Transit 15

Current Position

In the first instance just one corridor - Bishop Auckland to Durham City to Birtley - is being examined in some detail. If the first corridor looks viable then once the other corridors have been similarly worked up and the whole scheme is looking good, the business case will be put forward to the Department for Transport (DfT) for central government funding. We working to achieve Programme Entry for the scheme by May 2009 with infrastructure works on the ground commencing in April 2010.

Estimated Cost

£6.3 million

Reasons for Doing the Scheme

One of the main priorities of LTP2, shared with national government, is to provide better accessibility for people and improved public transport. The scheme is intended to make travel by public transport more attractive/reliable and will be a practical alternative choice for people who currently rely on the private car for daily travel. The scheme would build on work carried out under LTP1 such as bus stop improvements, bus priority measures, real time information and park & ride facilities.

Brief Description of the Scheme

The Transit 15 scheme will provide a number of high quality corridors for bus services operating at 15 minute frequencies along key routes. These routes would be clearly branded as Transit 15 routes and would be designed to provide:

• A 15 minute frequency or better during the day.
• Direct service between population centres.
• A strong network branding.
• A service operated with Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant buses.
• Some high density and frequent services within Durham City as well as the X1 and X10 inter-regional express routes with improved frequencies from hourly to every 30 minutes.

Background

Major schemes are those proposals estimated to cost more than £5 million. Transit 15 is one of several major scheme proposals within LTP2, which covers the period 2006 – 2011.