Was the traffic normal this morning to Elephant?

[ruffers]

From OKR to Elephant was appalling today, looks like everyone had tried that instead.

[PhilPhilPhil]

I think they've reconfigured the roadworks at the Elephant this week. I'm trying not to be too optimistic just yet but the bus journey up Walworth Road has been a lot better since Monday. There is still a tailback for cars but that doesn't stretch as far as it was previously either. I've not approached Elephant using OKR during the week but maybe the latest stage of the roadworks has shifted the crapness over there from Walworth Road.

Heading back south in the evening is really bad still and I've been walking to Walworth Road from the west end rather than sit on a bus that gets stuck in the bottleneck approach to St. George's Circus.

[mancity68]

Has been better this week, especially if you can use 136 or 343 and avoid Walworht Rd.

[????]

yup, a bit better this week

[Annasfield]

Everyone has decided to take the OKR and turn right at Tesco and cut through the back way. It was gridlocked when I cycled through this morning.

[northdulmum]

that may have been due to Rotherhithe tunnel being closed both ways due to critically injured man found on the road leading to the tunnel.

[Paul Lupton]

The Road works from E & C northbound are a total shambles.

Yesterday on Saturday we abandoned 2 bus journeys after 6pm as the whole area became grid locked.

Even today I went up to Euston at 08:45 and though it was ok going North it wasn't much good coming back - to have so many main roads effectively closed with absolutely no warnings by transport providers or the Councils is a recipe for disaster. The worse thing is there's 3 foot or deeper trenches all over the place on various roads around St George's Circus and no-one to be seen any where doing anything on them - how can this be right?

I'd like to know who's responsible.

[PhilPhilPhil]

I was looking for more info on the roadworks (North - South Cycle Superhighway) yesterday and came across this timetable. Frustratingly vague in terms of area and time but it gives me some hope that work around Elephant / St George's Circus might be finished some time in August. Not much comfort to anyone needing to get to Blackfriars on a regular basis though...

https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/north-south-cycle-superhighway-travel-advice

[northdulmum]

AVOID e&c today completely on your way home.

This is the worst it has ever been since roadworks.

Walk

[Siduhe]

E&C was terrible this morning too - but that looked to be due to an accident/collision on the bit of the roundabout leading to Kennington which was causing gridlock. Was hoping that might be the only reason - guessing not from the above.

[Laur]

Yes Kennington was cordoned off - maybe because streets were flooded in Kennington?

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/kennington-flooding-residents-tell-of-panic-as-homes-left-under-feet-of-filthy-water-10353222.html

[PhilPhilPhil]

I passed through E&C on the 12 around 7.45 this morning and it was relatively fine, about the same as last week, so I think any trouble later must have been due to the flooding rather than roadworks.

[Ladygooner]

E&C gridlocked at 5.30 - took an hour and two buss to get to ED. Lots of buses stopping short of destinatio

[Annasfield]

Don't go anywhere near it today. I've just got off the bus to go back in the other direction & get the train. If I had better shoes on and not flip flops I'd have walked.

I got off the 40 about 15 mins ago and it's not even moved.

[bobbsy]

Absolute gridlock this morning.

In the bus lane from Walworth to the traffic lights south of the E&C roundabout, I counted an unbroken line of 35 buses...everyone queuing across each interesection...hours to get through that.

[Ladygooner]

Kennington Park Road still closed due to burst water main - will keep a eye on when it reopens otherwise it is trains for me

[ruffers]

And OKR is just as bad.

This better be worth it.

[kford]

Traffic backed up from Oval to Peckham Road, last night because of Kennington chaos. And back to Victoria the other side of VH bridge. And everyone sitting with their engines running, in this heat.

[PhilPhilPhil]

I got off the bus just before Morrisons on Walworth Road and walked to Soho. I walked the 12 route all the way to Piccadilly and hardly any buses passed me at all, think they must have been turning them all round at Elephant or Lambeth North. As the problem has been there since yesterday morning I thought TFL might have had the foresight to run some buses just between Lambeth North and the West End, but apparently not.

[Siduhe]

Waiting for the 363 this morning, every one that I could see as scheduled was terminating early, either in Peckham or at Bricklayers Arms, so looks like TFL has just given up running the part of that route up to Elephant.

[intexasatthe moment]

Sidhue - maybe it's the effect of the counter terrorism exercise http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33315691

[James Barber]

sadly the new northern E&C junction probably isn't worth it.

TfL don't do any cost benefit analysis of the hold-ups during construction versus the results. I read a paper that did this for California and the payback was typically 20 years - no sane person would undertake works on that basis.

The works will result in a large peninsular sticking out - solely due to the Faraday electric substation sculpture. I very much doubt this new area will be a vibrant new square for E&C as per the business case. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

[PhilPhilPhil]

Bearing in mind that there are similar works going on at the same time at Oval, I do wonder how many of these things are vanity projects that Boris is pushing through while he's still in charge so that he can look back and say how much he changed the landscape of London. If nothing else the decision to do significant work on both Elephant and Oval at the same time really limits the options we have of getting from South to North by road / bus, and I'd have thought that TFL would advise against it if their main concern was keeping things moving.

[BrandNewGuy]

James Barber Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> sadly the new northern E&C junction probably isn't

> worth it.

>

> TfL don't do any cost benefit analysis of the

> hold-ups during construction versus the results. I

> read a paper that did this for California and the

> payback was typically 20 years - no sane person

> would undertake works on that basis.

>

> The works will result in a large peninsular

> sticking out - solely due to the Faraday electric

> substation sculpture. I very much doubt this new

> area will be a vibrant new square for E&C as per

> the business case. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

The problems are as much a result of the year-long construction of the cycle superhighway from E&C to Farringdon at the same time:

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/8118

[JoHoops]

I've been getting the bus all the way through the works at E&C and it's been fine most days (in fact buses have been only half full as I imagine people have been avoiding it!) but today was dreadful - walked to work in the City from Camberwell Green where we were advised to get off and walk. Imagine I got there before the bus I started out on!