The 300 metroshuttle bus

CARILLION noticed in June 2015.........


Recent heritage cobble surface at Little Underbank. If the road is pedestrianised then there are no double yellow lines so FLY PARKING is seen as a risk worth taking. Wardens report that parking tickets issued are challenged as "entrapment"

The 300 Metroshuttle bus is part of the problem in Little Underbank:
"The bus dominates the narrow medieval street - it is intimidating for people walking in the street and also limits possibilities for shops and cafes to spill out into the street. • The buses damage the cobbled surfacing with the heavy wear.  • The speed of the buses, the noise from the rumbling on the cobbles and the space taken up in the street all create a negative impression, particularly along Little Underbank and Lower Hillgate.   • Market Place & Underbanks has a relatively low priority in the routing of the bus; for instance if someone got on the bus at the interchange they are first taken to Merseyway,
then on to Tesco before looping back around into Churchgate and back into Underbanks. 
The presence of the bus makes the street less attractive to walk along, the spaces are less shared space and are very much weighted in favour of the movement of the bus when it is there.
Despite the presence of the bus stops, Little Underbanks suffers the highest rates of empty shop units in the area.  This is not a correlation; the bus is not causing the empty units but clearly the help that the bus provides is limited. 
Without the bus there is a thought that more space would be available to walk in, pavements could be used to spill out into.  The bus would still get people into the edges of the area but it would no longer run right through the heart".

UV006109 -L- Masterplan Report B Client: Carillion/Stockport MBC Document issued: June 2015

300 METROSHUTTLE emerges from Little Underbank and negotiates the unregulated driver chaos of CHESTERGATE. The current resurfacing work (April 2017) and repairs to RBS and White Lion seem to make the environment more challenging. Only contractor vehicle access is required in this zone.