Marine Parade bus lane work to begin next week

Bus passengers will soon be enjoying more reliable journey times into the city.

Work is due to begin on a new westbound bus lane on Marine Parade between the junctions of Lower Rock Gardens and the Sea Life Centre.

It will also include installing a new pedestrian crossing and resurfacing the road.

Using funding from our Bus Service Improvement Plan, the construction is being done in stages to minimise the disruption to events like the Brighton Marathon in April.

Because of the width of the road, the new bus lane is being built without the need to remove any lanes for other traffic and once finished, will operate 24 hours a day and can also be used by taxis and cyclists.

When work will take place

We’ve been working closely with our contractors to make sure disruption is kept to a minimum.

Work will begin on Monday 3 March on the pavement to prepare for the new pedestrian crossing.

Towards the end of the month, we’ll resurface this area, before work begins on the crossings along Marine Parade.

The full resurfacing of Marine Parade will take place later in the spring.

Councillor Trevor Muten, Cabinet member for Transport, Parking and Public Realm, said: “The new bus lane will make journey times so much more reliable in this busy part of the city, improving services along the seafront and encourage more people to travel by bus.

“We listened carefully to the feedback we received during the consultation, making changes along the way. We’ve also been able to design the scheme without removing traffic lanes, keeping the taxi rank and the new crossing will make it safer for pedestrians to cross.

“We’ve worked carefully with contractors and our events team to make sure that any disruption is kept to a minimum and major events like the Brighton Marathon won’t be impacted. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished scheme in place later in the spring.”

Busy route into the city

Marine Parade is a major bus route, with more than 250 buses in each direction per day.

Traffic flow can vary throughout the day and the time of year – and congestion at busy times can be unpredictable. This makes bus journey times unreliable, sometimes causing buses to terminate their route early or start late.

The new bus lane will help more buses run on time.

We held a public consultation on the scheme last year that received almost 900 responses. As a result of the feedback we received, we were able to tweak the design to keep the pedestrian crossing east of Camelford Street.

The bus lane will be implemented under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) – this will allow us to make changes during the first 18 months, if needed. A statutory public consultation period will run for the first six months, before a decision is made as to whether to make the bus lane permanent.