News from Nottingham Labour

Nottingham: City wants County to spend tram money on more Link buses

Nottingham City Council is very keen to work with the County Council to provide more Link buses for commuters across the region, thereby fulfilling its pledge to invest the money not spent on the tram by improving bus routes to workplaces.

Funding from the workplace parking levy, which will start in 2012, will help maintain the current Link bus network that the City Council provides. But due to the County Council’s commitment to withdraw its share of the funding for NET Phase Two, less money will be available from the WPL to extend the service.

Nottingham City Council’s Link bus network is a subsidised bus service providing residents with public transport to employment, hospitals, shopping, entertainment and tourism areas.

The Worklink service connects some of the city’s key employment sites. And it’s this service the City Council is keen to expand to give more employees a cheaper and more sustainable alternative for the journey to work.

Cllr Graham Chapman said:

“In the lead up to the recent County Council elections, Cllr Kay Cutts (Nottinghamshire County Council’s leader), while expressing her opposition to the tram, said she would like to see more buses instead as she believes that the tram is inflexible. As residents in the south of the county will still get new tram lines despite a withdrawal of funding from their council, we would be very keen for Cllr Cutts to make real her election pledge and help support more Link buses connecting county residents to work places in the city.”

Approximately 380,000 people a day drive to work in the Greater Nottingham Area. NET Phase Two will serve up to 1,800 workplaces, providing approximately 55,000 commuters with an alternative to the car.

An expanded Link bus network could serve areas around the city which are less well served by public transport by introducing new routes or extending the existing ones, upping frequencies, extending the hours of operation and upgrading the size of the vehicles. Improvements could also be made to the Medilink service which connects the city’s two hospitals.

Cllr Chapman added:

“The Link bus network is supported by short-term funding agreements. Without a new funding source, the current network is likely to be curtailed. The County Council could make a very beneficial contribution to give its residents the best possible bus services to and from work.”

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