A SCHEME due to be launched today to give buses priority at traffic lights has been delayed — because of Manchester’s miserable weather.
Officials admitted heavy rain meant it was too wet to complete new road markings for the first phase of the multi million pound ‘‘quality bus corridor’’ between Stockport and Manchester.
Project manager Mary Clarke said it would probably be the end of the week before the first section of the scheme started.
She said: ‘‘We have yet to finish off some bus lane markings. We need good weather and it’s got to be dry.’’
The first section of the multi-million-pound corridor is due to be completed by the end of the month and two more — along the A57 Eccles Old Road and from Leigh to Bolton — will be completed by the end of next year.
Abandon cars
The aim is to encourage drivers to abandon their cars in favour of buses.
Buses on the new routes will use electronic transponders to cause traffic lights to remain on or switch to green, allowing buses to travel through with the minimum of delay.
Special lanes for buses, cyclists, taxis and emergency services are also being provided.
Future plans include ‘‘smartcard’’ technology allowing customers to pay in advance for their journey and providing up-to-date information about when the next bus will arrive.
Stockport council, Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority and Stagecoach Buses in Manchester are pumping £1.8 million into the scheme — the first outside London. Stagecoach Manchester has invested £3 million in the scheme.
Managing director Tom Wileman said: ‘‘We are pleased that over one million customers a year can benefit from this partnership with faster and more reliable bus services.’’
Coun Neil Derbyshire, chairman of Stockport council’s highways committee, said: ‘‘The A6, which runs through Stockport town centre, is a key route from Derbyshire to Manchester and is used by over 50,000 people travelling by car every day and 23,500 bus passengers.
‘‘We need to even up that balance by encouraging those who can to switch to public transport.
‘‘We can only achieve that by making bus journeys quicker and more reliable.’’
The new corridors are part of the transport authority’s grand plan to integrate bus, train and tram travel while improving passenger information, key interchanges and ticketing.
GMPTA chairman Coun Roger Jones said: ‘‘By providing fast, reliable and comfortable bus services we can encourage people to use their cars less.’’
By the end of the month, the A6 north of Stockport between Belmont Way to the Manchester boundary near the McVitie’s factory, will have been completed.
Other sections south of the town centre to Stockport College are also expected to have been finished.
The final section, the college to the Rising Sun pub in Hazel Grove, will start in April.
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