Clean-up is ontrack for new high-speed bus
Work starts today on clearing up the old railway lines between Fareham and Gosport as part of plans for a proposed high-speed bus route.
Overgrown plants and vegetation will be cut back on the disused tracks so surveys of the site can go ahead.
The work is being carried out from Redlands Lane, Fareham, to Holbrook in Gosport.
Hampshire County Council said it was clearing the area so it can establish land boundaries along the route.
It will also enable wildlife surveys to take place to see if the bus scheme would have an adverse impact on the area.
Work on the tracks will carry on until next January, when a consultation with residents will take place.
A business case will then be submitted to the government and the scheme could get 20m to fund the first phase, which would see buses running down the old railway route between Fareham and Gosport.
Councillor Mel Kendal, who is responsible for transport issues at the county council, said: 'We are still in the early stages of the preparation for this scheme.
'However, we need to carry out the survey work now for two reasons – one is that there is a window in the calendar between the nesting times of reptiles and birds, neither of which we would want to disturb.
'The second is that we need to ascertain the exact width of the corridor and levels of the embankment there.
'If we do not take the opportunity to do this work now we have no chance of meeting government deadlines for funding for the scheme, should it get the go-ahead in the New Year.'
Some areas of the old railway line are very overgrown and the teams will have to use machinery to hack their way through.
But Cllr Kendal has reassured people that noise will be kept to a minimum and will only take place Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm.
Linking Gosport and Fareham so commuters can bypass the A32 is the first part of the 175m project.
Future phases could see the bus route extend to the north of Fareham, east to Queen Alexandra Hospital, and from there to Waterlooville, into Portsmouth and possibly on to Havant.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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