Nottingham City Council has successfully bid for more than £18 million of external funding for cycling and bus improvements along three key routes, which will help towards the UK city’s carbon neutral ambitions.
A segregated cycle corridor, along with cycling and walking improvement schemes, will be funded from Department for Transport (DfT) and Sustrans grants totalling £3.3 million.
The three schemes are all on corridors that are seen as a strategic priority to the cycle network. These investments will complement high-profile investments into the cycling network that are taking place through previous Active Travel Fund bids and the Transforming Cities Fund in Nottingham city centre, on other main road corridors into the city centre, as well as the proposed new walking and cycling bridge over the River Trent.
The improvements are part of wider efforts by Nottingham City Council to encourage active travel like cycling and walking, for which it has secured funding from the UK government for the third successive year. The schemes are being delivered entirely from external funding, with the council not using any of its own funds. With funding in place, work could start on the improvements towards the end of the year.
The City Council and Nottingham City Transport (NCT) have also accepted £15.2 million of Dft funding from its Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) fund. This will be used to provide 78 new electric buses, which would result in the full electrification of NCT’s single decker fleet and support the company’s ambition to become the UK’s first carbon neutral bus operator.
Funding will be used to fully electrify NCT’s Trent Bridge depot where the single deck fleet is based. The new buses will replace all of NCT’s existing single decker fleet and serve on 18 bus routes across the city and into the county. This will reduce carbon emissions by 3,800 tonnes CO2e a year and improve air quality outside and on board the buses.
The funding announcement comes as Nottingham City Council in partnership with Nottingham County Council is preparing a Bus Service Improvement Plan outlining an ambitious infrastructure and network investment plan for Greater Nottingham over the next three years, backed by an indicative allocation of £11.4 million from the DfT. The council will also be building on its strong partnership with local bus operators through an Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme for the next five years.
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