Green light for trolleys
Page 18
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• West Yorkshire PTE's Bradford Trolleybus project is back on stream, following additional credit approval from the Department of Transport.
Doubts over the future of the project had arisen after the original estimates of £6,2m for the infrastructure and vehicles became insufficient.
The DTp has now agreed that the PTE can fund the additional costs out of borrowing, and make up the difference on trolley-bus costs.
Yorkshire Rider had secured the rights to run the eightvehicle route to Buttershaw. It was expecting to buy the trolleys at a cost of between £125,000 and £150,000 each.
Only one tender, of £285,000 per bus, was received, from a consortium of Dennis vehicles (for the chas
sis) Alexander coachbuilders (for the bodywork) and Kieps Elektrik (for the equipment). Rider had felt that the full capital cost was too high for viable commercial operation.
The Transport Executive will now fund the difference be
tween the original estimate and the final price, in order to get the project under way.
Contracts for the construction of the infrastructure are expected to be announced soon, and the scheme should be running by the end of 1991.