A NEW rapid transit glider is set to arrive in Wirral within “the next couple of weeks.”
Few details have been announced yet but Wirral Council officers suggested it will involve the Seacombe Ferry Terminal.
In his election manifesto, Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, promised to introduce a new bus rapid transit system in Liverpool he said will provide more options for people travelling to popular and sometimes hard-to-reach parts of the city. The system is expected to be similar to Belfast’s Glider, which launched in the Northern Irish capital in 2018 and runs on two separate lines using dedicated and mixed traffic lanes.
On the Liverpool side of the Mersey, the system is expected to be fully operational by 2028 with the network running between Liverpool city centre and Liverpool Airport as well as Anfield Stadium and Everton’s new Bramley Moore Dock arena. It’s understood one bus will be tested in the coming weeks.
However during a discussion of plans for a new mass transit system around Wirral Waters and other planned developments in Wirral, regeneration officer Tom Booty said discussions around funding were ongoing but the local authority was “looking at the Belfast Glider bus type of vehicle which I think actually there’s one coming to Wirral over the next couple of weeks.
“There’s going to be one at the ferry terminal in Seacombe that people can see what it is. That’s still the proposal.”
A Liverpool City Region Combined Authority spokesperson said it could not reveal any more details about the scheme publicly at this point in time. The revelations come as Wirral Council faces increasing pressure to publish its mass transit plan for Wirral Waters to improve public transport around the Birkenhead docks and is believed to be crucial to seeing that development progress.
A former council officer who’d worked on the local authority’s regeneration plans said they “were prepared at significant cost and went into detail including options for mass transit modes, routes and the detailed design of transit stops,” adding: “I do not understand why the findings of this study have not yet been presented to councillors.”
In October 2021, Wirral Council revealed a broad new mass transit plan with a hydrogen powered bus network alongside better cycling and walking facilities. The scheme would be considered a catalyst for Wirral Waters and its wider Birkenhead regeneration plans with ideas drawn up for lightweight trams to also connect to the Merseyrail network.
Peel Waters have previously highlighted the need for a good public transport network but few updates have been made by Wirral Council since 2021. A report had been promised to councillors in early 2022 but it was pushed back to early 2024 and is now currently scheduled to come to committee in the autumn this year.
However, the partner of the £20m Belong village scheme has backed out due to “the lack of public transport”, while Wirral Waters said “the lack of public transport provision and poor local connectivity are major factors in Hythe not being fully occupied.” One councillor on its regeneration committee, Green councillor Ed Lamb on X (formerly Twittter) said: “The lack of public transport and wider connectivity is a massive failure on the part of the council and City Region” and “does not bode well for wider efforts across Merseyside, let alone Wirral Waters.”
When asked what assurances it was providing to partners about its mass transit plans, Wirral Council declined to offer further comment.
