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Three new buses are set to be acquired for a new town ‘hopper’ bus service after the Chief Minister gave the green light to a £350,000 trial.
The trial will see a service loop around town six days a week except for Sundays and Bank Holidays.
Announced in January, the new service was originally due to be trialled this summer, but a report accompanying the Chief Minister's decision suggests the start date could be much later.
"From the point at which funding is approved, it is anticipated that at least 30 weeks would be required for contract preparation and service design finalisation, procurement of vehicles (4-5 months manufacturer lead time), and mobilisation," it states.
An IHE spokesperson confirmed to Express that it will be after 2021, and that "once the funding has been transferred to IHE, there is a 5 month commissioning process to order the buses and put the necessary Infrastructure in place."
The new route is planned to operate every 15 minutes throughout the day between 09:00 and 18:00, with a round trip taking around 35 minutes and stopping at the following points.
Pictured: The draft timetable states there will be a bus every 15 minutes looping around town and back to Liberation Station.
Existing marked bus stops at Broad Street, Gloucester Street, Salisbury Crescent, Hotel de France, Springfield Stadium, Byron Road and Pier Road will also be used as part of the service.
Under the plans, the Government will also fund three new ‘Optare Solo’ 25-seat buses, which LibertyBus would acquire on a three-year lease.
These buses can also run on HVO biodiesel - though this "would impose an extra operational cost of approximately £20,000 per annum on the town bus service".
The cost of the service in its first year will be £364,953, coming from the Chief Minister’s projects budget.
If it were to continue for the following two years, it would cost £339,953 (plus inflation) per year.
In total, the route will cost over £1m if it runs up to three years.
However, if the service was cancelled after one year of the trial, the Government would fund an £148,608 to cover the outstanding leases, meaning the minimum cost for the project will be £513,561.
As the Government will fund the fixed costs of the project, they will not be reimbursing concessionary fares and transfer tickets as they do on the existing network, leaving them to LibertyBus to handle.
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