Government spending £7 billion to improve transport outside London
Just under two thirds of England's population outside London will benefit
Last updated 29th May 2022
Thirty-one areas in England have been selected for a share of the Governments £7 billion funding to boost public transport services outside of London.
Among the successful areas chosen were Brighton and Hove, City of York, Cornwall, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the West Midlands, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced.
Areas have been chosen because of their "ambition to repeat the success achieved in London which drove up bus usage and made the bus a natural choice for everyone" the DfT added.
Many other areas across England are disappointed to have missed out on the plans.
Seven key schemes:
There are seven large schemes across England which are having larger amounts of funding:
- Tees Valley Combined Authority - £310m to fund initiatives such as transforming Darlington Station to enable more local rail journeys and providing active travel infrastructure on priority corridors to make cycling and walking the natural choice for short journeys.
- West Yorkshire Combined Authority - £830m to fund schemes such as the development and delivery of a mass transit network across the region.
- South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority - £570m to fund a range of schemes including renewal of the Sheffield Supertram network connecting Sheffield and Rotherham.
- Greater Manchester Combined Authority - £1.07bn to fund a range of schemes such as new vehicles to extend the Metrolink network and the creation of walking and cycling corridors across the city region as part of the Streets for All programme.
- Liverpool City Region Combined Authority - £710m to fund a range of schemes including a new rail station in Liverpool's Baltic quarter providing direct access to the city's growing creative and digital cluster.
- West Midlands Combined Authority - £1.05bn to fund a range of schemes including 50km of new bus priority lanes across the city region doubling the current amount and Ultra Rapid Charging Transit stations to ensure that local journeys are safer, greener, and cleaner.
- West of England Combined Authority - £540m to support the creation of sustainable transport corridors across Bristol and Bath to make bus, cycling, and walking easier and more accessible for all.
Areas which are getting funding for buses:
- Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire: £34.2m
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole: £8.9m
- Brighton and Hove: £27.9m
- Central Bedfordshire: £3.7m
- City of York: £17.4m
- Cornwall (including Isles of Scilly): £13.3m
- Derby City: £7m
- Derbyshire: £47m
- Devon: £14.1m
- East Sussex: £41.4m
- Greater Manchester: £94.8m
- Hertfordshire: £29.7m
- Kent: £35.1m
- Liverpool City Region: £12.3m
- Luton: £19.1m
- Norfolk: £49.6m
- North East and North of Tyne: £163.5m
- North East Lincolnshire: £4.7m
- Nottingham City: £11.4m
- Nottinghamshire: £18.7m
- Oxfordshire: £12.7m
- Portsmouth: £48.3m
- Reading: £26.3m
- Somerset: £11.9m
- Stoke-on-Trent: £31.7m
- Warrington: £16.2m
- West Berkshire: £2.6m
- West Midlands: £87.9m
- West of England and North Somerset: £105.5m
- West Sussex: £17.4m
- West Yorkshire: £70m
Light rail allocations:
- Manchester: £20.5m
- North East: £7.3m
- Nottingham: £3.3m
- Sheffield: £4m
- West Midlands: £2.7m
Many applicants left “disappointed” after missing out"
Many applicants missed out on the funding, such as Blackpool, Cheshire West and Chester, Hull, Leicester, Plymouth, Sheffield City Region, and Slough.
A spokesman for the Confederation of Passenger Transport said,
"It is important that we remember though that there will be millions of passengers left disappointed by today's announcement as their local area missed out on funding.
"It's vital that the Government now clearly sets out future funding plans and policy initiatives for delivering its National Bus Strategy, including measures to reduce car use.
"This will ensure that today's announcement is the beginning not the end of plans to improve bus services across the country.
"A good place to start would be to confirm funding for the industry's plan to deliver simpler and price-capped ticketing across the country - a move that would improve bus services for passengers everywhere."