Shrewsbury park and ride buses set to double in build-up to Christmas

Buses will run from Meole Brace park and ride into Shrewsbury town centre every 10 minutes, rather than every 20 as at present, until Christmas Eve.

The new timetable will begin on Monday in the first of a series of trials Shropshire Council has planned in a bid to improve the town's park and ride service.

The council is carrying out a review of how the service could operate in the future, and officers have visited councils and park and ride sites across the country in a bid to identify potential changes.

Now a series improvements are set to be tested in the coming months to find out which of these should be adopted in the long-term.

Steve Davenport, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We want to have the best possible park and ride service and are carefully considering what changes and improvements we need to make to the current service.

"We have a number of ideas – many as a result of visiting park and rides in other parts of the country – but we want to test these to see if and how they work, and to get people’s feedback.

Trialled

“As well as changes to the frequency of buses, we’re also considering the use of new technology, possible route changes and, of course, the use of electric buses.

"Ideally we want the park and ride service to be entirely served by electric buses in the future.

“We want people to give us their thoughts about these trials, and to share any ideas they have for improving the park and ride service.”

Having already trialled an electric bus on the park and ride service in recent weeks, two further electric buses are to be used this autumn across the town’s three park and ride sites.

Further changes are set to be trialled early next year with a view to service changes coming into effect next summer.

Seb Slater, Executive Director of Shrewsbury BID, said: “It’s great news for residents, visitors and town centre businesses that a 10 minute Meole Brace park and ride service will be trialled in the run up to Christmas.

"We will be collecting feedback from our members and look forward to working with Shropshire Council on shaping an improved park and ride service over the coming months.”