‘A lot of residents (of the Arsenal) think the Thames Clipper service is exclusively for them.’

How do you work this out? The clipper is used by people all along the Thames , it is a commercial service and takes people’s money. That a lot of people from the Arsenal use it is simply because they live next to the river. I have met a number of people on the clipper who take it from Woolwich who don’t live in the Arsenal but use it because it is a pleasant service.

Incidentally, on what basis do you say that we want to be cut off from the rest of SE18? We have to shop, we have to use the roads and the public amenities and everything else that rests within the area. We have just as much a vested interest in SE18 being pleasant, and that is one of the arguments we are making against driving a bus route through a beautiful pedestrianised area.

No 1 Street is used by the Museum and the Council and was used by the Greenwich Half Marathon and the Tour De France. It is a beautiful, open and above all community asset.

No residential area should have an unwanted bus route forced on to them and have to endure the noise and pollution they bring into their homes.

Boris Johnson has asked for an extra £15M to be found to fund the london overland extension – this overpriced, unwanted bus route would be an excellent opportunity for him.

(and as for Thames Clipper – it is open to anyone who wants to pay to use it)

Whether the transit is a good idea, I dunno, the 472 is over loaded at the moment, and sorry Andrew, it could do with bendi buses to ease the pressure, seats would be lovely, getting on a bus full stop would be even better, and if it happens to bend in the middle then so be it. Otherwise, it’s off to the DLR in January for a quick ride to Canning Town to get on the Jubilee

The Royal Arsenal is open and accessible to everyone. People wander through it all the time, particularly the pedestrian areas and the parks are frequently used by people who don’t live there.

What we don’t want is buses thundering through what is a valuable community resource in a crowded city: namely a beautiful pedestrian area with heritage buildings next to it.

Jamie

thanks for your comment. In fact, the 1.7km of bus-only road you refer to already exists (on the Peninsula, south of the Dome) and has been used by the existing bus services, including the 472, for the last eight years. It cannot therefore be claimed as “new” or as a benefit of this scheme. The TfL website does, however, show a new stretch of bus-only road on Western Way, Thamesmead, amounting, as I said, to around half a mile.

Andrew