HC Deb 24 February 1986 vol 92 cc659-60
4. Mr. Dubs

asked the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has for the operation of bus lanes on trunk roads in London following the abolition of the Greater London council.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

As with all forms of traffic management on national roads, I shall want to satisfy myself as to their effects.

Mr. Dubs

Does the Minister agree that bus lanes in London have proved an excellent way of speeding up bus services and so improving the efficiency of London transport? Will the hon. Gentleman have a look at the bus lane in Park Lane in the morning rush hour? It is being made a nonsense of because buses and vans are using it for parking. Unless parking is abolished in bus lanes, buses cannot benefit from them.

Mr. Bottomley

I shall do as the hon. Gentleman suggests.

Mr. Greenway

Do not bus lanes in London produce the most ghastly chaos and delay motorists and bus passengers getting to work? Is my hon. Friend satisfied that some of the bus lanes recently introduced by the GLC have been not for traffic reasons but for spiteful, silly reasons?

Mr. Bottomley

All hon. Members will benefit from the review of the bus lane assessment criteria and performance, being carried out for the Department and London Regional Transport.

Mr. Tony Banks

Is not whingeing by Tory Members about bus lanes most inappropriate, since bus lanes generally speed up buses and are for the advantage of bustravelling members of the public in London? Will he ensure that when the GLC is abolished and borough councils and his Department are looking at bus lanes, they will take first into consideration the convenience of the travelling public, and not that of the Right-wing fanaticism of his Back Benchers?

Mr. Bottomley

Proper expressions of concern from my hon. Friends behind me are sometimes preferable to the witterings of Labour Members.

Mr. Ward

When my hon. Friend looks at the review of bus lanes, he may consider that many of them should go the way that the GLC is rightly going, and disappear. If he gets around to looking at bus lanes in Park Lane, will he consider that that is probably the most crazy system of all, because buses occupy two lanes on one of the most highly-used roads in London?

Mr. Bottomley

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. It is clear that one of the most popular things that I can do, given the expressions of interest on both sides of the House, is to visit Park Lane in the morning and see it for myself.