Residents in the Fartown area of Pudsey are set to see the partial return of their bus services following a ‘perfect storm’ of problems.
The discovery of a sinkhole caused by a collapsed sewer led to the immediate closure of Littlemoor Road last week – and the 14 and X14 services no longer being able to access their usual route.
This has led to residents having to walk long distances in order to catch the bus to Leeds or the Owlcotes Centre. It has also led to increased traffic as more people used their cars on the remaining open routes.
Due to a collapsed sewer on #LittlemoorRoad #Pudsey. @FirstWestYorks 14 X14 diverted via #KentRd #ValleyRd & #RobinLn
— Metro Travel News (@MetroTravelNews) March 21, 2017
It’s been announced today that buses will now be diverted along Carlisle Road and back onto Fartown and Greenside.
This will allow traffic to pass through in both directions, with traffic signals so that the work can be completed, and will allow the bus to restart visiting parts of the area. It’s not yet known when a full service will resume.
Councillor Richard Lewis (Labour, Pudsey) said local councillors had worked with the council’s highways department and bus chiefs to try find a solution. He said:
“This is the sort of perfect storm that you cannot prepare for – while collapsed sewers and sinkholes are thankfully rare they need to be responded to quickly. So there was no choice but to close Littlemoor Road for the section where it joins Roker Lane.
“This is a partial solution, but there are precious few roads in the area which we can divert a double decker bus onto and we’ve had to get Highways to scale down the [ongoing improvement] work they’re doing on Carlisle Road to make it usable.
“We’re pressing Yorkshire Water very hard to work flat out on filling the sink hole so we can restore buses all along the proper route and bring some relief to bus users.”
Diversion
The bus diversion for the 14 and 14X is, from Leeds: via normal route to Valley Road then right on Robin Lane, left on Church Lane, bus station, left on Church Lane, left on Carlisle Road, right on Fartown, Greenside, right on Chapeltown, Church Lane, bus station then normal route and vice versa.
Buses are operating via Carlisle Road, Fartown, Greenside and Chapeltown on a one-way clockwise loop so buses towards Leeds and towards the Owlcotes Centre will use the same stops.