08 BUS RAPID TRANSITSUPPLEMENT Councillor Melville Kendal


Executive Member for Environment and Transport, Hampshire County Council


Hampshire’s Bus Rapid Transit scheme on track to open in spring 2012


Construction of Hampshire County Council’s dedicated busway between Gosport and Fareham is making good progress and the busway is set to open in April 2012.


Financed with £20 million from the Govern - ment’s Communities Infrastructure Fund and £4 million from the County Council, the 3.4km route of the South East Hampshire Bus Rapid Transit scheme is the first phase of a much wider Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network proposed for the area. This first stretch brings back into use land that had been a disused railway corridor between the towns of Fareham and Gosport, running parallel to the heavily congested A32. Despite the scheme being delayed for over


a year owing to a legal challenge, ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court, the relationship with the County Council’s partner for this initial phase of the busway, First Group, remains strong. First has ordered 14 brand new, high-specification buses for the routes that will use the busway for part of their journey. Equally the scheme contractor, BAM Nuttall, has been proactive in seeking solutions to the various challenges associated with delivering the scheme, not least of which is the fact that it has been rather like constructing a


Eurotransport Volume 9, Issue 6, 2011


busway in a tunnel: there are only three access points to the works in what is a very built-up area, and maintaining the goodwill of local residents is vital.


Setting the scene With around 80,000 people living in the area, Gosport has the highest population density in the county, outside of the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton. It is also the largest town in the UK without a railway station and the busy A32 is the only main road into and out of the town. The south Hampshire region contains pockets of high unemployment and deprivation. With targets set for higher rates of economic growth, there is a pressing need to address the area’s accessibility problems, which have been a contributing factor in discouraging employers from locating to Gosport and many businesses have moved out in the past few years. Add to this the decline in defence related employment, and associated reduction in local


job opportunities and the result is an increasing trend of people commuting to work out of the area. It has long been recognised that a robust public transport infrastructure is desperately needed if regeneration plans for the Gosport peninsula are to be achieved. Hampshire County Council is a member of


Transport for South Hampshire (TfSH), which brings together the local transport authorities of Hampshire County Council with Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils, transport operators and Government agencies to promote sub-regional transport projects. Through TfSH, Hampshire is fortunate in that it has a good relationship with the sub-region’s bus operators, as represented by the South Hampshire Bus Operators’ Association (SHBOA). As such, SHBOA, whose board includes representatives from First, Stagecoach, Go South Coast and the smaller operators in the sub-region, was involved at a very early stage in the decision to implement a BRT network to help deliver the improved modal integration that the area needs. An important selling point for the BRT scheme is the introduction of a reliable and frequent bus service to the mainline railway


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