Terminus Road is currently Eastbourne’s main commercial corridor. It is presently laid out as a conventional carriageway, with footways on either side of the carriageway. It is also the location where the majority of Eastbourne’s bus service connect, therefore acting as an ipso facto bus station.
This has resulted in a dense congregation of busses in a busy pedestrian area. This leads to pedestrian congestion and has a negative effect on the quality of the public realm and as such does not help create a welcoming and relaxing environment within the town centre. The ETCIS not only addresses this problem, but incorporates imaginative design solutions to enhance Terminus Road and its immediate environs.
The main design features of the ETCIS are:
Between Grove Road and Ashford Road: This will be the western gateway to the scheme. A fact that will be indicated as the road ramps up adjacent to the station and the road surface becomes granite setts. A new bus shelter will be placed adjacent to the new taxi rank (installed in phase 1) and a new bus stop and shelter placed on the south side of the road, joining up bus and train services. A pedestrian crossing point will also be installed better linking the taxi rank and station to the south side of Terminus Road.
Between Ashford Road and Cornfield Road: This stretch of Terminus Road will see the most dramatic transformation as the scheme creates a pedestrian dominated environment, with space to relax. The road will be reduced to one lane and will be for buses only travelling towards Cornfield Road. This will dramatically decrease the traffic currently experienced along this stretch of Terminus Road, to approximately one bus every two minutes. By reducing the road down to one lane we are able to double the width of the footways and remove the kerb upstand. The footways will be paved in new paving slabs, upto building frontages and the singe lane road will be paved in granite setts. The high quality paving materials will be echoed in the other features of the design including granite benches, and a series of planted areas creating pleasant environments to relax in. As the sun goes down this area will become bathed in decorative lighting, strategically located to enhance the various features of this new pedestrian friendly environment.
Continuing the use of high quality paving materials the footways on either side of road will be relayed with new paving slabs, the carriageway in granite setts. This will completely change the appearance of the road, turning it into the western gateway to the enhanced town centre. New seating will be put in place and trees planted in special tree pits designed to both protect the trees and the footway. These will be complimented with decorative ‘uplights’.
The entrance to Hyde Gardens North from Cornfield Road will be closed and a pleasant seating area installed. This will enable a small taxi rank to be installed on the western side of Cornfield Road and additional disabled bays to be installed in Hyde Gardens North. On the opposite side of Cornfield Road new bus stops will be put in place for east bound buses, ensuring bus services are kept as close to the town centre as possible. Four top of the range bus shelters will also be installed. (please click on this link to see further information about the connect bus shelter and the Rest bench which we will be installing). To ensure a light and bright waiting area, these shelters will consist of ceiling to floor glass panels on a sculpted high quality frame, lit with energy efficient LED lighting systems.
West bound bus services will be located here, creating a valuable link to the train station and the new entrance to the Arndale. The placement of bus services at this location also enables us to reduce the number of buses travelling through Terminus Road by fifty percent. On the western side, new paving will be installed matching that placed in Terminus Road and Cornfield Road a bus lane and bus stops for west bound bus services will also be put in place.
Four top of the range bus shelters will also be installed and electronic bus timetable information. New pedestrian crossing facilities will be created to assist pedestrian flow in an easterly direction. On street parking will be moved to the eastern side of the road and the roadqa reduced to one lane.
A new bus stop will be put in place at the eastern end, servicing buses travelling in a westerly direction, linking to the new stops in Gildredge Road. The junction with Gildredge Road will be modified to alternate traffic flow into Gildredge Road between South Street East/West.