Upper Woburn Place Bus Priority Consultation

Overview

We want to transform our streets, so they have more safe space for everyone to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely, for you to breathe cleaner air, to reduce carbon emissions from road transport, and for businesses to flourish. We want to ensure that our streets provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel, helping us to deliver our wider Transport Strategy objectives.

In line with our Camden Transport Strategy, Climate Action Plan, and Clean Air Action Plan, and to continue supporting safe, healthy, and active travel, we have been making changes across Camden as part of our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme.

Woburn Place/Tavistock Square/Upper Woburn Place has been identified by Transport for London (TfL) and Camden as having very poor and variable bus speeds and is therefore a key location for bus journey times and reliability improvements.

Based on the above, we are proposing changes to improve bus journey times and reliability for bus numbers 1, 68, 91, and N91, as well as introducing facilities that will improve conditions for pedestrians on this route.

To view the plans and to find out more about what the proposal would achieve, click here, or on the links in the 'Related' section at the bottom of this page. 

We are now consulting on the following proposed permanent changes:

Bus priority proposals

• Introducing a new 165 metre northbound 24/7 bus lane on the west side of Woburn Place between Russell Square and Tavistock Square (south) / Tavistock Place with associated waiting and loading changes. This would help protect and improve bus journey times and reliability. The 24/7 bus lane would be available to buses, dial-a-ride vehicles, cycles and taxis. Visit our website for more information on bus lanes.
• Extending the operation hours of the existing timed northbound bus lane on the west side of Upper Woburn Place between Tavistock Square (north) and Euston Road, from Monday - Friday 4pm - 7pm to Monday -Sunday 24/7.
• Extending the operation hours of the existing timed southbound bus lane on the east side of Tavistock Square (east) and Woburn Place between Tavistock Square (north) and Russell Square (north)/Bernard Street, from Monday - Friday 7am - 10am and 4pm - 7pm to Monday - Sunday 24/7.
• Introducing double yellow lines with double kerb markings (no waiting/loading at any time) along the bus lane so that buses are not delayed by parked or stopped vehicles. 
• To facilitate the introduction of the bus lane, two tour bus stands would be consolidated and relocated to Bedford Way.
• To enable the above changes, several adjustments to parking on Woburn Place, Bedford Way, and Russell Square (west) are proposed.
  • Introducing 16 metres of double yellow lines with single blips outside 35 Upper Woburn Place to allow for overnight loading Monday - Friday between 7pm - 7am.
  • There would be a loss of 2 paid for parking spaces on Woburn Place, a loss of 8 paid for parking spaces on Bedford Way, and a loss of 3 paid for parking spaces on Russell Square (west). A net loss of 13 paid for parking bays. However, there are 45 paid for parking spaces in the immediate vicinity of Russell Square (north and west) that would be kept.
  • There would be no net loss or gain of resident permit parking spaces, disabled spaces, taxi bays, coach bays and EV bays.

Pedestrian proposals

• Shortening the crossing distance on Coram Street at the junction with Upper Woburn Place from 15 metres to 8 metres, and widening the pavement to make space for a rain garden (planting which soaks up rainwater), benches and cycle stands, to make it easier and safer for pedestrians to cross the road.
• Widening the pavement on the west side of Tavistock Square (east) between Tavistock Square (south)/Tavistock Place and Tavistock Square (north)/Upper Woburn Place by approximately 0.5 metres. The existing pavement is quite narrow and can become crowded at busy times, particularly near Bus Stop K. This would provide more space for pedestrians, improving comfort and accessibility along this section.

The map below shows the parking changes on Woburn Place, Bedford Way, and Russell Square.

Why your views matter

Your views are important in providing feedback on the proposed scheme as a whole, and elements of it, and we would therefore welcome your responses to the questions on the pages that follow. The Council will be pleased to hear your views, as well as any alternative suggestions or objections you may have to any aspect of what we are proposing.

After the consultation, a decision report will be produced and published online via our website. Local residents and stakeholders will be notified of the outcome. The report will consider a broad range of information including officer observations, consultation responses, relevant policies, and other data/information.

For information on how we will use data collected from this consultation read our privacy statement: Data protection, privacy and cookies - Camden Council