Search form

Southampton City Council and Hampshire County Council secure £5.7m to continue delivering the Southampton Cycle Network and for smart technology to help people get around by bus

A joint bid between Southampton City Council and Hampshire County Council has secured £5.7m in the first round of funding announcements from the Department for Transport’s ‘Transforming Cities’ Fund.

The funding will accelerate plans to make it easier and safer for people to cycle by completing the three Cycle Freeways across Southampton and the wider City Region. It will also help to fund innovative new technology to help people have reliable journeys particularly when travelling by bus.

Delivering the Southampton Cycle Network (SCN)

£4.437m of the funding will be invested in work on the three major cycle corridors in Southampton. This includes:

  • The SCN1 Western Cycle Freeway between the city centre, the Port, Totton and the New Forest
  • The SCN3 Eastern Cycle Freeway from the city centre to Bitterne and Bursledon along the A3024 Bursledon Road
  • The SCN5 Northern Cycle Freeway to Chandlers Ford
  • Improvements to cycle routes linking the main employment hubs of Southampton Airport, the University of Southampton the General Hospital and Adanac Park

You can find out more about the ongoing progress of the Southampton Cycle Network by reading about Southampton City Council's £25m Cycling Strategy and the recent completion of the Quietways scheme on Millbrook Road East.

Improving people’s bus journey time and reliability

£1.266m will be invested in two areas to improve people’s journeys, particularly by bus:

  • Smart technology in the traffic signals at the junctions of A335 Stoneham Way/A27 Wide Lane/Wessex Lane
  • Using technology to help buses get through congestion along four corridors across Southampton

More on the Transforming Cities Fund

Late last year Southampton City Council announced that it had made a shortlist of twelve cities that are in the running to receive a share of the £1.2bn 'Transforming Cities' Fund from the Department for Transport. This is the first part of funding intended for schemes being delivered in 2019. An announcement on the second, larger part of the funding is expected later this year.

The funding will be used to help support the productivity and growth of the Southampton City Region (encompassing Southampton City, Eastleigh Borough, part of New Forest District on the Waterside, and part of Test Valley Borough around Valley Park and Rownhams and Nursling). The aim is to better connect Southampton with its suburbs and the surrounding towns and villages, reducing congestion and improving people's health and air quality.

This would include transforming public transport connections and interchange between various modes, in continuing to deliver the Southampton Cycle Network, making the city centre a better place to live, and using smart infrastructure to make people’s journeys to work more reliable.