Over two million journeys made on Leeds park and ride services.

2 January 2019

Over two million journeys have now been made on Leeds Elland Road and Temple Green park and ride services.

Passenger journeys and the number of cars parked at the two sites have risen by a huge 48% year on year and the two millionth passenger journey was recorded on Thursday 27 December 2018.

9,000 cars per week

Elland Road, with 800 permanent spaces and work starting on a further 550 in March 2019, and the 1,000-space Temple Green site are now removing around 9,000 cars from city centre roads each week as people take advantage of the service which cost from just £2.70 for parking and two-way travel.

Ultra-low emission, park and ride buses run into Leeds city Centre every 10-15 minutes, with a journey only taking 10 minutes for Elland Road, which opened in June 2014 and 15 minutes for Temple Green, which has been operating since June 2017.

Growth Deal

The two sites were developed by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Leeds City Council, with Temple Green receiving investment from the Combined Authority's West Yorkshire-plus Transport Fund. The West Yorkshire-plus Transport Fund is supported through the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Deal - a £1 billion package of Government investment delivered in partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to accelerate growth and create jobs across Leeds City Region.

Impact

Cllr Kim Groves, Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee said: "Hitting the two million journeys mark is a real achievement and shows the huge impact the Elland Road and Temple Green park and ride sites are having, both in providing people with more convenient and cheaper travel, and reducing congestion in the city centre."

"Park & Ride is key to us achieving our aims of reducing congestion and improving local air quality by encouraging more people to use public transport. Fewer delays on the roads reduces businesses' transport costs, enabling them to invest in expanding and creating new, good-quality jobs and supporting our aim of generating growth from which all our communities can benefit."

Committed

Cllr Peter Box, Chair of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Investment Committee said: "We have already committed around £150 million of investment through our West Yorkshire-plus Transport Fund to a wide range of schemes including Temple Green and rail station park and ride facilities, designed to remove the costs of congestion for businesses, which helps them to grow and create new jobs and opportunities for local people."

Cllr Richard Lewis, Leeds City Council's executive member for regeneration, transport and planning, said: "Park and ride in Leeds has proven to be an increasingly popular service that people want to use on a daily basis. Reaching this two million figure is significant, as it offers further proof that our Connecting Leeds strategy focused on public transport is working."

"Park and ride has been a great addition to our transport network. It provides a fast, efficient and reliable service, helping to ease congestion in the city centre and making our air cleaner. The demand is clearly there, and is why park and ride is at the heart of our local transport plans, with a commitment to offer these services to other parts of the city, so as many people as possible can make use of them."

Proud

Martin Hirst, Commercial Director at First Leeds, said: "We're proud to operate the Leeds City Centre Park & Ride services and we hope that today's news will encourage even more people to use our successful Park & Ride network. Buses are key to tackling congestion and reducing emissions and in fact, a fully-loaded double decker bus can take 75 cars off the road.

"We're also pleased to be able to offer customers a variety of cashless payment options, including contactless and mobile tickets, which is part of our aim to make paying for bus travel easier. We look forward to continuing to welcome customers on board our services and would like to encourage people who are continuing to drive into the city centre, to try using Park & Ride."

People can find out more about Elland Road and Temple Green park and ride services from the Combined Authority's Metro travel information website and by following @iparkandride on Twitter.

Proposals to build a third park and ride scheme, with 1,200 spaces at Stourton, is being considered by Leeds City Council's City Plans Panel on Thursday 3 January. It would be served by a high-frequency bus service running via the A61.