Derby City Council planning to spend £100,000 to reduce delays at city bus station

A SHAKE-UP of city centre bus stops is proposed in a bid to cut delays at Derby's bus station.

The change would see two new bus stops created in Morledge at a cost of £100,000 so that passengers can be dropped off there instead of at the bus station.

The council hopes that this will reduce delays at the station as buses would not have to wait to use bays while people were dropped off.

A report drawn up by officers for Wednesday's city council cabinet meeting says that some buses were arriving at the bus station to find that their designated bay was occupied by an earlier service.

SAVE 30% ON YOUR PAYDAY LOAN

Meetthelenders

View details

Print voucher

visit us at www.meetthelenders.co.uk/blogs to Save 30% off your loan fees with Quick Quid, Read our article for instructions

Contact: 0115 8962299

Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013

They have to find an alternate bay to drop off passengers. Then, when the designated bay is clear, they leave the bus station and re-enter to park in the correct bay.

The report says that passenger drop-off points in the Morledge had been part of the original station design but "last-minute changes were made" to provide more space for blue badge parking, a taxi rank and wider pavements.

Now officers have recommended that the cabinet give the go-ahead to the creation of two bus stops in Morledge at a cost of £100,000.

One would be immediately outside the Crown Court building and have space for two buses. The other would be adjacent to Shopmobility, which provides scooters and wheelchairs for disabled people.

Blue badge parking would be moved from outside the court buildings to Full Street and underneath the Riverside multi-storey car park.

Janet Warner, a member of Derby Disability Forum and a trustee of Derby Shopmobility, said the moving of blue badge spaces would not badly affect disabled people as long as the replacement spaces had enough room for wheelchairs to be brought out of cars.

She said she understood the need to solve the station delays: "If you are sat on a bus that is just waiting for a bay to be cleared it can be extremely frustrating."

The council is also planning to spend £50,000 on new bus stop shelters next to the Sir Peter Hilton Gardens.

After the changes, the park and ride 111 service would have a stop in Morledge.

A stop for night services, which operate after midnight, would also be moved there from its current stop in Corporation Street.

Councillor Ranjit Banwait, the city council's cabinet member for transport, said that the changes had come about as a direct result of the Labour group reforming the city's bus partnership, which allowed the council to discuss issues with bus companies.

No date for the changes has yet been announced but they would be before April 2014.