Co-Centro RSS feed for the Co-Centro tag
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News PR
Centro 19 Jan 11
Users of the region’s Ring and Ride service are being asked to help decide the best way of overcoming a shortfall in funding for the coming year.
West Midlands council tax payers have paid £12.1 million towards the cost of running Ring and Ride this year but for the financial year starting in April substantial savings of £900,000 are required.
The shortfall is a result of a possible seven per cent cut in grant due the financial pressures on the seven West Midlands district councils following cuts to their funding over the next three years, plus dramatic cost increases in items like fuel.
Bosses at West Midlands Special Needs Transport, the charity which provides the service, and transport authority Centro, which funds Ring and Ride on behalf of the district councils, are now appealing to users of the door-to-door transport service to help decide how to make those savings.
More than 30,000 users are being sent a questionnaire asking them to vote for one of two options:
+ Making an eight per cent reduction in the number of trips being run which could see the withdrawal of some services in the evenings and/or other times of the day.
+ Introducing charges in the form of either:
An annual membership fee of £36 – the equivalent of 69p a week or
A single trip fare of 60p (£1.20 for a return trip)
Centro’s chief executive Geoff Inskip, said…
News
Express & Star 11 Dec 10
More than 150 Boxing Day bus services will run throughout the Black Country this year, transport bosses have said.
It is hoped the high number of services will bring more bargain-hunter shoppers out into the town centres and help to provide a boost for trade in the region.
Services running in the West Midlands on Boxing Day include:
10 Brownhills & Walsall
19 Walsall & Bloxwich
51 Walsall & Birmingham
x51 Walsall & Birmingham
56a Birmingham & Brownhills
301 Walsall & Mossley
302 Walsall & Lower Farm
311 Walsall & Dudley
313 Walsall & Dudley
332 Walsall & Lodge Farm
333 Walsall & Wolverhampton
334 Walsall & Bilston
370 Walsall & Bloxwich
405 West Bromwich & Walsall
529 Walsall & Wolverhampton
908 Walsall & Bloxwich
997 Walsall & Birmingham
News
Helen Draycott Advertiser 2 Dec 10
A total of 160 bus shelters will be replaced with new, more environmentally-friendly versions by travel authority Centro across Aldridge, Bloxwich, Pelsall, Brownhills and Streetly.
The new blue and orange shelters – which cost £2,500 each – are made of aluminium and will be longer-lasting than the old green and yellow versions, which are made of steel and are less weather-resistant…
News
Express & Star 11 Nov 10
Multi-million pound plans for a new super-fast bus network across the Black Country and Birmingham were revealed today with the first of four new routes set to be in place within five years, linking Five Ways in Birmingham to Walsall.
It is hoped the project will coax people out of their cars by offering smoother, quicker journeys on state-of-the-art bendy buses that resemble trams…
News
B'ham Mail 4 Nov 10
The completion of a £14 million project to install Smartcard technology on Midlands buses was marked by local transport minister Norman Baker.
More than 2,500 buses have been fitted with card readers by transport authority Centro, paving the way for a local version of London’s electronic Oyster Card system…
News
Edward Chadwick B'ham Mail 14 Oct 10
Some of the most important transport schemes in the West Midlands are at risk of being axed in favour of flagship projects.
Councillors who sit on regional transport body Centro have been issued with an ultimatum after its leaders said it could not afford to fund all the region’s ambitions for the next five years amid ruthless government cuts.
They now face a dilemma of whether they continue to fund projects like park and ride schemes and real time information screens at bus stops…
Business
Duncan Tift BusinessDesk 25 Aug 10
The new high speed rail link set to deliver journey times of 47 minutes between Birmingham and London could be worth £1.5bn a year to the West Midlands economy, business leaders have been told.
Speaking at a meeting in Birmingham, chief executive of public transport body Centro, Geoff Inskip said new research conducted on behalf of the group had suggested the West Midlands GDP worth grow by £1.5bn a year from 2022 once the rail network was operational…
News
Kevin Edge Chase Post 5 Aug 10
Rail bosses have been accused of ‘blackmailing’ the Chase District Council by planning to axe vital trains unless they put up almost £300,000.
Train bosses Centro had been funding a half-hourly off-peak service, and an hourly evening service, between Birmingham and Rugeley on weekdays and Saturdays…
News
BBC News 20 Jul 10
Half-hourly train services between Walsall and Staffordshire are to be axed. The off-peak services on London Midland trains to Rugeley on the Chase Line had been subsidised by Centro, the West Midland transport authority and the Department for Transport.
After a cost analysis spending review both Centro and the DfT said the extra services would stop in December…
Business
Express & Star 13 Jul 10
Transport authority Centro is facing a crisis after the number of people using buses through the West Midlands plummeted.
In a report discussed by the authority last night it was revealed between 2007/08 and 2009/10 the number of bus trips taken each year has fallen by 10 million, from 327 million to 317 million.
Annual passenger numbers also dropped…