You may have noticed Cricklewood Lane’s still open. The water leak by the station meant they couldn’t get final permission to close it westbound, so the first stages have been reshuffled.
02 October – 25 October 2020
The pavement will be closed around the south-east corner as they clear the pharmacy, the phone shop and the rest, and prepare for demolition. Westbound buses aren’t diverted. They stop at a temporary bus-stop near Elm Grove.
26 October – 21 November 2020
Cricklewood Lane will be closed westbound before the Cricklewood Broadway junction, with access-only and diversion signs at Claremont Road/Lichfield Road junction. There’ll be measures in place to stop westbound drivers dodging down Elm Grove onto Cricklewood Broadway. The pavement on the south-east corner will still be closed.
When buses from Golders Green reach Claremont Road, they’ll turn right, go all the way up to Tilling Road, across to Staples Corner and south down the A5 Edgware Road. So the 245, 260 and 460 will go along Cricklewood Lane as usual as far as the Lichfield Road / Claremont Road junction, and the 226 will go along Pennine Drive as usual, then turn right. The 189 from Brent Cross will also go via Staples Corner and the A5.
The 245 will get back on track by turning onto Dollis Hill Lane towards Neasden, while the 226, 260 and 460 will go down into the middle of Cricklewood and turn right onto Chichele Road towards Willesden. The 189 will go straight on past the Crown towards Kilburn.
Buses on diversion don’t usually stop along the way, so residents on Claremont Road can’t expect a magical new fleet of buses stopping for them. In fact, southbound they’ll only have the C11.
22 November 2020 – 27 August 2021
Much as previously announced. Cricklewood Lane will be open both ways except during final stages in late August 2021. Buses will stay on their normal routes, except there’ll be temporary bus-stops on Cricklewood Lane a bit further from the junction. The pavement around the south-east corner stays closed until the job’s done.