Building work for 550-space park and ride expansion begins
Construction work to create an extra 550 spaces to Elland Road park and ride has started.
The Council’s Connecting Leeds programme is set to create an additional 2,000 park and ride spaces across the city by March 2021. The work on Elland Road marks the start of increasing car parking capacity with the extra 550 spaces, bringing the site up to 1,350 spaces.
Recently the Elland Road park and ride site celebrated its fifth anniversary and has already helped to remove almost 1.2m cars from Leeds City centre roads.
The works form part of Connecting Leeds’ improvements – aiming to invest £270m in the transport network of the city.
In December 2018, the Council’s Executive Board approved plans for the extension and planning permission was granted in January this year. The works are scheduled to complete by summer 2020.
Leeds City Council’s executive board member for climate change, transport and sustainable development, Councillor Lisa Mulherin, said: “Park and ride is a key part of our Connecting Leeds transport strategy for the city.
“It helps us achieve our aims of reducing congestion and improving local air quality, by improving public transport. I’m pleased to see Elland Road park and ride is already a success and a more popular alternative to travelling by car into the city centre. These extra 550 park and ride spaces developed through Connecting Leeds, will have the capacity to take 277,000 car journeys off our streets each year with the removal of approximately 5,000 tonnes of carbon.”
Councillor Kim Groves, Chairman of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee, said: “Our Elland Road and Temple Green park and ride sites in Leeds have been hugely successful in reducing congestion and the pollution it causes. Passengers have used the services to make over two and a half million journeys.
“Now, with this work to create extra capacity at Elland Road underway and construction of the new park and ride at Stourton shortly due to start, we are literally building on that success.”
Andy Crampton, Bam Nuttall LPTIP Project Director, said: “In collaboration with Leeds City Council, and national and local suppliers and partners, we’re delivering sustainable infrastructure, improving transport connectivity and capacity, to support regional growth. We’re creating opportunities, to help unlock the potential of people in the local community, developing skills and local opportunities in construction and infrastructure support and transport services.”
Martin Hirst, First West Yorkshire, Commercial Director, said: “We are delighted to once again be at the forefront for the expansion of this project. We are thrilled to work with the local authority in the popular Leeds Park & Ride scheme.
“We are committed to deliver the best bus services for the region. By working together, local authorities and bus operators can make a real impact on congestion and air quality, provide better services for our customers, support local economies more effectively and ultimately help to increase passenger numbers.”
People can find out more about Elland Road and Temple Green park and ride services from the Combined Authority’s Metro travel information website at www.wymetro.com/park-and-ride and by following @iparkandride on Twitter.
