Work to begin on speeding up bus services

WORK is poised to get under way on a multi-million pound series of schemes designed to put Leeds’s bus services on the road to a brighter future.

Plans for the sweeping range of road infrastructure improvements have been in the pipeline since the launch of the city’s Connecting Leeds transport strategy a year ago.

Now civic chiefs have confirmed that work will begin in “the next few weeks” on an expansion of the park-and-ride site at Elland Road as well as improvements to routes including the A660 (Holt Lane) and A61 (Moortown Corner).

Improvement work on the A61 heading south out of the city centre is scheduled to start over the summer, along with the construction of a new 1,200-space park-and-ride site at Stourton.

And, later in the year, work is set to begin on a dedicated bus lane and junction alterations that will cut journey times on the A647 Leeds to Bradford corridor.

Connecting Leeds brings together Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority with bus operators First Leeds, Arriva Yorkshire and Transdev.

Coun Richard Lewis, the council’s executive member for transport, regeneration and planning, said: “The aim of Connecting Leeds is to make public transport an attractive option that is reliable, quick, comfortable and environmentally cleaner than the car.”