Bus Stop and Interchange Design Reviews

Whether you’re responsible for delivering a large bus station, minor interchange, or simple bus stop, you can’t afford to waste money or lose your reputation by getting it almost right.

Because you don’t get a second chance to build it right first time.

Surprisingly, most of the designs put forward for bus infrastructure contain latent design issues – small errors that, if remained unresolved, could perpetuate through to construction and opening of the facility, seriously affecting operational efficiency.

If these design issues are discovered at all, it costs project budget or public money to rectify. The further down the project lifecycle the facility is before design issues are discovered, the more it costs – almost exponentially.

Many bus interchanges have been in the news for the wrong reasons. The celebrated opening is short lived as it is discovered that a major issue exists that needs time and money to rectify. An issue that could have cost pence to alter at the concept stage will now cost tens of thousands of pounds to resolve.

Often the interchange design team consists of the following experts:

The architects who provide expertise in designing the passenger facility building,

The highway engineers who provide expertise integrating the bus station into the local road network,

The project Manager who ensures that the interchange is built to the agreed design and requirements

The Local Authority who approves the plans but does not have dedicated expertise to ensure that the design will work efficiently

To achieve success, you will need a fifth team member. An independent expert who understands the bus industry and advises how and why buses need to move within the bus station.

That’s where we come in.

We are experts in the field of bus stop and bus interchange layouts.

Which includes:

• Off-highway and On-highway Bus interchanges
• Bus stops
• Railway station interchanges,
• Retail park facilities,
• Park and Ride facilities
• and temporary bus facilities during major construction work or route diversions.

We specialise in the design, alteration and review of vehicle movement areas which includes:

• Entrances and exits,
• Passenger bay configurations,
• Bus stands, layover areas and driver facilities
• Ensuring safe and efficient bus to bus manoeuvres
• Segregation of buses from pedestrians, commercial vehicles and private vehicles
• Analysis of driver facilities and pedestrian/driver desire lines.

So when it comes to asking for a second opinion, our reviews are second to none.

Why you need a design review – a second opinion:

Your teams of architects, consultants or engineers are experts in their field and they’ve probably got your concept or detailed plan almost right. But not quite.

Because it’s rare that such teams understand the bus industry well enough to design bus movement areas and bus – passenger – traffic interactions right first time.

That’s why it’s important to get a second opinion on the bus area layout from a specialist in the bus industry:

Before you finalise your design and construction phases

Before you need to redesign the concept, detailed design or built areas

Before your flagship interchange becomes a publicity nightmare.

We’ll work with your teams

We’ll arrange a non-confrontational review of your layout and plans. If we find issues, we can work with your teams of architects, engineers etc to get it right. First time.

Because we deal with bus issues, operator issues and infrastructure issues daily, we know which configurations and layouts work – and which won’t work. And, why they won’t work,.

Most importantly, we’ll work with your teams, explaining to them why any issues we’ve found won’t work, and what will happen if they’re not rectified.

Then we’ll propose, explore and listen to all the options in relation to the project objectives of risk, safety, budget, quality and timescales and recommend a solution.

Once we’ve all reached agreement on the improvements needed, then we’ll produce a formal report. This will describe the issues found, consequences of those issues, advantages, risks and analysis of all options and actions that were finally agreed.

A second opinion improves your design because it:

• Confirms the design areas that will work
• Highlights design areas that can be improved
• Reviews the design from an independent perspective.
• Uses bus industry experts and different skill sets

Which means your project will succeed because you:

• Save Money by preventing costly rework later in the project
• Justify design decisions to stakeholders and provide additional audit trails.
• Reassure stakeholders that the design is viable and economic
• Show due care to the public by looking at all the options
• Return best value for money by going forward with any revised plans.