|
|
 |
| |
No stopping route 393
• THE 393 bus is the best thing that has happened since a group of civic-minded protesters won the battle to keep Kentish Town West station open about 30 years ago.
Now, we have a bunch of small-minded people, thinking only of their own convenience, saying they do not want a bus – not even a single-decker bus – running along their residential street (aren’t most north London streets residential?) and attempting to shut down or divert a route that serves a community which stretches way beyond Leighton Road in both directions.
The usefulness of this well-conceived cross-country route cannot be exaggerated.
For instance, one of the Leighton Road stops is almost directly opposite a very busy surgery, allowing patients for whom even a short walk is a problem to get to their doctor using public transport.
It also provides an alternative means of getting to Holloway Road and Highbury Corner for those no longer able to manage the long flights of stairs in Kentish Town West station.
I hope Transport for London will keep their nerve in the face of this shameless attempt to dislodge the 393.
ESTHER WHITBY
Harmood Street, NW1
Retrograde!
• WITH reference to your report (Bus stop? Snow way it’s a good idea, warns TV presenter Jon, March 5), I am astonished by the comments of Sue Prickett of Leighton Road Neighbourhood Association regarding the 393 bus route.
Her remarks bear almost no relation to reality. Opposition to this bus is completely retrograde.
First, while very large vehicles are banned from Leighton Road, plenty of heavy commercial vehicles use the road and have done so for years. Why object to the bus now? I have lived a few metres from Leighton Road for nearly seven years and can see the road and its traffic from the back of my house.
Long before the 393 was even mooted I have been awoken by heavy vehicles using Leighton Road every weekday summer morning. The bus is much quieter than these vehicles but only now is there a concerted campaign. Why?
It is tempting to agree with Jon Snow that “elitist” car drivers are behind the LRNA’s campaign because their objections make no sense in any other context.
Secondly, the LRNA contention that the 393 is under-used is wildly out of date. Initially, before word got around, the bus was not especially busy but after two or three weeks this started to change. I use the bus five days a week, including Saturday and Sunday and the bus is frequently two-thirds or more full in both directions.
Leighton Road is not wide but it is nonsense to imply that the bus becoming “stuck” is a regular event. When other road users drive or park legally there is not a problem for a modern vehicle like the small and manoeuvrable 393.
Bus routes are profoundly democratic and provide a cheap way for poorer residents to travel. Rail and Tube fares are expensive.
Sue Prickett also comments that Leighton Road is a residential area. Well then, what are buses for if not for use by residents?
Finally, if the residents of Leighton Road really want less traffic then they should support the 393 or, rather than opposing it, at the very least look at the possibility of campaigning for further restrictions on other heavy vehicles to help make their lives less miserable. Support the 393 and make life more pleasant for all Kentish Town residents.
LEE BARCLAY
Leverton Street, NW5
Listen to us
• JON Snow’s heart is in the right place (March 5), but if he had been able to attend either of the two public meeting about this he would be better informed.
Residents of Leighton Road support the extension of the 393 bus to Chalk Farm but asked TfL to consider an alternative route via Torriano Avenue, Brecknock Road and Agar Grove. Leighton Road is not wide enough for large vehicles and the pavements are too narrow for bus stops. This has always been recognised by Camden; there is a ban on vehicles over 7.5 tonnes.
People on Leighton Road also use buses, trains, and cycles. However, we do not welcome every day between 140 and 170 buses which are only a few feet from some residents’ front doors.
If our preferred route is adopted the 393 will reach Prince of Wales Road more quickly by travelling along the much wider Agar Grove and avoid the congestion on Kentish Town Road.
Those who live in the Leighton Road area will still be able to board the 393 in Torriano Avenue or Brecknock Road. People who live further south and wish to travel on the 393 will be able to use the bus stops at the west end of Kentish Town Road to Holloway and Chalk Farm.
As for TfL’s “consultation” we were told that residents are not stakeholders and must abide by its decision. Nevertheless, Ken Livingstone on two occasions and now Boris Johnson’s director for transport policy have asked London Buses to run a trial bus along the alternative route.
Our councillors, Frank Dobson MP and our representative on the Greater London Assembly, Brian Coleman, support our request that their own, the mayor’s and residents’ views be listened to by TfL.
JOHN H WOODCOCK
Leighton Road, NW5
Elitist?
• SO Jon Snow thinks we are elitists – and he is not!
He states that we oppose the 393 bus because we are car drivers.
He should have ascertained the facts before launching into such banalities. What is an elitist, after all?
A celebrity high earner who lives off Leighton Road (and is therefore free of traffic intrusions)? Or those of us who live at the western end of Leighton Road, who have to endure the bus passengers a few metres from our bathrooms, bedrooms, sitting rooms, peering in, to relieve their boredom?
He says the problem is not the buses, but the cars. I cannot afford a car; I use buses or preferably walk. The few car owners down this end have cars because they need them, for children, or disabled members of the family.
He says he cannot understand our reasons for objecting. He must know that Leighton Road is a residential road and too narrow for buses and the heavy vehicles that follow in their wake.
He asserts that we are nimbys for objecting, but he is an honourable man and would, presumably, allow the bus to shake his house until it subsides. The number of our houses that are now being underpinned has increased since the 170 buses a day started to shake us all up.
Please, Jon Snow, before you utter such empty phrases, take the trouble to inform yourself of the facts.
JENNY WRIGHT
Leighton Road, NW5
A little bus
• AS a resident in Leighton Road for more than 20 years, I was one of the people who protested against the introduction of the 393 bus.
We were told it would be noisy and cause shaking and bumping each time it passed our homes. I thought our road was too narrow for a large bus.
Since the 393 was introduced I have changed my mind and now fully support the route.
The 393 is a little bus which hardly makes a sound and certainly doesn’t cause any vibrations in my house or those of my neighbours.
The route is very convenient for us all. A journey to Highbury which used to take an hour on buses and Tubes now is about 20 minutes. We can also get to Chalk Farm which was very awkward to reach before this route was introduced.
I don’t drive. If there were more buses like the 393 in London I am sure fewer people would use their cars – which are causing so much pollution and causing global warming.
I hope the bus company keeps the 393 route just where it is. We need it.
JO SIEDLECKA
Leighton Road, NW5
Right course
• I WOULD like to join the supporters of the 393.
I travel on it in the late afternoon every Wednesday from Chalk Farm to Holloway Road station to get to my course at London Metropolitan University. I am a woman in my 80s and going round London in the evening is not a joy. Without that bus I would not be taking the course.
I would not expect the bus to run just to take one old woman to an evening class. But since using it I have noticed how packed it is. I have been heartened to see the way everyone co-operates, helps with prams and assists those who need it. The driver is considerate and gives people time to get on and off.
It is much quieter when I come home at night, but there are still plenty of students from the university using it. I think it is The People’s Bus.
CHARMAIN CANNON
Erskine Mews, NW3
Invitation
• I LIVE in Leighton Road not in Torriano Cottages like Jon Snow, and he calls us elitist!
Well that’s a good one. There he is well tucked away from the vibration and the fumes of the Leighton Road traffic, which in my case is only five metres from my bedroom, and he labels me a nimby. The 393 bus, which has been forced upon the residents of Leighton Road has ruined our nights sleep, because the bus only stops running around 1am and starts again at 5.30am.
Lorries are now – after seeing the bus in the road – ignoring the
7.5-tonne ban on the road, so adding to our grief.
I would like to make Jon Snow an offer, to visit my home to experience the conditions we live under to see if he still thinks we are elitist.
Well Jon?
JON HALL
Leighton Road, NW5
Shop talk
• SUE Prickett of the Leighton Road Neighbourhood Association really should get her ducks in a row!
She’s against buses in Leighton Road (page 3, March 5) and against cafés in Kentish Town Road (page10, same edition). She also expresses fears that people will stop shopping in Kentish Town Road. Ms Prickett must surely realise that buses bring people to shops on their route and cafés give the chance for shoppers to relax while they shop. No buses, no cafés will equal fewer shoppers. Ms Pricket appears to have shot herself in both feet!
PETER MAIR
Savernake Road, NW3
|
 |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
