2. SEC Vision – Transport
There are several problems with the current
transport arrangements for Ealing Broadway.
·
There are many points of conflicts between
vehicle, cyclist and pedestrian movement, i.e. where cars and buses cross the path
of cyclists and pedestrians.
·
The only pedestrianised areas are within Ealing
Broadway Centre and Arcadia.
·
The footways are of varying widths being too
narrow in many places. This is often exacerbated by street traders and hawkers.
·
There are few cycle routes separate from busy
roads.
·
The station is a terminus for two underground
lines, and a stopping place for up to eight trains per hour on the Paddington
line, which is heavily utilised. Entrance and exit to the station is overcrowded
and dangerous at peak times, with no step-free access to platforms or booking
hall from street level. The station
will need to be reconstructed to meet the needs of Crossrail.
·
The only drop-off and pick-up facility for
passengers from Ealing Broadway station is an inadequate one, either across two
roads or in between bus stops.
·
The taxis outside Ealing Broadway station can’t
be reached without crossing one or two roads.
·
There are no ‘legal’ pick-up and drop-off points
for mini-cabs.
·
The
bus stops are not concentrated outside the station and are spread out over
Haven Green, The Broadway and The Mall. There is no bus station even though it
is a terminus for nine routes that run daily.
·
The main access roads into Ealing are very
congested at peak times. Short of driving through one or two extra dual
carriageways, there is limited scope for easily improving the situation.
·
There is heavy traffic within the town at many
times of the day. Some of this is
caused by the one way system on the east and west sides of Haven Green, which
causes traffic to circumnavigate the centre of Ealing.
·
Traffic heading to and from the town centre car
parks has to traverse at least part of the town centre, with the exception of
that from the south heading for the Ealing Broadway Centre car park.
·
There
is no suitable off-road parking for delivery vehicles, apart from within Ealing
Broadway Centre.
FUTURE DEMANDS
A significant number of extra flats in the centre of Ealing
would increase the number of pedestrians in the area, both using local
facilities and public transport. These new residents would also own a
significant number of cars that they would want to use for getting in and out
of Ealing, at least for those journeys that are not convenient by public
transport.
New elements that would generate extra delivery traffic and
pedestrians include new shops, offices, cultural facilities, community
facilities and flats. They would also generate extra demand for public
transport. More up-market facilities, in particular, would also generate extra
cars trying to reach the centre of Ealing.
The key aims are:
1. to
improve significantly the ease of walking
and cycling about the centre of Ealing, and to reduce the number of
vehicles in the centre to produce a more pleasant environment
2. to
create an integrated transport
interchange for easier use of public transport
3. to
improve traffic flow and use of car
parks.
The
biggest barrier to pedestrian movement in the town centre is the heavy traffic volume
along The Broadway. While this would be reduced if Springbridge Road is made
two-way (as below), one option would be to provide a wide footbridge from the
Arcadia site across to the Ealing Broadway Centre.
Another
link from the north over the rail tracks would reduce congestion at the
pedestrian crossing at the junction of The Broadway and The Mall. This could be provided by a footbridge from
Haven Green over the railway direct to the Arcadia site.
The
east-west pedestrian route between Dickens Yard and Arcadia should be improved
by an enlarged Springbridge Mews and a pedestrian crossing of Springbridge
Road.
The
permeability of all major redevelopment sites should be improved by the
provision of pedestrian through routes. Where walkways adjoin traffic routes, frontages
should be set back to enable the pavements to be widened.
Other
opportunities should be taken to pedestrianise roads, and some further
“pedestrian friendly” areas may be possible with the redirection of town centre
traffic to car parks. If either High Street or Bond Street were made two-way
then the other could be restricted to pedestrian , cycle and delivery vehicles
only.
The
best solution would be to build a full bus station over the London Underground
tracks and platforms of Ealing Broadway station. To make this work there would
have to be a new bus road entrance and exit to the station. This might be from The Mall, probably at the
point where Carmelita House now stands, from Haven Green where the old District
Line station entrance stands, or from Madeley Road. The canopy over the District Line tracks should be removed during
construction and reinstalled afterwards.
Rail plans
must allow for Network Rail’s projected expansion of the Great Western main
line and the fifth track to meet the need for additional rail capacity between
Ealing Broadway and West Ealing, including alternative arrangements for the
Greenford branch line.
The
main facilities should be provided at the back of the station and linked to the
proposed “over the underground lines” car park.
Improvements are needed to ease access for traffic from the
north There are two options for this. The first is to make the western side of Haven Green and
Springbridge Road two-way. This would require the widening of this road, the
railway bridge and its junctions with Castlebar Road and New Broadway.
The other option is to divert northbound traffic from
Springbridge Road to Longfield Avenue and Longfield Road. Longfield Road would be extended southwards
to join up with a new road running along the railway tracks to the car park. The short part of Longfield Avenue north of
the railway tracks would be closed and provided as replacement parking for
Berkeley Court. The direction of
traffic in Springbridge Road would be made southbound.
The aim would be to discourage cars from traversing the
centre of Ealing by arranging access to the car parks as follows:-
·
Vehicles
from the south would use the Ealing Broadway Centre car park. The car park and
access roads would remain as they are today.
·
Vehicles
from the west and north would use the Springbridge Road car park. This would be
enlarged and the access arrangements changed as described above.
·
Vehicles
from the east would use a new car park over the underground lines, along with
new access roads.
This would be extended westward over/beside the railway
lines, as an alternative to providing public car parking on the Dickens Yard
site. A new road would run to the car park either above the tracks or above the
side of the cutting.
This would be on the eastern edge of Ealing Broadway
station. The main access to it would be from a new road which would run to a
junction at the Webbs site on the North Circular Road. The road would run along
the Webbs site and then on the northern side of the cutting by the District
Line tracks.
This new car park would make use of the expanded width of
The North Circular Road following the replacement of its bridges over the
railway lines. It would remove some traffic from the town centre. The new
access roads would also be used to provide “rear” access for any developments
over Ealing Broadway station.
All new developments should include off-road delivery facilities. New developments should also provide facilities for off-road deliveries to adjacent premises.