Smartlink was a passenger bus transit system link proposed in 2006 between the town centre of

Ashford, Kent Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Great Stour at the southern or scarp edge of the North Downs, about southeast of central London and northwest of Folkestone by road. In the 2011 census, it had a popula ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and its suburbs and main amenities.

Aims of the scheme

Smartlink was an element of the transport strategy for Ashford (along with junction 10 improvements and junction 10A development on the

M20 motorway The M20 is a motorway in Kent, England. It follows on from the A20 at Swanley, meeting the M25, and continuing on to Folkestone, providing a link to the Channel Tunnel and the ports at Dover. It is long. Although not signposted in England, ...

, a new Victoria Way and the dualing of Chart Road. It is intended to increase in the number and proportion of trips by sustainable means, particularly passenger transport. The aim is integrated bus provision across the town. The plan was to give the Smartlink buses priority over other traffic and passengers improved waiting environments with real time travel information.Kent County Council
A report by the Head of Transport Projects to the Highways Advisory Board on 2 May 2006

Routes

A three-legged Smartlink system was proposed, linking the town centre with #

Chilmington Green Chilmington Green was a hamlet on the edge of the Kentish Weald comprising 10 listed buildings. It is south-west of the town of Ashford. The population at the 2011 Census was included in the civil parish of Great Chart with Singleton. In 2014, A ...

to the south-west, possibly serving ''Cobbs Wood'', ''

Godinton Godinton (sometimes known as Godinton Park) is a suburb of Ashford, Kent in England, with its stately home Godinton House within its outskirts. Godinton is located between Great Chart, Hothfield and the town of Ashford proper. The Orpington ...

Park'', ''Singleton'' and ''Stanhope''. #

Finberry Finberry is a housing estate located in the south-east of Ashford, Kent in England. The population of the housing estate is included in the civil parish of Mersham. The nearest existing places to the housing estate are Sevington to the north, W ...

to the south-east, also linking with the ''Orbital Business Park, Waterbrook'', the '' Newtown Railway Works, Designer Outlet'' and the '' International railway station''. # The Warren to the north-west, serving the ''Eureka'' leisure development at junction 9 of the M20.Ashford Borough Council
SMARTLINK scheme appraisal 31 March 2006 Parking was to be play a key part in the overall strategy for encouraging use of alternative modes of travel, and demand will be met by building new car parks and developing

park & ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (ra ...

at the edges of the town. Three park & ride sites were proposed to anchor the new system, with a phased implementation programme over ten years. The three-route proposal was perhaps prematurely announced, aligned with particular developer landowners' interests in mind, over the interests of others.

Constraints

One of the constraints to implementing Smartlink was the lack of height and width underneath the existing ''Newtown Road'' bridge, which lies upon the Cheeseman's Green route. The existing bridge headroom only allows use by mini-buses, restricts two-way traffic and only incorporates a narrow elevated footway on one side of the carriageway. Several scheme options were assessed and the preferred option was to replace the existing bridge with a new bridge to current design standards. This would have improved accessibility by bus, cycle and pedestrians between the town centre and the surrounding south-eastern area of the town. Proposed works included - *Improving the existing headroom under the bridge from 3.0 metres to 3.7 m in order to allow use of ''Newtown Road'' by single decker buses, including future Smartlink buses. *To increase the width of the carriageway from 5.1 m to 6.3 m to allow the free and safe flow of two-way traffic including buses. *To replace the existing narrow 1.5 m elevated footway with a 4.25 m wide segregated footway/cycleway to facilitate the safe passage of cyclists and pedestrians. In the longer term, the objective is for ''Newtown Road'' to be improved in further phases to provide a strategic highway network extending south-east of the town to provide improved multi-modal access to the housing areas of Cheeseman's Green and the employment areas of ''Waterbrook'' and the ''Orbital Business Park.''

Funding

It was planned that the estimated £30 million cost of the development would be funded: *within the new housing areas of Cheeseman's Green and Chilmington Green, by the developers and ultimately the new homebuyers *the remainder being allocated by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM)

Completion

The proposal was to deliver Smartlink in two phases, phase one by 2012, with phase two by 2016, dependent upon the development of Cheeseman's Green and Chilmington Green. In practice, it is expected that the Park & Ride scheme will be in place by 2009Ashford's Future
/ref> (originally 2008), using conventional buses, but then "

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

" type vehicles will be brought into use as the development continues.{{out of date, date=December 2018

References

Transport in Ashford, Kent Transport in Kent Guided busways and BRT systems in the United Kingdom Proposed public transport in the United Kingdom Proposed transport infrastructure in South East England