£14.2 million transport boost for city (From Worcester News)

£14.2 million transport boost for city

11:54am Wednesday 13th February 2013 in News By Tom Edwards

Transport cash confirmed for city

MORE than £14 million of funding towards transport improvements across Worcester have been given approval by the Government, it has emerged.

The Department for Transport has today finalised the massive cash injection towards easing congestion around the city.

The £14.2m of funding handed to Worcestershire County Council will pay for:

- More cycle lanes and footpath improvements across the city

- Upgrade work at Foregate Street station including new lighting, signs, modernised ticket machines and a new canopy

- Electronic message boards to alert drivers where spaces are in city car parks

- Upgrades to the Ketch and Norton roundabouts along the A4440 Southern Link Road, in St Peter’s

The cash, first reported by your Worcester News last year, has now been confirmed and is being beefed up with £5.3 million from the county council.

The Foregate Street upgrade, which was approved by the city’s planning committee in October, will cost £785,000 and lead to replacements to the two 1970s canopies, automatic doors and an internal upgrade.

Some of the cash will also be put towards a £500,000 revamp of Malvern Link railway station, including a new booking office, waiting rooms, covered cycle stands, revamped toilets and remarked car parking spaces.

The cash is known as phase one of the Worcester Transport Strategy, a much-publicised series of congestion-busting improvements.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, deputy leader and cabinet Member for economy and infrastructure, said: "This news is very welcome and a real boost for the area at the start of 2013.

“The plans included in phase one of the strategy are all about improving things here and now, but it's just as important to stress that they are part of a longer term project looking at making things better when it comes to how we get around.”