PrimeLines (Coventry)

On the "University Corridor" route (number 12 bus), bus lanes and gates have been instituted in various places, and it is estimated that at peak hours the total time for the full journey between the city and Warwick University could be reduced by approximately 1 minute 50 seconds. However, the plans for this were finalized before the Council obtained a report by Jacobs UK Ltd. The report concluded that there were only two "pinch points" on the route,[2] and neither of these has been given any bus priority measures, whereas measures have been put in place where they are not deemed necessary. The bus gates are also interesting in that they often turn red for other traffic when no bus or taxi is approaching.

The PrimeLines route along the Ansty Road, involving as it did the confiscation of private frontages to houses on Ansty Road, amid considerable protest from homeowners, has also attracted controversy.

The PrimeLines scheme is based on bus showcase schemes previously tried in Bristol and Birmingham, none of which delivered significant sustained increase in bus usage or any fall in congestion or total car use.

One of the first bus priority measures for the Coventry scheme, a bus gate at the junction of The Butts and Albany road, had to be dismantled after it caused serious congestion problems for traffic leaving the city centre or coming off the inner ring road.[3] [4]

Coventry City Council approval of PrimeLines was secured in part with a claim that congestion would be reduced and that there would be a 25% increase in bus use on all PrimeLines routes,[5] but the claim is not supported by evidence, and tends to be contradicted by experience of bus showcase schemes elsewhere in the country: the best single route ever has managed a 25% increase in patronage, and no better than a 6% shift has been recorded between modes of transport,.[6] Centro’s own figures indicate that bus showcase schemes offer a 15% increase in usage on routes where every conceivable improvement is implemented, with no indication of how much of this comes from a shift from private cars to buses.[7]

The PrimeLines consortium held a public consultation on elements of the University Corridor PrimeLines scheme, in a bus on a car park between the back of the Old Clarence public house and what was then the building site for a new block of flats, during August 2007. According to a report to the Council’s Cabinet, around 100 people attended this and 29 people were in support of the bus lane scheme. A petition against the scheme totalling 1,928 signatures was also received by the Council.[5]

Eventually many of the shelters will have electronic passenger information installed, so waiting passengers will know when the next bus is due. To improve reliability, the routes will have bus priority measures implemented at traffic signals and junctions, and where possible there will be lengths of bus lanes to get the bus past general traffic queues.

• National Express Coventry
• West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive

• Coventry City Council - PrimeLines