New multimillion-pound bus lanes to be built in Somerset

New bus priority lanes will be implemented in two towns by 2025 as part of a multimillion-pound plan.

Somerset County Council's bus advisory board was awarded £11.9m from central government to improve bus services.

It has said nearly £5.5m will be spent on delivering new bus lanes in Taunton and Bridgwater.

The allocated money is less than one tenth of the £163m the council had requested from the Department for Transport (DfT).

The funding allocation has been described by the Somerset Bus Partnership as "a slap in the face for the county and its bus passengers".

The money was given after the authorities bus improvement plan was approved by the DfT, reports The Local Democracy Service.

Of the £11.9m that has been provided, £8,165,000 is allocated for capital projects such as new building projects, bus lanes and traffic schemes.

The remaining £3,695,000 is being set aside for subsidising cheaper tickets, marketing and administration costs.

A total of 4.5km (nearly 2.8 miles) of new bus priority lanes will be created, four kilometres (nearly 2.5 miles) in Taunton and a further 500 metres (0.3 miles) in Bridgwater.

The bus advisory board said two "mobility hubs" will be created in Taunton and Somerton, implementing bus priority detection technology at dozens of key junctions, meaning buses will be delayed less by red traffic lights, and introducing ticket discounts.

In addition, 26 bus priority detection systems will be installed at key junctions - 19 in Taunton and seven in Bridgwater - to ensure bus services are not held up in traffic on key routes.

These projects together will cost £5.49m to implement, with the council going out to consultation on the proposed routes in the spring, construction starting on the first schemes in the summer and continuing in stages until the winter of 2024.

The council will spend a further £1.35m on trialling new bus services in and around Taunton in the evenings and at weekends in a bid to bolster existing routes and support the night-time economy.

A further £817,000 will be spent on trials of DDRT services in more rural parts of the county, revolving around the new mobility hubs in Somerton and Taunton.

The Department for Transport has been approached for comment.

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