New park and ride plan set out for city

Proposals for a new park and ride site to serve Leicester have been set out by the city council.

The city currently has park and ride terminals at Birstall, Enderby and Meynell's Gorse and another is being considered at Leicester Racecourse in Oadby.

A new bus service would run along the A6 into the city centre.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said the move, to try to reduce traffic congestion, had been listed in the authority's priorities to improve bus travel in the next five years.

Documents published by the council also show it wants to extend the timetables for all existing park and rides sites so they provide “evening, weekend and sporting event” coverage.

Services, run jointly with Leicestershire County Council, currently operate from 07:00 BST to 19:00 from Monday to Saturday, with buses running every 15 minutes.

Routes from Meynell’s Gorse and Birstall could also be expanded so they stop at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Changes are also being considered for the Hospital Hopper which currently runs between three hospitals in Leicester every 30 minutes Monday to Friday, with an hourly Saturday service and an hourly peak-only service on Sundays.

Buses could be doubled to provide four buses an hour, documents suggest.

Plans also include adding a stop at the Ashton Green housing estate, the LDRS said.

The Hop! bus service in the city centre could have Sundays added to its timetable.

Currently the service only runs on Mondays to Saturdays.

The council has also revealed it is hoping to introduce new discounted ticket schemes, extending the upper limit of the existing child concession rate from 16 to 18.

The changes would require substantial investment, however.

To simply keep bus services as they are would cost the authority £3m a year.

But frequency improvements and discounted fares would add £3.5m to that bill.

It also wants all city buses to be electric by 2030, but said that would require £80m of investment.

The council said it was “in discussion with the Department for Transport and other partners” to see how the funding could be secured.

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