Liverpool CA prepares bus investment plan

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is leading work on a programme to improve  main bus corridors.

Mayor Steve Rotheram plans to use Transforming Cities Fund grant to deliver a ‘Green Bus Routes’ programme that will “transform core commuter corridors with measures including bus priority and enhanced customer facilities”.

The chosen roads from Liverpool city centre are:

• the A57 to St Helens

• the A562 to Speke and John Lennon Airport

• the B5178 to Halewood

• the A59 to Kirkby, Towerhill and Northwood

• the A567 to Bootle and Crosby 

It is unclear if the programme will feature bus lanes. Liverpool City Council’s mayor Joe Anderson suspended the city’s bus lanes in 2013. Anderson remains in office.

A Merseytravel spokeswoman told LTT this week: “We have set up a steering group involving ourselves, Liverpool City Council, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens, Arriva and Stagecoach, who will be managing the development of proposals, which will look at the whole corridor end-to-end. 

“We expect the first proposals for the St Helens to Liverpool corridor to come forward in the autumn for consideration.”

Meanwhile, Merseytravel is restructuring its bus station departure charges to incentivise vehicles with lower emissions.

The current rates are 48p per departure for a staffed bus station and 17p for unstaffed. 

In future, vehicles that are Euro 3 and below will pay double these amounts. Euro V will receive a 20 per cent discount on the current rate; Euro VI a 35 per cent discount; biomethane, Euro VI hybrid and Euro VI with stop start technology a 40 per cent discount; and electric vehicles a 50 per cent discount. 

Frank Rogers, chief executive of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, said Arriva and Stagecoach were supportive of the change and no comments had been received from smaller operators.