Billingham Town Centre Connectivity

We want to improve bus, walking, wheeling, and cycling journeys along The Causeway in Billingham. This is a key route for those wanting to access the town centre and travel onwards to the station or surrounding areas. The Causeway is south of John Whitehead Park and runs from Roseberry Road and Wolviston Road towards Tesco and Billingham Station. We want your ideas for how we can reduce bus delays and make walking, wheeling, and cycling journeys in Billingham safer and easier.

Billingham Town Centre Connectivity

Billingham town centre is a popular location with destinations such as Billingham Forum, Aldi, Asda, the Library, the Health centre and many shops, pubs, and cafes. John Whitehead Park is also close to the town centre with a café, bowling club, tennis courts and skatepark.

Billingham town centre has benefited from investment by Stockton Borough Council over recent years and proposals to improve the town centres were consulted on during the ‘Let’s Talk About Our Towns’ consultation in 2020. A Masterplan is now under development to look at wider opportunities to improve the town. Billingham Rail station has also recently benefited from a multi-million-pound upgrade.

In 2023, Billingham was awarded £20 million from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund (LUF) to help deliver Stockton Borough Council’s regeneration plans for the town centre.

Current Transport Issues

We know there can be problems when making journeys by bus north of the town centre along The Causeway. Bus journeys can be unreliable at times. We want you to help us improve bus, walking, wheeling, and cycling journeys and make these more attractive travel options and improve reliability and safety for all modes around The Causeway and Melrose Avenue.

We think there are transport issues at the following locations:

The Causeway

• It can be difficult for buses to get out of bus layby’s when it is busy.
• On The Causeway, the central reserve has gaps for right turns at each junction, but they are too narrow for buses. Consequently, buses often block traffic or experience delays, affecting both bus passengers and other road users.

Melrose Avenue

• Buses can be delayed on Melrose Avenue when trying to turn right out of the junction onto The Causeway due to the width of the road, this makes journeys longer and unreliable during busy periods.
• National Cycle Network Route 14 is currently signposted through the town centre and north along Melrose Avenue. The crossing facilities around The Causeway / Melrose Avenue junction are currently limited for cyclists, pedestrians and wheelers.

National Cycle Network Route 14 is currently signposted through the town centre and north along Melrose Avenue. The crossing facilities around The Causeway / Melrose Avenue junction are currently limited for cyclists, pedestrians and wheelers.

For an enlarged version of the map, please click here.

Opportunities

Here are some opportunities that may help address the issues of blocking and delay for buses along The Causeway and Melrose Avenue:

• Improve the layout of the junctions and central reserve along The Causeway to reduce buses or right turners blocking traffic.
• Implement intelligent traffic management systems to reduce delays and improve traffic flow.

Other improvements we could make include:

• Improve road crossings for pedestrians, wheelers, and cyclists.
• Reduce general traffic speeds with traffic calming or reducing speed limits.

Benefits

Making changes may result in the following benefits:

• Buses could move through junctions including Melrose Avenue more efficiently.
• Reduced delay and queuing could result in more reliable journeys for all vehicles.
• Safer, joined up and more attractive walking, wheeling, and cycling paths including wider paths, segregation from vehicles and new foot paths, cycle paths or shared space.
• Safer walking, wheeling, and cycling crossings.

Impacts

We recognise that there may be some impacts if we make changes. These will vary depending on what is changed but could include:

• Vehicles might need to give way to buses.
• Existing grass verges or central reserve may need to be removed.
• Cars and other vehicles may have to wait a few seconds longer at traffic lights.
• May reduce available space for other road users.

If you think there are also transport issues in other locations in the town centre, please let us know on the feedback form.

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