New "bus priority lanes" will be implemented in two Somerset towns by 2025 as part of a multi-million-pound plan to boost local bus services and increase passenger numbers.

Somerset County Council was awarded £11.9m from central government in April after its bus services improvement plan (BSIP) was approved by the Department for Transport (DfT).

The council's bus advisory board revealed at a public meeting on Thursday morning (October 13) that nearly £5.5m of this grant will be spent on delivering new bus lanes in Taunton and Bridgwater in a bid to increase bus usage in both towns and provide more reliable services.

Money will also be spent on two "mobility hubs" in Taunton and Somerton, implementing "bus priority detection" at dozens of key junctions and ongoing efforts to keep ticket prices down.

The £11.9m allocated to the Somerset BSIP represents less than one-tenth of the £163m the council had requested from the DfT –  a decision described by the Somerset Bus Partnership as "a slap in the face for the county and its bus passengers".

Of the £11.9m that has been provided, £8,165,000 is allocated for capital projects (such as new building projects, bus lanes, traffic schemes or other related infrastructure), with the remaining £3,695,000 being set aside for revenue spending (such as subsidising cheaper tickets, marketing and administration costs).

At a meeting in Taunton on Thursday morning (October 13), the bus advisory board gave a breakdown for the first time as to how the different elements of the grant would be spent between now and April 2025.

A total of 4.5km (nearly 2.8 miles) of new "bus priority lanes" will be created, with four kilometres (nearly 2.5 miles) being built in Taunton and a further 500 metres (0.3 miles) in Bridgwater.

In addition, 26 "bus priority detection" systems will be installed at key junctions – 19 in Taunton and seven in Bridgwater – to ensure bus services are not held up in traffic on key routes in and out of the two town centres.

These two projects together will cost £5.49m to implement, with the council going out to consultation on the proposed routes in the spring, construction starting on the first schemes in the summer and continuing in stages until the winter of 2024.

Two new "mobility hubs" will be created to handle interchanges across the county – one on the former bus station site on Tower Street in Taunton (at a cost of £2m) and one at an unspecified location in Somerton (which will cost £500,000 to deliver).

While the Somerton hub could be completely finished by the spring of 2023, the Taunton hub is unlikely to begin construction until early-2024.

The remaining £175,000 within the capital grant has been allocated to purchasing two vehicles for digital demand responsive transport (DDRT), complimenting the existing Slinky bus service.

One of the identified revenue projects has already been implemented, namely the capping of fares on the Taunton park and ride at £1 for a single and £2 for a return.

This scheme, which took effect in September after the Creech Castle junction fully reopened, has been allocated £189,000 of funding up to 2025.

An additional scheme, to create a similar 'flat fare' scheme across Taunton and the surrounding villages, will be implemented gradually from the autumn and will cost £933,000 over the BSIP period.

The council will spend a further £1.35m on trialling new bus services in and around Taunton in the evenings and at weekends in a bid to bolster existing routes and support the night-time economy.

The exact details of these services will be published later in the year and will depend on agreements with the various commercial operators in Somerset.

A further £817,000 will be spent on trials of DDRT services in more rural parts of the county, revolving around the new mobility hubs in Somerton and Taunton.

The remainder of the revenue budget will be spent on expanding the existing Think Travel Portal (£170,000 – including improvements to ticket purchasing), programme management (£100,000), marketing new and existing services (£80,000) and general administration and running costs (£55,000).

The DfT has not made clear whether the council – or its unitary successor – will be able to apply for further funding before the BSIP period ends in April 2025.