Transport in Wandsworth to receive £3.8m in funding

Date: 7/1/2013

£3.8 million is set to go to Wandsworth in order to improve its transport infrastructure, according to the Mayor of London's office.

Clapham Junction, Old York Road and Balham town centre are to see the biggest benefit with a portion of the cash also allocated to the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme, reports the Wandsworth Guardian.

Around £100,000 will be spent on Clapham Junction town centre, with improvements to include redesigning the road layout, putting new pavements and road surfaces in place and clearing clutter from pathways, as well as planting more trees and upgrading lighting.

Balham town centre will receive £350,000 of the funding with specific improvements planned for Bedford Hill and Hildreth Street, which will see both the road and pavement in the areas updated.

The stretch of Old York Road between the railway bridge and Ferrier Street has had £260,000 designated to it, with the station forecourt and street running next to it expected to be paved with granite.

There will also be better provision for cycle parking, making it easier for commuters to combine modes of transport.

Plans are afoot to expand the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme to Wandsworth in 2013 and £400,000 has been put aside to facilitate in this.

Further funding will be provided by Transport for London, with 60 new docking stations to be set up in parts of Putney, Wandsworth Town and Battersea.

The scheme is expecting to have around 5,000 extra docking points installed by 2014 with an additional 2,000 bicycles in use as it carries out extensive expansion plans.

By December 2012 there had been 18 million hires since the scheme began with an extension to east London seeing average weekday hires increasing from 20,000 to 30,000.

The south-west expansion is expected to result in between 250,000 and 300,000 extra bicycle journeys each month.

Those who use the bikes are charged an access fee, followed by a usage amount, which is based on the length of the journey undertaken, although when cycling for less than 30 minutes this second charge is waived.

Posted by Nick Anderson

International Transport News and Sustainable Transport News