The large space open-air bus stops outside Victoria Station could become a pedestrian plaza, under plans put forward by the local business group.
The area outside Victoria station is undeniably fairly grim, with a shabby pavement space usually filled with smokers facing onto the bus waiting area. There’s a very cramped path to the west, and a new plaza space leading to Victoria, but with several roads to cross.
The Victoria BID has put forward a number of plans to improve the wider area, one of which would see buses banished from outside the railway station to a nearby main road, and the area they used to use turned into a large pedestrian space — not unlike that outside King’s Cross station today.
The report says that experience of the temporary redistribution of bus services from Terminus Place to on-street locations during the Victoria Station Upgrade works suggests that it should be feasible to permanently redistribute those services onto roads within the vicinity of the station.
Apart from giving the area a cleaner appearance, it gives visitors a moment to pause and orient themselves without being buffeted around on the narrow pavement that the station offers today.
At the moment, this is just an aspiration by the local business lobby, and it would need a lot of different groups to come together to agree on it – not to mention finding the cash to pay for it.
Much needed pedestrianisation improvement!
Today travelled on bus 38 – it’s further to walk at night and for those of us with mobility issues so hard. I missed two buses at Grosvenor Gardens as they don’t stick around. It left me having to stand about & wait a long time.
The bus area could be improved but not to the detriment of those of us not able to walk so much further.
I know many will disagree but I’d much rather they kept it the way it is. The bus stands are conveniently close to the station entrance. Also, the so-called pedestrian ‘plaza’ would be just another soulless space, much like the front of King’s Cross, which I don’t like at all.
Assolutissimamente messrs A. and D.!
Victoria station is prima facie a transport hub allowing the interchange from train to tube and bus with the maximum possible efficiency.
Yes, it does look grubby ~ show me grouped bus stops that don’t! Note the glorious sunshine in the upgrade pictures and then imagine same in the rain empty of the happily seated hoardes but with lines of puffing, muttering train passengers just looking for their bus stop, presumably somewhere reasonably close on Vauxhall bridge road or Buckingham palace road.
I suppose that one solution would be to build a deck covering the majority of Terminus place thereby providing a sunspot for office workers and their sarnies with the bonus of providing shelter for bus users and tourists taking a moment to catch their breath and re-orient themselves.
I have osteoarthritis and appreciate being able to get off the bus in front of the station. Some of the roads around Victoria would be a bit grim to search for a bus stop down late at night. There is an open space nearby in Grosvenor Gardens – they could focus their efforts on doing that up and making the bus station look nicer.
Who put this business group up to this , and who are they , let’s have a list of the members,
You can tell by the way all this is worded what the agenda, is it only bus users that smoke in the open , Will this new public space be smoke free, do this group care for the elderly and disabled having to walk extra distances to get there buses
You can easily get the details about the business group by visiting their website.
So now an “integrated transport interchange “ is unfashionable. Perhaps they should knock the station down too and turn it into a large smokers area with four or five solitary trees in the middle. People could walk from Battersea Park after all and enjoy the vistas of the river or occasional glimpses of the new smoking plaza with the smokers’ cigarettes complementing the glimpses of the chimneys of the old power station.
No bus access to Victoria Staion, a major train and tube station? A huge empty cement plaza instead? I hate those huge spaces,, give me a tiny park or small plaza instead and have bus stops right there, not blocks away. We came to London recently as tourists and arrived on the Gatwick Express. We exitted at the station and immediately saw our bus stop and were able to get to our hotel with our carry-on bags on that bus. What are they thinking? A major train and tube station that exits out into a huge plaza with no busses or taxis in sight?
Kings Cross ‘open space’ does no favours for bus passengers to/from that station or St Pancras. Westbound, it’s across the main road; northwards a dismal York Way and only two stops on the main road outside the ‘plaza’ with inadequate shelters for travel east or south east.
Victoria bus station is potentially an ideal interchange, but suffers from not occupying all the area in front of the station. Utilising all that space it would be possible for more routes to call there, improving the existing arrangement in which some routes (e.g., 24; westbound 11,148) have stops nearby but not visible from the station entrance. And that could look good with a bit of thought. Of course, all buses would be electric, non polluting.
Please leave the buses accessible as they now …..it is by far more efficient than distributing them to surrounding streets.
Patricia Sait.