Transport Needs of a New Town
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By C. S. Dunbar Minst.T.
Eastern National Provide Bus Services for Basildon : Rail Facilities Being Developed : Essex Carriers Handling Road Goods Traffic
GOERING used to say that when anyone mentioned culture he reached for his gun. The word " planning " has a similar reaction on many people, particularly when it refers to town-planning. I invite anyone who shares this attitude to travel from London along the Southend arterial road as far as Laindon cross-roads, then to turn right and go past Laindon station to the top of the Langdon Hills. The view all round is about as depressing a sight as one can find within 50 miles of London and a full justification for sensible town-planning, if ever there was need for one.
In the early years of the century, speculators bought up much of the land in this neighbourhood, cut it up into plots, regardless of amenities and public services, and persuaded many people to invest in " week-end cottages" and even permanent "homes in the country." The demand for the plots increased greatly after the 1914-18 war, especially when many people thought they could earn a living as smallholders.
A Rural Slum
The bombing of East London in 1940-41 accelerated the move out, but nothing was done to improve public services, and it is no exaggeration to say that a substantial tract of once pleasant country has been turned into a rural slum with some 5,000 dwellings most of which are little better than shacks. The situation became so bad that the local authorities despaired of being able to remedy it themselves, so they suggested to the Government that the area should be chosen as the site of one of the new towns to deal with the overspill from East London, and that the redevelopment of the shack-ridden countryside should be tackled as part of the creation of a new community.
Basildon New Town's designated area is, therefore, exceptionally large, as it covers 7,834 acres and stretches about six miles west to cast from near Dunton almost to Bowers Gifford, and about three miles north to south between the arterial road (A127) and the old
al 2 main road (A13) to Southend, via Pitsea. The whole of this area, except a few acres, comes within the urban. district formerly called Billericay but now renamed Basildon.
The tiny, ancient parish from which the new community takes its name is near the centre of the designated area, and other localities included are Laindon, Langdon Hills, Vange and Pitsea. Development is from east to west and the halfway mark has just been reached. At the end of February, 4,646 houses had been completed by the New Town Development Corporation and 600 by the urban district council.
It is a cardinal principle of the new towns that the settlement of the new population should be accompanied by the establishment of new industries. At Basildon two industrial estates have been provided in the north of the town and adjoining the Southend arterial road. After a slow start, a useful variety of trades is being established, mainly in the fields of light engineering, foodstuffs, clothing and furniture. In the commercial vehicle field, a notable factory is that of Bonallack and Sons, Ltd.
East-to-west communications have been provided since 1888 by the railway from Upminster to Pitsea, which supplies a cut-off to the London-Southend line. via Tilbury. There are stations at Laindon and Pitsea and plans have been made for this line to be electrified by 1961. A new station will also be built, at some date yet to be determined, near the new town centre and about halfway between the existing stations.
Eastern National Monopoly
Stage services are entirely provided by the Eastern National Omnibus Co., Ltd., since that company acquired J. W. Campbell's services on February 19, 1956. These ran from Pitsea to Coryton, Corringham, North Benfleet, Basildon (Gardner's Lane), Wickford and Hadleigh. Before the new town scheme was started, Eastern National facilities in the area consisted of the long services 51 and 53 from Colchester and beyond through Chelmsford, Billericay and Laindon to Tilbury every hour, service 34, also hourly, from Chelmsford to Pitsea via Wickford, the hourly ex-Westcliff service 2A from Bamford via the arterial road as far as Nevendon and then down to Pitsea, and service 2 every 15 minutes from Southend to Grays. via Pitsea.
Nos. Si and 53 ran through the western extremity of the designated area and 34 through the eastern, whilst 2A ran along the northern perimeter and then through the eastern part. The Southend-Grays service traversed its southern boundary. There was also a group of irregular services from Laindon station, which came to Eastern National through the Westcliff company's purchase of the City Coach Co. in 1952. While four of these went out northwards, one (No. 258) ran round the northern side of the designated area and then down to Vange. There was thus no cast-west service by road across the centre of the new town area, nor at that time any need for it.
13y 1952, it was clear that a start must be made with improved services in Basildon. Eastern National acquired temporary premises in Bull Road, Vange, and two vehicles were stationed there to work reliefs on service 2A, which by that time had stepped up to a half-hourly frequency. There have since been several revisions, plus the introduction of works journeys from various parts of the new town to the industrial estates.
In August, 1953, a spur was thrown off the Grays— Southend service at Pitsea and became service 248, from Grays—Basildon (Whitmore Way) hourly. The first completely internal service, 244, was started on February 14, 1954, from Pitsea Station and, after three extensions, has reached Mether's Gate, Whitmore Way West. The journey takes 21 minutes and normal headways are 10 minutes peak, 20 minutes off-peak Mondays to Fridays, 15 minutes Saturdays and 30 minutes Sundays. Single fares before the fuel-crisis increase were 1-fd., 2d., 4d., 5d, and 7d.
Another internal service, 243, was started on March 10, 1957, from the Kingswood Estate, south of the cross-town railway line, to Pitsea Broadway and thence to Kenneth Road.
Working in London Although it is hoped that eventually most of the newtown dwellers will work in Basildon, great numbers at present travel to and from London and its suburbs morning and evening, mainly from Pitsea •Station. Other workers go out of the town to the oil refineries at Shellhaven. and Coryton and these are carried by service 242, instituted in August, 1955.
The old established ex Westcliff express service between London and Southend, which runs along the arterial road, has, since April, 1955, run daily all the year round, once a day in the winter and four times in the summer. It, is authorized to pick up and set down at "The Jolly Cricketers," Nevendon, in the north-west corner of the new town. All the seasonal services from Southend to the south coast, via Tilbury Ferry. now have a pick-up point at Pitsea and those from Tilbury to Walton, Clacton and Yarmouth have been re-routed in Basildon so as to pick up at several points-.
As in the case of other new towns, Basildon is being developed on •the basis of fairly self-contained neighbourhood units, but these will be connected with each other and with the town centre by the local routes shown
H14 on the accompanying map. When the east-west roads are ready, services 2A .(Southend—Romford) and 51 and 53 (Colchester, etc.—Tilbury) will be diverted to run to the town centre, as also, possibly, will 2 and 2B (Southend—Grays).
All services will use the bus station, which will form part of the„ civic centre and will be only about 200 yd. from the new railway station, when it is built. The present temporary premises of Eastern National will be given up and a new garage built to the southof the railway near the station.
In addition to containing all the administrative buildings, the centre will be well supplied with shops and the whole will be bounded by wide roads, forming roughly a semi-circle. The layout avoids having goods unloaded at the front of shops by providing rear-access roads, which also incorporate parking bays. It is calculated that it will be possible to park 1,500 to 2,000 cars in the centre.
British Railways are active at Pitsea, where the station is being rebuilt and new sidings constructed. At present the cartage work is done by . a 3-ton Karrier Bantam with one flat and one covered semi-trailer and two Thames 5-ton platform lorries with gantries. It is likely that in the future the railways' own fleetat Pitsea will be increased by a mobile crane, a 2-ton parcel van, a 3-ton articulated outfit and a 5-ton rigid vehicle. Local hauliers are hired to help out when necessary. Part of Basildon is served from Billericay Station by
a 3-ton articulated vehicle. At Laindon Station, Mr. G. W. Jeakins, a local haulier, acts as cartage agent.
Remote Service British Road Services have a, depot at Stanford-leHope (Purfleet branch), which serves Basildon for bulk loads, but the daily collection and delivery of smalls are done from Southend, 13 miles to the east. There is a twice-weekly parcel service direct from London worked by the B.R.S. depot at Richardson Street, Bermondsey, London. So far as the Development Corporation know, B.R.S. have no plans for a depot in Basildon.
Some years ago, when writing in The Commercial Motor about Harlow, Crawley and other new towns, remarked that it seemed strange that no plans had been made for a.combined parcels and general haulage depot add it seems .even more strange at Basildon, having regard both to geography and future development. One would have thought that here was a chance for B.R.S. to undertake railway cartage and to feed their own services at the same time.
However, the 13.R.S. policy (or lack of it) is a good thing for private enterprise in the person of Mr. R. B. Brittain, of Essex Carriers, Ltd., whose depot is only a mile or so from the eastern boundary of the new town. Essex Carriers (formerly National Parcels and Goods Services) have for many years provided a smalls service throughout south Essex and have interworking arrangements with other members of the Express Carriers group of the Road Haulage Association, which gives a coverage over most of the country. They are also developing a service to the Continent via Southend Airport. In addition, Essex Carriers have, of late years, built up a good reputation with their low-loaders, so that they are in a position to answer any demand made upon them in connection with the new town. There appear to be nine other A or B licensees with addresses in various parts of Basildon. Most of these started as holders of B licences on construction work and then secured extended conditions to enable them to undertake other work. With, possibly, two exceptions, they are engaged upon operations within a small radius, mostly with tipping vehicles,