just outside on the busy A4 so traffic isn't blocked.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Horsham has sort of radial routes, well the Metrobus routes are which were originally operated by Arriva pre September 2011. The routes are 51, 61, 62, 65 and the 98, the 98 is more of a cross town service than a radial route.