I ventured into the City Centre for the first time since the closure of the Quadrant bus station for refurbishment last week. In the Evening Post, the impression given is that local residents are happy and excited about the 15 month revamp and the new temporary bus bays scattered throughout the city. That’s not the impression I got.
Riding the bus in – people were talking about it, in the cinema – people were talking about it, sitting in the pub – people were talking about it, standing on the Kingsway – people were talking about it, and on the bus ride home – people were talking about it.
And were they happy – not really. In fact, a lot of them sounded quite pissed off with the council. After two years of digging up half the roads in the city to make way for bendy buses (oops, I’m sorry I didn’t use their trendy name – Metros! With Pilots for Drivers and Hosts for Conductors) which are still having trouble negotiating their routes, making the Kingsway a one way system, and causing a permanent traffic jam for anyone wanting to get into town between the hours of 6am and 9pm, they then decide to spend several million pounds on a 15 month refurbishment on the bus station.
All well and good, it’ll look nice when it’s finished and will be good for the image of Swansea, but my question is – how the hell did they allow it to get into such a state where it needed a 15 month, multi million pound revamp? The city is in chaos, but according to the Evening Post and the Council everyone’s happy and smiling. They should get out and hear what people are saying.
I’m also told relibably that the “smooth” transition to the new system on monday wasn’t that smooth at all, with four unsuspecting people requiring ambulances for being hit by buses going the “wrong way” down the Kingsway!
End of rant.
Jon