£2 million bid for bus improvements

Led by Luton Borough Council, the bid to the government’s Better Bus Area fund includes plans for two ‘travel information centres’ and the upgrade of bus stops to provide level boarding, real time passenger information and CCTV.

The money would also be spent on changes to specific road junctions to improve journey times and reliability, and on installing Smartcard readers on buses.

The council says congestion in some parts of Luton, including Bury Park and Bushmead, is so bad that some bus operators are considering withdrawing services.

And it says the proposals, coupled with the Luton Dunstable Busway, present a real opportunity to get people to use public transport rather than cars.

If secured, the bid would see 40 bus stops in Luton and 120 in Dunstable upgraded with real time passenger information. The council says this, along with CCTV, would encourage people concerned about safety to use the bus.

One travel information centre would be constructed in Luton and one in Dunstable, to make sure quality information about bus services was easily available to the public. These would open in spring 2013.

The Smartcard machines for Centrebus and Grant Palmer buses would mean a ‘conurbation-wide cashless card’ could be used with different bus operators, to boost bus use. Arriva has already spent £250,000 on ordering Smartcard machines for its buses.

The council also wants to send out bespoke bus timetables to all homes in the area to equip everyone with all the information they need to start using public transport and “make the choice between using the car and taking the bus”.

Arriva, Grant Palmer and Centrebus have all written to the Department for Transport in support of the ‘Connecting Communities’ bid.

> For more information visit www.luton.gov.uk/bbf