Electric bus and river taxi schemes to launch

The pilot schemes will launch as part of a drive to decrease traffic in Shrewsbury town centre

An electric bus service and a river taxi are set to launch this summer in a bid to improve a town’s transport links.

The two travel schemes will launch as a pilot project in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, with both set to last two to three months.

The bus would serve the town centre while the river taxi would run as a shuttle service between Frankwell and the West Mid Showground.

Organiser Shrewsbury Business Improvement District (BID) said the options would allow visitors to the Showground, the biggest accommodation provider in the summer, to commute into town more quickly.

Seb Slater, from Shrewsbury BID, said the river taxi would be a more attractive and fun mode of transport.

“It’s the most obvious way we can use the river as a method of transport,” he said.

“The town is quite compact so you can walk across it quite quickly, whereas this journey is around 15 minutes on foot but with this it’s a quick hop across in Frankwell and you can be there in five [minutes].”

The pilot schemes came after a consultation on the emerging Shrewsbury Movement Strategy - a raft of transport proposals aimed at developing a 10-year plan to reduce through traffic in Shrewsbury and improve transport links.

Traffic loops could be created to reduce the amount of people driving through the town centre alongside enhanced bus provision and a hop-on, hop-off water taxi service on the River Severn.

The strategy has been developed by the Shrewsbury Big Town Plan Partnership, made up of Shropshire Council, Shrewsbury Town Council and Shrewsbury BID.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.