TfL blasted over lack of information and misinformation re Wembley Park bus routes during 3 Days of Taylor Swift concerts

The forecast on Wednesday

 

 

The start of the chaos on Friday morning

 

I was crushed by happy, smiling and excited 'Swifties' on the packed Metropolitan line yesterday but the mood amongst Wembley Park residents  was rather different.

It started off early morning when the 206 route from The Paddocks to Kilburn Park was stopped before 9am affecting people from the area travelling to work, school or shopping.

TfL via Twitter denied all knowledge of the curtailment and suggested residents rang their customer service, depite the fact they are a customer service. Instead they devoted themselves to publicising their Swiftie alternative tube map. Whimsy is no substitute for a public bus service!

The TfL website failed to inform passengers of the curtailment and the result was confusion and over-crowded pavements. Particularly worrying was that school children at each end of the 206 bus route would find that their bus was not running (southbound from Wembley Park) or would be dumped at Bridge Park (if travelling north to Wembley Park). People working at Brent Park Tesco and Ikea as well as the industrial area south of the stadium were similarly disrupted.

About half an hour ago I found a woman at The Paddocks bus stop vainly waiting for a 206. She had been waiting for more than 30 minutes and said she would demand a council tax rebate.

Unfortunately this feeds a feeling that as far as Wembley Stadium, Brent Council, Wembley Park LDN (Quintain) and TfL go the needs of Wembley citizens (and particularly bus users) come way down the priority list on event days.

 

 Last word from a Wembley Central resident:

Last night when Wembley Hill Road and Wembley Triangle were closed to all but traffic exiting to travel down Harrow Road to North Circular Raid it was chaos . There were untold amount of Chauffeurs/Ubers/Taxi's etc all parked up on double yellows at the Triangle next to the railings, blocking the road into Wembley High Road.  All drivers were out of the cars, on their phones no doubt calling their passengers to let them know where they were waiting, The traffic on the south bound High Road was at a standstill.  It was complete chaos, I have no idea why Police or Traffic Wardens were not called to prevent this, it was still like this at 11.30pm.  The concert did not officially end until 10.45 that's when the fireworks went off. 

 The consultation regarding Wembley Stadium's Planning Application to hold additional major events closes on Monday.

Make you comments HERE. 

Wembley Stadium bids for planning permission for up to 54 major events (each 60,000+ attendance) a year

Wembley National Stadium Ltd has applied for a change in the cap on the number of events held at the stadium annually:

The variation of Condition 1 will allow the use of the Stadium for up to 54 major events per calendar year (an additional 8 events), with a major event considered as one with an event capacity in excess of 60,000 people.

 

The variation proposed also includes other changes to modernise the Event Cap as set out below. This variation is required to the Event Cap to ensure it is fit for purpose in response to industry change and an increasingly competitive market. Whilst the revised Event Cap could be taken up in full, in practice WNSL are unlikely to host this number of major events, with the additional events sought principally to ensure sufficient ‘headroom’ is available to support the booking process for artistes.

 

An amendment to Condition 2 is sought to enable the implementation of temporary traffic measures for up to 54 major events.

Concerts earn more income than sporting events and the application is for the ability to hold more  of them.

The higher direct economic impact associated with non-sporting events was due to a range of factors, including longer dwell times in and around the stadium and greater number of long distance domestic and international visitors, resulting in longer trip durations and more overnight stays. In particular, average expenditure per head was 120% higher for accommodation (£22 compared to £10) and 50% higher for food and drink (£12 compared to £8).

The non-sporting event timetable:

You might be forgiven for thinking that WNSL assume the result of the application, which has to go to Brent Planning Committee, is a foregone conclusion:

       WNSL has conducted pre-application discussions with the Leader and Chief Executive of Brent Council where the proposals in this application were presented. Following that meeting it was agreed between the attendees that:

    “The proposals presented were positively received and WNSL were commended for their professional delivery of stadium event operations to date. It was recognised that the flexibility built into the application to provide a range of dates to promoters and artists is a necessary requirement for WNSL to continually deliver global event success and retain Wembley Stadium’s world class status as an iconic venue for the delivery of sporting and non-sporting events. The benefits of retaining high quality acts at the stadium also reap great rewards for the borough of Brent through the growth of the local community, businesses, economy and tourism.”

There is no mention in the Planning Statement of mitigation for the impact of an increased number of events on local people.  Residents' ability to move around the area, especially by public transport, is directly impacteded. Some bus routes are doverted and others, such as the 206 curtailed completely.

For several weeks running now there has been next to no 206 bus service between Brent Park and The Paddocks in Wembley at the weekend. Yesterday I found a 3 generation family waiting in vain for the 206 at The Paddocks to go to the Swaminarayan Temple in  Brentfield Roadm Neasden. They had to abandon their outing.

Local resident Peggy Wylie asked in November 2023 when full-working on event days would be restored for the 206 following earlier promises that this would happen once North End Road was connected with Bridge Road. This was completed several years ag but the 206 still doesn't run and the elderly and infirm on the Pilgrims Way estate are cut-off on event days.

The latest statement from Brent Council earlier this month gives some hope:

We have been working with TfL Buses and projects in the Wembley area including Two Way working phase 2 which includes the provision of bus stands and us driver facilities on Great Central Way and making First Way two way. The scheme is at detailed design stage and we envisage that it will be delivered later this financial year.

The North End Road / Bridge Road junction has been enabled for future signalisation, with ducts and chambers already constructed. However, highway work is required for providing tactile paving at pedestrian crossings, reconfiguring road markings, assisting TfL’s signals contractor in pulling cables etc. We are now awaiting a cost estimate and provisional programme date from our term contractors GW Highways. We anticipate the work to take approximately 2 weeks and when programming we will of course need to consider the events programme for Wembley Stadium to minimise any congestion and inconvenience.

Once we have a provisional programme date agreed, we will coordinate with Transport for London traffic signals team who will programme with their contractors.

So far there are only 3 residents' comments on the Planning Website (Ref 24/1329) all oppose the increased cap and two are from residents of new blocks close to the stadium.

The information on Statutory Consultees comments on the Brent Council site are remarkably uninformative.

WNSL claim to have consulted with the following bodies:

WNSL has continued to organise regular Business and Residents Liaison Committee meetings which provide an opportunity to discuss operations with a number of groups including:

1.     Cairnfield Residents Association

2. Wembley Park Traders Association

3. Chalkhill Residents Association

4.  Wembley Park Residents Association

5.   Princess Court Residents Association

6.    Barn Hill Residents Association

7.     Brentfield Community Group

8.   Danes/Empire Court Residents Association

9.   Eskdale & Loweswater Close Residents Association

10.  Metropolitan Police

11.  Chichester House Residents Association

12.  Wembley Champions Group

13.  Ealing Road Traders Association

14.  Wembley Central & Alperton Residents Association

  The application Reference is 24/1329 on the Council Website

Comment HERE

 

The Wembley bus that disappears on Event Days

 England play Malta tonight at Wembley Stadium so once again the 206 bus that runs between Kilburn Park and The Paddocks in Wembley Park will be curtailed at Bridge Park:

Kick-Off isn't until 7.45pm but the bus stops running at 2.45pm affecting secondary school pupils travelling towards Harlesden.

Stops affected:

Residents have been trying to get the Council to do something about this for decades and the need is now greater because of the increased number of events at the stadium. A local residents submitted a question to Krupa Sheth to try to pin down when the promised introduction of full working on event days will be implented:

 

Question from Peggy Wylie to Councillor Krupa Sheth (Cabinet Member for Environment, Infrastructure & Climate Action)

 

The 206 bus route is for many living in the Kings Drive, The Paddocks, Salmon Street area a real necessity. However, when there is an event scheduled at Wembley Stadium no 206 service is provided to the area after 11.00/noon (or even earlier) because the service is curtailed at Brent Park.

 

The suspension of this service to the Wembley Park, Kings Drive, The Paddocks and Salmon Street area disproportionately affects our most vulnerable residents - the elderly, disabled, parents with small children and women travelling home alone at night. It also affects people needing to travel from this area to reach their place of employment and in particular those that work for Tesco, IKEA.

 

 

Brent's local plan for our area proposed the opening of North End Road to allow traffic to and from Bridge Road, Wembley Park, which would enable the 206 to serve our area on event days. The changes to the road layout have been completed and yet we are still deprived of our bus on event days.

 

As a result, can the Cabinet Member for Environment, Infrastructure & Climate Action advise if the combined forces of the London Borough of Brent, Transport for London ("Every journey matters!") and Wembley Stadium Limited will listen and take note of residents' needs and finally commit to seeking an urgent and permanent solution allowing the 206 bus to run its full route to the Paddocks on Wembley Stadium event days?

 

Response:

 

Transport for London (TfL) are responsible for the provision of bus services in London and consult on route changes and frequencies to improve services and efficiency.

 

Brent liaises with TfL on the bus services provided in the borough and requests improvements to satisfy the needs of residents and businesses. Brent also liaises with TfL buses for Wembley Stadium events where it is necessary to curtail / divert services for security. However, the council is committed to implementing infrastructure improvements identified under the Wembley Area Action plan and

recently completed the North End Road connection and Wembley 2 Way working projects which will enable bus services to be provided via this route on stadium event days in the future.

 

TfL carried out a consultation earlier this year on proposed changes to bus routes 92, 206 and 440 through the Wembley Park area with a view to simplifying the bus network following the introduction of two-way working arrangements in the area and which would allow for services to continue to serve the area on event days. The plan below outlines the proposals for all three services.

 

 

 

Following the consultation and following subsequent route tests, TfL has advised that the proposed changes to routes 92 and 440 will now go ahead, but a revised change to route 206 is to be implemented. This is due to the need for further works to signalise the junction at Bridge Road/North End Road (which is planned) control parking, and to strengthen a culvert. The latter is now required in order to support the intention to introduce electric buses on the 206 route. As such, and for the immediate future at least, route 206 will continue to serve Fulton Road and Rutherford road (see plan below). It is intended that all these changes will be introduced during 2024.

 

 

 

 

The Council will continue to work with TfL to deliver improvements to bus services through the area on stadium event days and throughout the borough.

 

Editor's Note:

 

On event days I often find people at The Paddocks bus stop vainly waiting for a 206 bus. At the weekend this is often after they have been walking in Fryent Country Park. They have sometimes waited for an hour. Public tramsport acess to the Park should be enouraged.

At Brent Park you find confused passengers told to disembark, milling around trying to find an alternative  route home. Often quite young school pupils are stranded.

HELP! Wembley Stadium has stolen our bus

Residents of the Pilgrims Way/Kings Drive Estate have been deprived of their local bus, the 206, on Wembley Staium events days which have increased since Tottenham Hotspur took over the stadium for their home games.

The 206 which starts and terminates at The Paddocks on the Salmon Street/Fryent Way roundabout is turned around at Brent Park Tesco on event days.

Residents are puzzled as to why it is necessary to curtail the service from 8am when events start at 2.30 or 3pm.

The estate has many elderly residents who rely on their local bus and their freedom of movement is now regularly restricted at weekends. Users of Fryent Country Park are often to be found vainly waiting for a bus at weekend at The Paddocks and have to be told that they are not running.

Some long-standing residents have told me that TfL received a subsidy for the 206's predecessor, the PR2, especially to serve the estate.

Transport for London have been contacted for a comment.

PR2 bus route to end on October 14th - replaced by changes to 206 and 224

This is Transport for London's response to the recent consultation:

Thank you to all who took part in our consultation. We have carefully considered all 573 responses. The changes were designed to provide some new passenger links, simplified routeings and increased frequencies in and around Wembley Park and along Brentfield Road. Some of the current direct links provided at low frequency are withdrawn.  

The majority of responses were in favour of the changes.  We believe they offer an overall enhancement for bus users in the Wembley and Park Royal areas, and so we intend to proceed as proposed.  The changes to routes 206 and 224 will commence on 15 October and route PR2 will cease operation on 14 October.
Bus route 223

Route 223 will also be changing from 15 October following a consultation with Boroughs, London TravelWatch and other stakeholders. This will improve access to the developing area around Wembley Stadium and the London Borough of Brent’s new Civic Centre on Engineers Way by diverting the service via Empire Way rather than Park Lane and Wembley Park Drive. Towards Wembley, there will be one additional stop, which is the stand itself. From Wembley, there will be three additional stops: the stand, plus two others on the manoeuvre from the stand back to Wembley High Road.

The proposed extension of route 223 to North Wembley via Harrowdene road is not being introduced at this stage, following discussions with Brent Council. We will consult again should a suitable way to deliver this become available.

We will be promoting the coming changes to the bus routes with further posters at affected stops.  These will clearly explain how it affects local bus stopping arrangements.  We will also send an email to those passengers with Oyster cards who have registered to receive email updates from us, as well as through our website and via a press release. When introduced all the changes will be kept under regular review.

Our full feedback and consultation summary can be found at the bottom of this page.

Files:

• 206, 224, PR2 Response to Issues Raised, 42.9 kB (PDF document)
• 206, 224, PR2 Summary of Responses, 884.9 kB (PDF document)

There are still concerns amongst PR2 users over the loss of a direct route to Central Middlesex Hospital and to Fawood Nursery.