The frequency of a new bus service and the route have been questioned by residents in two Hove neighbourhoods.
Brighton and Hove Buses started running the 3X service between Hangleton and Falmer in September as a limited stop route.
The 3X serves pupils at a number of schools including Hove Park, the King’s School, Cardinal Newman the Brighton Aldridge Community Academic (BACA) and BHASVIC (Brighton, Hove And Sussex VI Form College).
It also stops outside Hove Polyclinic, Hove railway station and Brighton railway station, in Lewes Road and at the Amex Stadium.
Brighton and Hove City Council helps to fund the service through its Bus Improvement Plan which also helps to subsidise fares.
At a meeting of the full council last Thursday (18 December), Ellen Watts asked how many passengers were using the service and how much it cost per passenger.
She also asked how these would justify the current route and the level of service, with a frequency of every 15 minutes.
She said that bus use appeared to be minimal and asked when residents would be formally engaged in reviewing whether the 3X route and the location of bus stops in Nevill Avenue were appropriate.
Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport, said that the service was designed to deliver fast journeys across Brighton and Hove and people had contacted the council and the bus company sharing their appreciation of the service.
Councillor Muten said that by routing the 3X along Nevill Avenue, the service avoided duplicating other services and areas of congestion as well as serving several schools and providing direct links from Hove station to Legal and General offices and the Greyhound Stadium.
He said: “We continue to review and monitor with Brighton and Hove Buses the route performance closely including delays, congestion, punctuality, patronage and feedback from residents and passengers with adjustments possible.
“The 3X does provide an excellent and welcome option. It’s attracting new passengers, reducing car journeys and air pollution in a busy corridor including along Nevill Avenue.”
Ms Watts said that no residents in Nevill Avenue had received leaflets about the service and she noted people living along Clarendon Road, near Hove Station, were raising similar issues.
A petition on the council’s website to “Redirect the new 3X bus down Ellen Street instead of Clarendon Road” was due to go before the latest full council meeting but was deferred until the next meeting on Thursday 29 January.
People in Clarendon Road were concerned about loss of privacy from the double-decker buses travelling 140 times a day down their road which has houses whereas Ellen Street has blocks of flats.
She said: “Does the council accept that this indicates patterns and systematic issues on how the route has been implemented and can it explain how this cumulative evidence is being used to assess the overall suitability, routing and stop locations of the 3X service, including in Nevill Avenue, and whether it will now trigger a board review of the route?”
Councillor Muten underlined his previous comments that the council would continue to review and monitor the route’s performance alongside Brighton and Hove Buses.
A classic NIMBY. It’s ok for it to run down another road just not mine even though that road is unsuitable. Wear some big girl pants and get over it. There may be many residents along that road that would look forward to a local bus service.
Ellen Watts needs to seriously get a life. This is the problem with retirement, people don’t have hobbies so go around ruining everyone else’s lifes moaning about absolutely nothing.
I live in Hangleton and use the 3x route a lot. It’s fantastic and the frequency of buses is just right. It works well going down Nevill avenue alongside the 5 and 47 which have their own routes into town.
Yep agree, it’s a great service, I can now drop my daughter at school and get on a bus direct to the uni where I work, really quick and efficient service
Get some net curtains!
Not that many people will be looking through your windows in the first place as the bus passes to see your unmade bed, piles of dirty washing strewn on the floor ot the geegaws you have on the window sill.
What’s so special about Clarrendon Road then? May be the bus drivers would quite happily go elsewhere if wasn’t for the fact it’s an access route to the garage . . . . .
The 3X is brilliant. Cuts out all the nonsense of north street. To get from Lewes road to hove takes about 20 mins, on a 49 it’s nearly 50 mins some days so the NIMBYs can bore off who say it’s not used, it’s pretty busy when I use it.
I would say however, after hove station it would make more sense for the bus to go to blatchington road bus stop, as blatchington road is a bit of a hub in hove and it probably gets more passengers there.
Excellent service.I use it to get from Brighton to Hangleton without the problem of heavy traffic through the centre of both Brighton and Hove.Its a fantastic route.I bet the people who complain have never used a bus.Keep it up
It needs to use the whole of Trafalgar Street rather than going up cheap side. The traffic at that section always makes the bus get stuck.
Also it’s made it more apparent that the stop line on north road for west bound traffic is to high up as people wait in the keep clear which stops the busses turning into north road from queens road.
Not sure it could go up all of Traflagar Street especially as the station end is one way and there is a tight turn up Terminus Road and where would the bus stop at the station be? Plus is there the clearance for a double decker?
Nah from the bottom of Trafalgar street I mean, so turn off by at peters rather than by the hob goblin. Top bit is fine.
How would a double decker bus make the tight right-had turn from York Place into Trafalgar Street though?
Excellent service.I use it to get from Brighton to Hangleton without the problem of heavy traffic through the centre of both Brighton and Hove.Its a fantastic route.I bet the people who complain have never used a bus.Keep it up
3x is a game changer for our family for getting from Hangleton to hove or Brighton station.
What world do the Clarendon lot live on and how do I get tickets to their rarified air?
Must be something truly special to need protection from vile buses heaving with diseased proles
The only thing I would say about Clarendon Road, it’s very narrow with parking on both sides, driving up and down can, be a challenge. That applies to lories too. Most roads are over congested with parking.
Its a great service to finally have a bus which goes to both of the stations, and quickly is brilliant.
I use to use the 55bus, you have taken this off. I now cannot get to work. Please put an early.morning 55bus back.on, it wad a brillant service, and always full.
Unless the staff of B&H buses are regular readers of B&H news they aren’t going to see this
If you have any queries about buses then email the bus company!
It’s brilliant for the Amex on match days and good for links to train stations, and to north Laine . Frequency is great and handy for us to catch it at greyhound stadium. Well done to the Bus Company and the City Council.
It’s an excellent service, absolutely brilliant. I spent my entire life slogging in to town on 5s from hangleton, suddenly I can get into Brighton in half the time. I couldn’t quite believe it. Spreading the services around so they don’t all clog up the same route along Church and Western Roads is a canny bit of planning.
My address is on Clarendon Road and the 3x is easily my favourite bus. It takes me to the North Lanes as well as near Stanmer or even to join a bus to Lewes without spending ages clogging up the town centre. Thank you whoever came up with the idea.
This bus was said by the bus company to replace the early morning 55 bus running from Mile Oak. The 3x runs from Hangleton not Mile Oak, leaving Mile Oak without a direct bus on this route. Why? The 55 always ran busy, many young Bhasvic students used it and work commuters. Why not run some early morning 3x from Mile Oak?
The 3X is a fantastic service. The best thing is that my daughter can get from Hove to Hobbycraft so I no longer have to drive across the city centre to get her there.
As for Clarendon road, perhaps they could paint double yellow lines on one side of the road so that the buses could get through more quickly and easily so that there’s less time for top deck passengers to view the upstairs shenanigans.
It should stop at the bottom of Elm Grove
Well email B&H Buses and make your case as to why.
But it maybe that the feel the likes of the X25 have Elm Grove covered already?
Of course the more stops there are the slower it becomes
I’m guessing it doesn’t because of the mayhem at the elm grove bus stops, it would seriously slow it down. Equally elm grove already has service to Brighton station. The 3x is actually the only service on Lewes road to Brighton station so this was probably the rationale behind it.
Mrs Nimby from Neville Avenue can do one. Like the 1x the 3x is popular and so much quicker. The X routes seem to be the future for buses in the city.
People might look in my windows from the buses? If only there was some sort of curtain, blind or one-way window film one could use…
I agree it should stop at the bottom of Elm Grove! Such a shame it doesn’t as excludes whole lot of passengers. They have banners along by there advertising the 3X and the other day someone was mistakenly waiting there as there a banner about the 3 X right near bus stop.
Stop the nimbys.
I live in Hangleton and the 3X is so good. It slashes journey time to station/north part of city.
It’s a brilliant idea, and I think 15 mins is a suitable frequency.
Genuinely laughed out loud at the ‘lack of privacy’ comment. Honestly these people need a complete reality check.
It’s a brilliant service providing efficiant travel from Hangleton to schools, colleges, the universities, both Brighton and Hove train stations and the town, most of these locations were not on direct routes previously plus the old routes were painfully slow. It will definately cut down on car use.
I’ve been using the 3X from Mithras House stop to Brighton station and the return journey home. It’s a great route. There does seem to be some issues with evening buses heading towards Falmer though with buses routinely cancelled but showing as minutes away. I think this is negatively impacting uptake of the route as it means people are waiting longer to get home in the evenings.
It would also be fantastic if it started a bit earlier and ran later as well.
many residents have concerns re safety with clarendon road being too narrow and congestion issues made worse
So great for getting to my weekly appointments at Mill View. Used to take me over an hour and now takes me half the time!
Car drivers at the top of north road need to observe the KEEP CLEAR box to enable bus drivers to turn into North Rd. The box needs repainting NOW
It would be good if the council could perhaps encourage the return of the electronic bus signs that were removed and not replaced all over the city……….
The council are actually the ones responsible for these signs, not B&H Buses. I think most are back around the centre of the city, apart from those around Valley Gardens which is presumably because of all the works.
The problem with Clarendon Road, is more to do with its width. You can barely fit two cars passing each other. With its close proximity to the station and the so called (but not really) new car free development flats, more cars are parking in the street. So residents who have a car, or any deliveries, often have to double park to unload and as such the buses cannot pass.
Also part way down the road is junction with a nearby traffic island/crossing point – so if a bus has to wait here for traffic to clear, either the junction or the traffic island will be blocked.
The Council has promised (perhaps a mistake trusting this) traffic calming on the road as it is a well used rat run, but this seems to counter that by increasing the traffic with larger vehicles.
The bus depot is accessed from Ellen Street and the ends of Clarendon Road, not the road itself.
Diverting the buses along Blatchington Road – where there is already a bus route, or Clarendon Villas, or perhaps even Ellen Street would be far more suitable without impacting the route too much, where the roads are either far wider or residents aren’t being compromised with unloading/parking.
I have also heard from residents of Clarendon Road that they were told by the Council/Bus service that the Busses were not permitted along Clarendon Road and they had to go behind to access the depot – and that this new route is trying to counter that.
The part of Nevill Avenue mentioned is not suitable for a bus to go down 140 times a day – it’s too narrow – at least 1 stationary car has been hit on this road by a 3x bus and the bus stops are far too close to a busy roundabout. One of the drivers on the route told me there were too many buses causing congestion.
The bus is also funded by tax payers. If it has low usage as has been suggested, then why should it be funded by tax payers? Don’t we want value for money for the tax we pay.
The comments section seemed to be filled by people who catch the 3x bus and supported the i360 before it was a £51 million loss to tax payers.