We do not have to choose between buses serving the station and buses serving the centre (Letters, November 21). We can have both. We can reorganise bus services so that they all connect with trains and other bus services at the station, and run through the centre too. To do this well, though, we need to find smart ways of reorganising bus services (both routes and timetables), and we need to rethink how the Winchester Movement Strategy can support bus services.
City buses could be re-routed so that they all pass both the station and the centre (many already do). It would be good to dispense with the long pause in the centre on some cross-city buses. Town services could be integrated with the underused park-and-ride, to provide more frequent services along the main corridors, and reduce passenger waiting times across the city.
Meanwhile, less frequent district services should be retimed to provide good connections at the station with trains and other district bus services. This would make through journeys between, for example, Alresford and Southampton, Bishop's Waltham and Basingstoke, Romsey and Farnborough, or Otterborne and Andover not only easier, but also quicker. We need to develop better public transport connections between the district's market towns and major local destinations outside the district, but in a way that will not worsen current bus links with Winchester city centre.
Buses from Bishop's Waltham, Alresford and Southampton, for example, could run through the centre and terminate at the station, and buses from Romsey and Andover could connect with trains at the station and then run on to the centre, possibly terminating at the leisure centre. St George's Street could become a two-way bus spine, with good real-time information and comfortable waiting and refreshment facilities.
It will be really important to reserve enough space at the station to accommodate all connecting district buses at the same time, to enable easy interchange with trains and between buses.
Phil Gagg,
Chair, WinACC Transport and Planning Action Group,
St Swithun Street,
Winchester
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