South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) today welcomed the regional approval for three major public transport schemes worth a total of £74 million.
Today’s meeting of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Transport Board gave its approval for the following schemes in South Yorkshire:
- Sheffield to Rotherham Bus Rapid Transit Scheme via Meadowhall (£ 36 million)
- The roll-out of the Yorcard smartcard ticketing system, currently on trial in Sheffield, across Yorkshire and Humberside (£28 million)
- The A61 Penistone Road Quality Bus Corridor in Sheffield (£10 million).
However the schemes cannot go ahead until funding has been agreed by the Department for Transport.
David Brown, Director General of SYPTE, said: “These important schemes will make a major contribution to improving public transport across South Yorkshire and I am very pleased that they have received regional approval. We will need to work up a full business case and carry out extensive consultation on each scheme.
“Our aim is to encourage people to use public transport so as to reduce congestion and improve the environment. Improving the quality of public transport systems like those approved today will help us to do this.
“We will now be seeking full funding for the schemes from the Government. I hope Ministers will support these schemes now that they have regional backing.”
In September 2007 the Regional Transport Board gave its approval to a scheme proposed by SYPTE to build a Bus Rapid Transit system between Sheffield and Rotherham via the developing business park at Waverley.
Now the Regional Transport Board has approved the northern route for the scheme which would see a Bus Rapid Transit system in operation between Sheffield and Rotherham via Templeborough and Meadowhall.
The scheme would involve:
- new bus priority lanes on existing roads
- revised junction layouts and traffic signal configurations to provide bus priority
- a new four-lane road under the M1 with one lane in each direction reserved for public transport
- high quality vehicles with sufficient capacity to provide a high volume rapid transit network
- purpose-built stops, providing a high quality waiting environment coupled with real-time passenger information and off-vehicle ticketing.
The Yorcard project aims to introduce an integrated, multi-modal smartcard ticketing system across the whole of Yorkshire and Humberside. The system is currently on trial in the S10 area of Sheffield. The trial would continue throughout 2008 and be concluded by the end of the year. Full implementation of the scheme would see it rolled-out on all forms of public transport – buses, trams and trains.
The A61 Penistone Road Quality Bus Corridor in Sheffield will see a series of major junction improvements and bus priority measures introduced along the route between Wadsley Bridge and the Inner Relief Road in order to reduce congestion for all road users and improve the reliability of bus services.
Notes to Editors:
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