Planning permission was granted in 2004 for a temporary extension to
Hammersmith bus station using a vacant lot on the north east corner of
the Hammersmith gyratory. The extension would have provided overflow
capacity for the main bus station which is currently at capacity,
allowing service expansion and the short extension of routes 267 and H91
from their terminus on Grove Road outside the Hammersmith & City line
station to the new bus station to provide better interchange on journeys
into Hammersmith.

The aim was to have this temporary station operating from the end of
2004, with its eventual replacement within 5-7 years by a permanent
upper-level extension to the main bus station itself over the railway
tracks.

However, nothing ever happened, and I can find just two real mentions of
the scheme:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-cent...t.asp?prid=319
http://www.jesticowhiles.co.uk/main.php?project=33

In the meantime, interchange has gotten slightly worse, as the 266 now
also terminates at the Hamm & City station on inbound journeys, when it
used to terminate at the bus station.

Does anyone have any idea what happened?

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

Dave Arquati wrote:
[snip stuff about 2004 and announcements of a Hammersmith bus station
extension/redevelopment]

However, nothing ever happened, and I can find just two real mentions of
the scheme:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-cent...t.asp?prid=319

http://www.jesticowhiles.co.uk/main.php?project=33

[snip]
Does anyone have any idea what happened?

No idea what happened, but it is also mentioned at

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/ini-hammersmith.asp

"Work has started on a new bus station at Butterwick in Hammersmith. The
new facility - which is due to be completed by the end of 2005 -"

Thought it does also say:

"Construction is not expected to have any effect"

(break for comic effect)

"on bus services at the existing station, which will continue to operate
normally while the work is carried out"

I rather like having the 267 and H91 terminate on Hammersmith Grove, but
that might be because it means I don't have to get across many lanes of
busy traffic to get home.

Still, I guess that explains why there's a massive gap site on that
roundabout. I'd presume that the private sector funding for the
development fell through, perhaps in part thanks to White City looking
like it will hoover up any spare shopping money in the near future. An
(improved) bus station is hardly much of an inducement compared to a new
main line station, H&C station, WLL station and the potential of a tram.

Presumably TFL are wary of building the temporary station only to have
to remove it when funding falls through for the redevelopment.

Alex Ingram wrote:
Dave Arquati wrote:
[snip stuff about 2004 and announcements of a Hammersmith bus station
extension/redevelopment]

However, nothing ever happened, and I can find just two real mentions
of the scheme:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-cent...t.asp?prid=319

http://www.jesticowhiles.co.uk/main.php?project=33

[snip]
Does anyone have any idea what happened?

No idea what happened, but it is also mentioned at

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/ini-hammersmith.asp

"Work has started on a new bus station at Butterwick in Hammersmith. The
new facility - which is due to be completed by the end of 2005 -"

Thought it does also say:

"Construction is not expected to have any effect"

(break for comic effect)

"on bus services at the existing station, which will continue to operate
normally while the work is carried out"

I rather like having the 267 and H91 terminate on Hammersmith Grove, but
that might be because it means I don't have to get across many lanes of
busy traffic to get home.

Presumably they would still call at the Hammersmith & City station like
the other buses approaching from the west. The only difference would be
that passengers changing from those buses onto others or onto the
District or Piccadilly lines wouldn't need to cross the Broadway.

Still, I guess that explains why there's a massive gap site on that
roundabout. I'd presume that the private sector funding for the
development fell through, perhaps in part thanks to White City looking
like it will hoover up any spare shopping money in the near future. An
(improved) bus station is hardly much of an inducement compared to a new
main line station, H&C station, WLL station and the potential of a tram.

Perhaps - but there is still plenty of potential for office and
residential development.

Presumably TFL are wary of building the temporary station only to have
to remove it when funding falls through for the redevelopment.

That may be the case. I wonder who currently owns the land?

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:18:51 +0100, Dave Arquati
wrote:

Planning permission was granted in 2004 for a temporary extension to
Hammersmith bus station using a vacant lot on the north east corner of
the Hammersmith gyratory. The extension would have provided overflow
capacity for the main bus station which is currently at capacity,
allowing service expansion and the short extension of routes 267 and H91
from their terminus on Grove Road outside the Hammersmith & City line
station to the new bus station to provide better interchange on journeys
into Hammersmith.

The aim was to have this temporary station operating from the end of
2004, with its eventual replacement within 5-7 years by a permanent
upper-level extension to the main bus station itself over the railway
tracks.

However, nothing ever happened, and I can find just two real mentions of
the scheme:

Well a couple of things happened. They did move the Emerald Centre
across the road to the bottom end of the Grove, to a set of
portacabins on a corner of the car park; and they did level the site.
The wooden "T" markers are still planted in the ground from that
levelling exercise. But then everything stopped and the site is now
thoroughly overgrown.

Very odd, considering they built that bus layover area at Shepherds
Bush tube station in about two weeks, you would think they could do
something similarly quick and low budget at Hammersmith, much the
same, with the addition of a few bus shelters. Maybe they worked out
how much it would cost to modify the traffic lights, or some other HSE
reason meant it would be stupidly expensive to do, so they gave up.

They should have left the original bus station that was right there
until what, 10 or 12 years ago?

On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:11:44 +0100, Peter Frimberley
wrote:

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:18:51 +0100, Dave Arquati
wrote:

Planning permission was granted in 2004 for a temporary extension to
Hammersmith bus station using a vacant lot on the north east corner of
the Hammersmith gyratory. The extension would have provided overflow
capacity for the main bus station which is currently at capacity,
allowing service expansion and the short extension of routes 267 and H91
from their terminus on Grove Road outside the Hammersmith & City line
station to the new bus station to provide better interchange on journeys
into Hammersmith.

The aim was to have this temporary station operating from the end of
2004, with its eventual replacement within 5-7 years by a permanent
upper-level extension to the main bus station itself over the railway
tracks.

However, nothing ever happened, and I can find just two real mentions of
the scheme:

Well a couple of things happened. They did move the Emerald Centre
across the road to the bottom end of the Grove, to a set of
portacabins on a corner of the car park; and they did level the site.
The wooden "T" markers are still planted in the ground from that
levelling exercise. But then everything stopped and the site is now
thoroughly overgrown.

Very odd, considering they built that bus layover area at Shepherds
Bush tube station in about two weeks, you would think they could do
something similarly quick and low budget at Hammersmith, much the
same, with the addition of a few bus shelters. Maybe they worked out
how much it would cost to modify the traffic lights, or some other HSE
reason meant it would be stupidly expensive to do, so they gave up.

They should have left the original bus station that was right there
until what, 10 or 12 years ago?

Actually in case you haven't seen it, the original planning approval
can be seen in PDF form on the LBHF website at
http://tinyurl.com/krymd. It does come with a number of conditions
about contamination and trees, so maybe one of those conditions
tripped things up.

Alternatively, since it was ony temporary until a more permanent
building got built there incorporating a more permanent bus station,
maybe someone like Disney made noises about actually getting on and
building the permanent structure instead, however there is nothing
logged on the LBHF planning site.

The temporary planning permission runs out 1 March 2009 so I would
guess it is safe to say they won't be building it now

Peter Frimberley wrote:
On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:18:51 +0100, Dave Arquati
wrote:

Planning permission was granted in 2004 for a temporary extension to
Hammersmith bus station using a vacant lot on the north east corner of
the Hammersmith gyratory. The extension would have provided overflow
capacity for the main bus station which is currently at capacity,
allowing service expansion and the short extension of routes 267 and H91
from their terminus on Grove Road outside the Hammersmith & City line
station to the new bus station to provide better interchange on journeys
into Hammersmith.

The aim was to have this temporary station operating from the end of
2004, with its eventual replacement within 5-7 years by a permanent
upper-level extension to the main bus station itself over the railway
tracks.

However, nothing ever happened, and I can find just two real mentions of
the scheme:

Well a couple of things happened. They did move the Emerald Centre
across the road to the bottom end of the Grove, to a set of
portacabins on a corner of the car park; and they did level the site.
The wooden "T" markers are still planted in the ground from that
levelling exercise. But then everything stopped and the site is now
thoroughly overgrown.

Thanks for the info. I may be able to find out more in a few weeks...

Very odd, considering they built that bus layover area at Shepherds
Bush tube station in about two weeks, you would think they could do
something similarly quick and low budget at Hammersmith, much the
same, with the addition of a few bus shelters. Maybe they worked out
how much it would cost to modify the traffic lights, or some other HSE
reason meant it would be stupidly expensive to do, so they gave up.

I didn't realise that the bus layover was put in place so quickly!
Incidentally, where did buses lay over before it was there?

I hope the new bus station on that site comes along similarly rapidly...
they've held off putting in bus shelters in for the neighbouring stops
on Uxbridge Road for quite a while, except for the closest one to the
station.

They should have left the original bus station that was right there
until what, 10 or 12 years ago?

Before my arrival in London, I'm afraid. However, I imagine that the
current bus station was, at that time, intended to be a complete
replacement, so retaining the original would have been a waste of
maintenance costs... it's probably only more recently that bus services
have expanded enough to warrant the extension.


--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London

On Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:27:28 +0100, Dave Arquati
wrote:

Peter Frimberley wrote:

Very odd, considering they built that bus layover area at Shepherds
Bush tube station in about two weeks, you would think they could do
something similarly quick and low budget at Hammersmith, much the
same, with the addition of a few bus shelters. Maybe they worked out
how much it would cost to modify the traffic lights, or some other HSE
reason meant it would be stupidly expensive to do, so they gave up.

I didn't realise that the bus layover was put in place so quickly!
Incidentally, where did buses lay over before it was there?

End of Caxton Road. You can just see the buses on this old aerial
photo here
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v...style=h&lvl=18
(or try http://tinyurl.com/ej8dl )

I should imagine the residents are delighted that it's been moved from
there already!


I hope the new bus station on that site comes along similarly rapidly...
they've held off putting in bus shelters in for the neighbouring stops
on Uxbridge Road for quite a while, except for the closest one to the
station.

They should have left the original bus station that was right there
until what, 10 or 12 years ago?

Before my arrival in London, I'm afraid. However, I imagine that the
current bus station was, at that time, intended to be a complete
replacement, so retaining the original would have been a waste of
maintenance costs... it's probably only more recently that bus services
have expanded enough to warrant the extension.

The original was little more than an extra lane on the gyratory for
buses to pull into, with 5 or 6 "corrugated iron" simple shelters on
the island between the road the buses drove down, and the gyratory
road that all the traffic uses today. It was entered right on the
north east corner of the gyratory and exited back on to the gyratory
where the layby into the Disney building is now. It was like that from
at least the mid 70s, maybe earlier. I'm not sure but I think you
could walk straight into the tube station from there - you definitely
could while they were building the current tube station and bus
station, and had a series of portacabins as the station entrance. But
yes, I imagine the new Broadway Centre bus station was sized so as to
make the old bus station completely redundant, hence it's removal.
It's just ironic that the old bus station was exactly where this
temporary extension was supposed to be, and that the old and temporary
would have been so similar (i.e. a collection of ramshackle bus
shelters rather than a proper bus station building).

I think the Broadway Centre bus station was always meant to expand
though, or at least the shopping centre was, judging from the big
passageway they put in next to the McDonalds that doesn't go anywhere
at present.

Yes if you find out more, please post it here!

In article ,
(Peter Frimberley) wrote:

The original was little more than an extra lane on the gyratory for
buses to pull into, with 5 or 6 "corrugated iron" simple shelters on
the island between the road the buses drove down, and the gyratory
road that all the traffic uses today. It was entered right on the
north east corner of the gyratory and exited back on to the gyratory
where the layby into the Disney building is now. It was like that
from at least the mid 70s, maybe earlier. I'm not sure but I think you
could walk straight into the tube station from there - you
definitely could while they were building the current tube station and
bus station, and had a series of portacabins as the station entrance.

If you mean Butterwick bus station I think that was built in the late
1950s. I know it was served by trolleybuses until 1960. I used to catch
them on my home from school until they were replaced by Routemasters.

I have a feeling the access to Hammersmith District/Piccadilly station
from Butterwick was only open part-time.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:41 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(Peter Frimberley) wrote:

The original was little more than an extra lane on the gyratory for
buses to pull into, with 5 or 6 "corrugated iron" simple shelters on
the island between the road the buses drove down, and the gyratory
road that all the traffic uses today. It was entered right on the
north east corner of the gyratory and exited back on to the gyratory
where the layby into the Disney building is now. It was like that
from at least the mid 70s, maybe earlier. I'm not sure but I think you
could walk straight into the tube station from there - you
definitely could while they were building the current tube station and
bus station, and had a series of portacabins as the station entrance.

If you mean Butterwick bus station I think that was built in the late
1950s. I know it was served by trolleybuses until 1960. I used to catch
them on my home from school until they were replaced by Routemasters.

I have a feeling the access to Hammersmith District/Piccadilly station
from Butterwick was only open part-time.

I went past there today and they have chopped up the entire pavement
just before the Disney building. Can't imagine it's a normal pavement
refurbishment because not many people walk on it at the moment being
where it is .. maybe they are going to build the temporary bus
station, a few years late!