Motorway Bus Lanes

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Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Steven »

Everyone knows that the first motorway bus lane in Great Britain was on the M4, and everyone knows that the A329(M) was shortened simply because the then-Highways Agency wouldn't let Berkshire County Council be first with theirs; and everyone also knows that it all happened in the very early years of the 21st century.

But is that really the case?



The first motorway bus lane opened in October 1974, and is still open today.

I can see the incredulous looks from here. What on earth are you babbling on about?

In 1973, the M63 Sale Eastern and Northendon Bypass was under construction, but the construction of the junction with the A5103 Princess Parkway involved moving a bus stop. The new bus stop, with an appropriate lay-by was happily provided (and indeed is still there today, if you know where to look), along with the footpath required to access it. Unfortunately, objections came across the desk at the Ministry, as this bus stop was in the middle of the junction complex, quite a lot further away from the nearby housing than the original bus stop, and involved the use of a subway. It was upheld, and in November 1973, the a Variation Order was published, and design was changed to make the footbridge between the two parts of Yewtree Lane (just to the south of the junction) actually useable by 1970s standards at least, with better gradients for pedestrians included. As well as that, it was always within the junction design that it would be possible to later add a route for buses to go around the junction rather than through it along Princess Parkway; and it was decided to bring this forward.

A second Variation Order was published in April 1974 in order to add the new bus routes to the junction layout, and the notes read:
In making the M63 Sale Eastern and Northenden By Pass Motorway and Connecting Roads (Side Roads) Variation Order 1973, the Secretary of State announced that he would publish a second Variation Order providing for the re-routing of northbound buses around the perimeter of the Princess Parkway Interchange, which would enable the bus stop to be re-positioned at a site which did not involve subway access. This is the Order now published in draft for public comment.

The Order provides for the construction as part of the new bus route of two new lengths of all purpose highway. The County Engineer of the Greater Manchester County Council has agreed that he will ask his Council to agree to seek powers to restrict the use of the main carriageways of these new lengths of highway to public transport omnibuses.

This Order also provides for certain highways around the perimeter of the interchange which were referred to as cycle tracks in the 1970 Side Roads Order to be designated as roads. This is necessary because the County Engineer of the Greater Manchester County Council proposes, prior to the opening of the motorway, to ask his Council to seek powers to prohibit certain classes of traffic from using Princess Parkway at the interchange. In this event the new highways around the perimeter of the interchange, in addition to catering for pedal cyclists and pedestrians, would provide an alternative route for those classes of traffic excluded from using Princess Parkway.
Now, these notes make clear that the bus routes provided are all-purpose and not Special Roads, but there's a little more to it than that.

Let's deal with the final paragraph first. This doesn't seem to have happened - there is no signage suggesting that a TRO was ever put into place on this section of A5103, and the signage on the bus lanes also suggest otherwise, as the northern lane is simply signed as "no vehicles" with an "except buses" plate; and the southern one is signed as "no vehicles" with a plate that reads "except buses and authorised H.G.V's [sic]".

So, according to the second paragraph, the bus lanes at that location are both all-purpose, and so, whilst reasonably interesting in their own right, not motorway bus lanes.

Unfortunately, this is the point the trail goes cold. The assumption is that these bus lanes opened with the motorway in October 1974, but I can't be certain from the documentation so far found.

Except...

The northern bus lane, at this location can be seen on Google StreetView. As can be seen, this isn't signed as a motorway from the entrance, just with the "no vehicles" signage. However, it leads inescapably to a sliproad that is quite definitely a motorway - and there's a chopsticks hidden in the undergrowth most of the way along it. Just in case there is any doubt, the "no chopsticks" end of motorway signage is around a third of a mile further on. So, either there's a 1970s spontaneous motorway going on here, or that small stretch actually ended up being a Special Road. Either way, it is at the very least to all intents and purposes a motorway bus lane.

The southern bus lane, at this location, can also be seen on Google StreetView. This seems at first glance to be an open-and-shut case - there's an M60 chopsticks just beyond the split. However, just to muddy the waters, there's also one before the split. And whilst the A5103 is the responsibility of Manchester City Council, there's an obvious line across the surface where the responsibility changes to Highways England, and that also continues across the bus lane.

So, I mentioned that the documentation trail goes cold in 1974. Well, there is one piece of modern documentation that's available to us, and that's the National Street Gazetteer. The northern bus lane does not appear to be listed, but the southern bus lane has a Unique SRN of 24525392 and is called "M60 JUNCTION 5 BUS LANE NORTH, MANCHESTER", and is maintained by Highways England. Now the NSG also contains classification information, and it clearly states... Classification: Motorway.


================================================================

On a slightly separate note, there is also another road in that junction to allow local buses to pass around the junction southbound, though there doesn't seem to be such an interesting backstory with it; though it is more clearly a motorway at both ends, and is signed as such; though this time with "no entry" signs with a "except buses" plate just beyond the point where the bus lane becomes its own separate road. It's clearly at least not a motorway for most of its length, as it also carries NCN62 along it. Even more oddly, this also has an entry in the NSG (USRN 24525391), where it is also listed as a motorway...
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Truvelo »

I've been looking at the original plans for the M63/A5103 junction and what is now the bus lanes are shown on the 1970 proposals as access roads. Prior to the 1974 variation order it seems likely these roads around the perimeter of the junction would have been open to all traffic and specifically enables residents of the surrounding side roads to be able to gain easy access to and from their properties.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Bryn666 »

The A5103 branching off to the east on that plan is presumably the Princess Road Motorway?

As for the bus lanes, I seem to recall seeing an opening booklet or something SELNEC related that specifically said these bus slips were to maintain public transport access but I am either:

1. Deluded or misremembering
2. Unsure where I saw it

The signing has always been weird; although the southbound entry is correctly signed by 1974 standards (bus lanes didn't exist until the 1975 TSRGD so everything must have been specially authorised at the time.

Our best hope is the Manchester Archives flickr page has lots of images but they've only digitised the council photo archive to 1972 as it stands.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Steven »

Truvelo wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 22:58 I've been looking at the original plans for the M63/A5103 junction and what is now the bus lanes are shown on the 1970 proposals as access roads.
Not quite - the northern one isn't shown on that plan - but what are shown as roads are the current cyclepaths to the NW and SE of the junction.

From reading between the lines a little, it looks like these roads were proposed for when the Princess Parkway Motorway was to be constructed and would be for non-motorway traffic. I do like the way the offending underpass is shown on that plan; and it's allowed me to ascertain that it was indeed constructed as suggested by the documentation as it's visible on StreetView images which it isn't on the aerial photos. However, it's totally overgrown and hence unusuable.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by FleetlinePhil »

Steven wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 08:06
Truvelo wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 22:58 I've been looking at the original plans for the M63/A5103 junction and what is now the bus lanes are shown on the 1970 proposals as access roads.
Not quite - the northern one isn't shown on that plan - but what are shown as roads are the current cyclepaths to the NW and SE of the junction.

From reading between the lines a little, it looks like these roads were proposed for when the Princess Parkway Motorway was to be constructed and would be for non-motorway traffic. I do like the way the offending underpass is shown on that plan; and it's allowed me to ascertain that it was indeed constructed as suggested by the documentation as it's visible on StreetView images which it isn't on the aerial photos. However, it's totally overgrown and hence unusuable.
I'm still not 100% clear where the underpass and original proposed northbound bus stop are located? Is this it passing under the slip road? If so, I can't quite see anything that suggests a planned bus stop on the A5103 that this path could access. Also, for clarity, was the southbound layout actually planned to be as we see now from the outset?

Certainly a very unusual set-up, even for the layman unaware of the legal technicalities involved. I've never driven it in a bus, but I've been through the junction as a conductor many dozens of time, possibly into the hundreds, in the mid 1980s when working overtime at the Northenden garage of Greater Manchester Transport. Most of this was in the evening, and calls at the Yew Tree Lane bus stops were fairly rare. I do recall my drivers being particularly wary of the pull-out from the southbound stop, as rearward visibility was not great. Incidentally, I'm fairly sure one of the No Vehicles signs had an exception plate that read "Except buses and authorised refuse vehicles" but I admit I could be misremembering.

In my last driving job (for infamous local cowboy operator UK North :( ) in 2005 I did pass northbound on an empty journey daily for my final few months, and was sometimes tempted to have a trip round for old times' sake. I was a little wary that some passing Stagecoach driver might report it, and sadly I didn't see enough reason to tempt fate.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Steven »

FleetlinePhil wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 12:05 I'm still not 100% clear where the underpass and original proposed northbound bus stop are located? Is this it passing under the slip road? If so, I can't quite see anything that suggests a planned bus stop on the A5103 that this path could access. Also, for clarity, was the southbound layout actually planned to be as we see now from the outset?
Yes, that's the underpass - right at the point where Truvelo's map says it should be.

The undergrowth is so badly overgrown that there's no evidence of a path either side of the underpass, but from what I can see there is a large hard surfaced area just to the east of that location that I believed was a remnant of the bus stop, probably space for a shelter, but Truvelo's map suggests that it's not quite in the right location, with the actual stop being slightly to the north of that area. I can't see any evidence in the kerbline any more, which is unfortunate.

As for the southbound layout, not quite. It looks again from Truvelo's map that the 1970 plan included an idea that the present cycle path would have been the route taken by non-motorway traffic, but it also shows the connector used today by southbound buses with some words printed over it - but I can't see enough detail to quite read the words - it looks like the first word is "bus", but beyond that I can't see.
I've been through the junction as a conductor many dozens of time, possibly into the hundreds, in the mid 1980s when working overtime at the Northenden garage of Greater Manchester Transport.
Yes, I've been along them many times in the early 1990s - any buses that wished to access Manchester University's Wythenshawe sports fields used them.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by RichardA35 »

My only slight quibble is that according to my last info (2017) the A5103 from the north end of the north slip roads is under the control of HE all the way through to the M56. So who maintans the cycleways and bus lanes is an interesting question.
HE maint limits.png
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

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RichardA35 wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 12:50 My only slight quibble is that according to my last info (2017) the A5103 from the north end of the north slip roads is under the control of HE all the way through to the M56. So who maintans the cycleways and bus lanes is an interesting question.HE maint limits.png
Unfortunately that map is incorrect, and if it's the one I'm thinking of has a number of errors on it, such as claiming the A460 is partially Trunk (which it isn't).

The NSG is as good as it gets for accuracy as to maintenance, and it clearly shows that the A5103 is entirely under the control of Manchester CC, and the HE responsibility starts at the motorway start.
Bus lane.JPG
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Bryn666 »

Steven wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 12:58
RichardA35 wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 12:50 My only slight quibble is that according to my last info (2017) the A5103 from the north end of the north slip roads is under the control of HE all the way through to the M56. So who maintans the cycleways and bus lanes is an interesting question.HE maint limits.png
Unfortunately that map is incorrect, and if it's the one I'm thinking of has a number of errors on it, such as claiming the A460 is partially Trunk (which it isn't).

The NSG is as good as it gets for accuracy as to maintenance, and it clearly shows that the A5103 is entirely under the control of Manchester CC, and the HE responsibility starts at the motorway start.

Bus lane.JPG
I was convinced the A5103 is trunk between M60 J5, and M56 J3A - if it isn't, HE have just gone and replaced a load of assets along it, and they resurfaced it during Lockdown 1.

The parallel cycle tracks down towards Sharston are not very well maintained, which would point either at HE or MCC, neither have a good track record there.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Steven »

Bryn666 wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 13:18
I was convinced the A5103 is trunk between M60 J5, and M56 J3A - if it isn't, HE have just gone and replaced a load of assets along it, and they resurfaced it during Lockdown 1.
If it helps, I thought it was too, but the NSG claims otherwise...
a5103.JPG
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

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Steven wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 13:27
Bryn666 wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 13:18
I was convinced the A5103 is trunk between M60 J5, and M56 J3A - if it isn't, HE have just gone and replaced a load of assets along it, and they resurfaced it during Lockdown 1.
If it helps, I thought it was too, but the NSG claims otherwise...

a5103.JPG
Wondering if there's some grace and favour arrangement there. That throws a right spanner in everything.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

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Steven wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 22:41 Everyone knows that the first motorway bus lane in Great Britain was on the M4, and everyone knows that the A329(M) was shortened simply because the then-Highways Agency wouldn't let Berkshire County Council be first with theirs; and everyone also knows that it all happened in the very early years of the 21st century.

I wish it was the early years of the 21st Century, it was the late years of the 20th Century.

I worked on the A329(M) TRO in 1996 and it came in force 1997 just after the Heathrow Spur. I wish I still had the letter from the DfT which said you can not have a bus lane on a motorway, to be trumped three months later with "Heathrow Spur to have first motorway bus lane in UK". The M4 J3 to the elevated section came in force in 1999.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

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A303Chris wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 14:22
Steven wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 22:41 Everyone knows that the first motorway bus lane in Great Britain was on the M4, and everyone knows that the A329(M) was shortened simply because the then-Highways Agency wouldn't let Berkshire County Council be first with theirs; and everyone also knows that it all happened in the very early years of the 21st century.

I wish it was the early years of the 21st Century, it was the late years of the 20th Century.

I worked on the A329(M) TRO in 1996 and it came in force 1997 just after the Heathrow Spur. I wish I still had the letter from the DfT which said you can not have a bus lane on a motorway, to be trumped three months later with "Heathrow Spur to have first motorway bus lane in UK". The M3 J3 to the elevated section can in force in 1999.
And of course in a 'great victory for common sense', the bus lane is now gone. At least they kept the artificial bottleneck at J3 to prevent a return to the 4+ mile queues that used to be endemic here.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Steven »

A303Chris wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 14:22
Steven wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 22:41 Everyone knows that the first motorway bus lane in Great Britain was on the M4, and everyone knows that the A329(M) was shortened simply because the then-Highways Agency wouldn't let Berkshire County Council be first with theirs; and everyone also knows that it all happened in the very early years of the 21st century.
I wish it was the early years of the 21st Century, it was the late years of the 20th Century.

I worked on the A329(M) TRO in 1996 and it came in force 1997 just after the Heathrow Spur. I wish I still had the letter from the DfT which said you can not have a bus lane on a motorway, to be trumped three months later with "Heathrow Spur to have first motorway bus lane in UK". The M3 J3 to the elevated section can in force in 1999.
I'd love to see that letter, given that they already had a bus lane on a motorway that presumably they'd totally forgotten about as it was "up north"!

Following more digging today, I've found the smoking gun that shows that there was definitely a bus lane on a UK motorway from 1977 onwards - whatever the truth from the 1973-74 Variation Orders and the potential spontaneous motorway they created - and this refers to the southbound bus lane that I decried right at the start of this thread as having a less interesting backstory. Shows how wrong I can be sometimes!
Notice is hereby given that the Secretary of State for Transport has made The Motorways Traffic (M63 Motorway Slip Road at the Princess Parkway Interchange, Manchester) (Bus Lane) Regulations 1977 coming into operation on 30th March 1977. These Regulations will prohibit any vehicle other than a scheduled express carriage, a school bus, a stage carriage and a works bus from using the bus lane on the length of road specified in the Schedule to this notice. Copies of the Regulations may be obtained from H.M. Stationery Office or through any bookseller price 15 p.

SCHEDULE In the City of Manchester in the County of Greater Manchester The length of special road connecting the east bound carriageway of the M63 Motorway to the south bound carriageway of Princess Parkway (AS 103) from the point where the said special road is joined by the slip road to Princess Parkway (A5103) southwards to the point where it joins Princess Parkway
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by jervi »

Highways England's boundary map shows that they have no assumption that they own the parcel of land the bus lane is on, and is outside of the highway boundary
jj2.PNG
jj2.PNG (131.71 KiB) Viewed 1209 times
It also shows that HE's highway boundary doesn't include the A5103, however there is a high chance that the land it is on is owned by HE
https://highways.maps.arcgis.com/apps/w ... 7947f8cc06
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by RichardA35 »

jervi wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 15:50 Highways England's boundary map shows that they have no assumption that they own the parcel of land the bus lane is on, and is outside of the highway boundary
jj2.PNG
It also shows that HE's highway boundary doesn't include the A5103, however there is a high chance that the land it is on is owned by HE
https://highways.maps.arcgis.com/apps/w ... 7947f8cc06
Any shading denotes that SoS/HE have a claim to the title as per the legend cf any other AP trunk road on that mapping. Non trunk roads are not shaded.
Is it your position that SoS/HE claims the land but doesn't maintain the highway thereon?
The TfGM mapping also notes this length of A5103 as trunk
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by WHBM »

Bryn666 wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 14:35 And of course in a 'great victory for common sense', the bus lane is now gone. At least they kept the artificial bottleneck at J3 to prevent a return to the 4+ mile queues that used to be endemic here.
A bus lane where the only bus route along the M4, the Airbus, ceased operating with its introduction. Notably, the huge queues that used to happen here seem to have gone. Not sure why.

For me the thing that symbolised it most was being stopped in a queue one evening on the remaining two lanes and having Tony Blair, as PM, blast past at full speed in it in his escorted limo. Talk about "Zil lanes".

Back to this Manchester example, a quick look tells me this is more of a buses-only carriageway, under motorway rules. There's a difference between a lane and a carriageway. I thought the first UK bus lane on a motorway was in Belfast, using the hard shoulder.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Steven »

WHBM wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 20:00
Bryn666 wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 14:35 And of course in a 'great victory for common sense', the bus lane is now gone. At least they kept the artificial bottleneck at J3 to prevent a return to the 4+ mile queues that used to be endemic here.
A bus lane where the only bus route along the M4, the Airbus, ceased operating with its introduction. Notably, the huge queues that used to happen here seem to have gone. Not sure why.
Well, it's all about the fact that suddenly there isn't a 3->2 lane transition in a random place, traffic-wise, causing shock waves and idiots trying to cut in at the last second.
Back to this Manchester example, a quick look tells me this is more of a buses-only carriageway, under motorway rules. There's a difference between a lane and a carriageway. I thought the first UK bus lane on a motorway was in Belfast, using the hard shoulder.
A longer look is therefore required, and yes, most people on here are well aware that there is a difference between a lane and a carriageway - although an S1 road has a single lane on a single carriageway...

I would recommend starting at the southbound one referenced as existing in 1977.
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by vlad »

The southbound route is both definitely a bus lane and a motorway. It's labelled as such on the onslip here, after which the motorway ends on the bus route just after it peels off here. (It may be a trick of perspective but it looks as though the cycle lane joins whist the road still has motorway status.)
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Re: Motorway Bus Lanes

Post by Truvelo »

Steven wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 12:37
FleetlinePhil wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 12:05 I'm still not 100% clear where the underpass and original proposed northbound bus stop are located? Is this it passing under the slip road? If so, I can't quite see anything that suggests a planned bus stop on the A5103 that this path could access. Also, for clarity, was the southbound layout actually planned to be as we see now from the outset?
Yes, that's the underpass - right at the point where Truvelo's map says it should be.

The undergrowth is so badly overgrown that there's no evidence of a path either side of the underpass, but from what I can see there is a large hard surfaced area just to the east of that location that I believed was a remnant of the bus stop, probably space for a shelter, but Truvelo's map suggests that it's not quite in the right location, with the actual stop being slightly to the north of that area. I can't see any evidence in the kerbline any more, which is unfortunate.
It appears the bus stop may never have been built. This 1/2500 map from the 70's shows the earthworks beneath the slip and nothing else.
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