Trevithick Urban Bus Link

‘Kickstart ’ to Bus Services by Government Funds

Cornwall County Council has been awarded £525,000 by the Department for Transport’s Urban Bus Challenge (UBC) to ‘Kickstart’ public transport in Camborne, Pool and Redruth. The Trevithick Urban Link project, will help fund two brand new low floor buses, SMS text information messaging and public information terminals.

The Trevithick Urban Link will increase the number of existing buses connecting Treswithian with Cornwall College, Pool Health Centre, the Wilson Way, Cardrew and Treleigh Industrial Estates, central Redruth and the Tesco store, Redruth.

Robert Hichens, Executive Member for Strategic Planning and Transport at Cornwall County Council, said,

 “The funding will help finance the new bus routes for three years, by which time we would hope they would be self-sustaining. We believe these new services could make an enormous difference to people living in the area by helping them to access employment, education and health.”

Gerald Taylor, Managing Director of First Devon and Cornwall, said,

“Additional aspects of the project include the use of the Kickstart vehicles to provide a flexible service focused on the college, helping people to access education opportunities.  The buses are designed to be able to ‘flex’ off the route and drop/collect people from locations closer to home, thereby making the service more attractive to those who might feel vulnerable traveling alone at night.”

The new buses will; be fitted with computerised ticket machines providing integrated tickets (for bus and rail use), recognise smart cards such as Cornish Key cards and link to global positioning systems (GPS) to enable real time passenger information.

The scheme has received a lot of support from local MP Candy Atherton, the Urban Regeneration Company, Kerrier District Council, and the South West Regional Development Agency.

For further information, contact:  Lesley Barlow, Publicity Officer, Passenger Transport Unit, Cornwall County Council. Tel. 01872 322144.  Fax. 01872 323844.  Email. labarlow@cornwall.gov.uk

Last revised - 16th July 2004