Solent Cities take step towards transformational transport improvements

The Department for Transport’s Transforming Cities Fund aims to improve productivity and spread prosperity through investment in public and sustainable transport in some of the largest English city regions.

£840 million of capital funding has been made available between 2018/19 and 2021/22, to be allocated via a competitive process aimed at identifying the city regions with the strongest case for investment.

Following submission of expressions of interest to the Transforming Cities Fund in June 2018, the Department for Transport has now announced the ten bids which have been selected to be carried forward for co-development.

Both the Portsmouth and Southampton city region applications are amongst the final ten bids which have been shortlisted to enter this next stage of the funding application process.

Both cities will now go forward to develop their proposals in more detail, working jointly with (and receiving funding support from) the Department for Transport, with the aim of receiving an allocation of funding to implement the proposals which have been developed.  

More information on the proposals from Solent is provided below:

• Portsmouth & South East Hampshire City Region (Portsmouth City Council and Hampshire County Council): joint expression of interest for a mass transit network linking Portsmouth to Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Waterlooville, based upon the success of the existing ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Star’ routes: Click here to view this expression of interest
• Southampton City Region (Southampton City Council) - expression of interest for a package of measures in and around Southampton including cycle facilities, bus priority/ interchange, public realm and park & ride: Click here to view this expression of interest

Solent Transport looks forward to working closely with the two cities and with Hampshire County and Isle of Wight Councils over the coming months as part of a collective effort to secure this potentially transformational level of funding for transport in our cities and surrounding areas.