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Council apologises after bus companies say new Maid Marian Way junction layout is causing ‘significant’ delays

By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

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Nottingham City Council has apologised after long delays hit bus services following the opening of a crucial new road junction.

The Labour-run authority is spending almost £9m converting the roundabout linking Maid Marian Way, Derby Road, Tollhouse Hill and Upper Parliament Street, into a T-junction.

It started work in the spring after the roundabout was described as “outdated”, and says the new layout will eventually provide better public spaces and more greenery.

However, since the new junction became partially operational on Sunday, both Nottingham City Transport (NCT) and Trentbarton bus companies have raised concerns over delays due to traffic problems.

A council spokesperson said on Wednesday afternoon (October 9): “We’re at a difficult point of this ambitious Future High Streets Government funded project, with our teams working to balance buses, drivers, pedestrians and construction work on a very busy junction.

“Despite months of planning with our partners including the bus operators, we are seeing delays and for this we apologise and ask people to use different routes where possible.

“Our teams are on-site round the clock monitoring traffic flow, tweaking signal timings and signage and road markings to ensure traffic is flowing through the area as smoothly as possible.”

NCT, which its itself an arms length council majority owned-company, had said earlier on Wednesday (October 9): “Since the change to the road traffic layout that has taken place this week, traffic flow in the city has much worsened, and bus punctuality has been significantly affected.

“Having introduced additional buses into our network prior to the works starting in order to temper any delays, there is no way to mitigate the effects of the change to the junction across our entire network.”

Responding the council said in a statement the current situation at the junction is temporary while works are in progress, and “does not reflect the final situation”.

Pedestrian crossings are working differently for safety reasons, which is reducing the amount of green light time to traffic, and the council says they will operate differently in the full scheme and give more time to traffic.

There is also only one lane outbound from Upper Parliament Street to the junction, and this will become two lanes in the final scheme.

NCT has apologised to customers and says it will be raising the issue with highways representatives at the council.

Trentbarton added: “We’re seeing significant delays to many of our services as they navigate the roadworks taking place on Maid Marian Way.

“These delays are beyond our control and we apologise for the inconvenience.”