[Source: This is Local London]
COMMUTERS lobbying for the extension of a key bus route say the scheme would help ease their transport misery during the closure of Wanstead tube station.
The Central Line stop will be shut down for refurbishment work on Monday and is due to remain closed for ten weeks, forcing thousands of passengers to look for alternative routes into London.
Campaigners have battled for more than a year to get the 330 bus route - which runs from Forest Gate to the Docklands and Liverpool Street - extended to Wanstead, and say the closure of the station has made this move even more vital.
The group has already gathered more than 250 signatures on a petition calling for the extension - which they plan to present to Transport for London (TfL) next month.
Campaigner Alex Phillips, who works for the Financial Service Authority in Canary Wharf, said the extension would give commuters a vital alternative to using the Tube.
He said: “It would be good for a number of reasons, such as if the tube was shut or they go on strike and because it gives people on low incomes an alternative to the tube which can be quite expensive.
“When it’s been shut before I’ve had to get a mini cab which isn’t too bad for me because I’m on okay money, but for a lot of people a £15 cab fare just isn’t an option.
“It gives people another alternative and I haven’t come across anyone who thinks it’s a bad idea.”
Conservative parliamentary candidate for Leyton and Wanstead, Ed Northover, added: “The Wanstead Tube Summer Shutdown has exposed the poor transport alternatives available to local residents.
“The recent tube strike has reinforced the urgent need for local alternative routes.
“This is a cost effective way to improve local transport facilities and make a real difference to local residents.
“I urge local residents to support our campaign to extend the 330 Bus Route to Wanstead High Street”
You can sign the petition online at: tinyurl.com/facebook330busroute.
Admin Comment: It is a truly great thing that commuters are banding together to get a bus route extended, shame it’s the WRONG ONE!!! Whether through mis-reporting by the journalist, or some serious misinformation from local people I don’t know but, as can be seen at Robert Munster’s excellent London Bus Routes website, Route 330 actually runs from Forest Gate Wanstead Park Station to Canning Town…
Call me an anorak if you will, but Canning Town is 4.5 miles from Liverpool Street and the route certainly cannot be described as serving London Docklands. The only thing the route does is allow people to connect to the Jubilee Line or Docklands Light Railway which, sort of, get you to Liverpool Street (with a change or two).
The article even goes to prove that Local MP’s who “battle for transport improvements” don’t even bother to check their facts before issuing a soundbite, way to go Mr Northover. Perhaps, if I can make a suggestion to the assembled masses of Wanstead, you might like to sign another petition to get the 330 extended the other way as well……
