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Exeter Bus Service Improvement Plan

Introduction

Devon County Council have been allocated central government funding to improve bus services in the county. The Exeter schemes include enhancements to the Central Bus Corridor (between Paris Street Roundabout and Middlemoor Roundabout, predominantly along Honiton Road and Heavitree Road), accommodating up to 30 buses an hour in each direction from Monday to Saturday.

The Eastern Bus Corridor running between Sidwell Street and Pinhoe Sainsburys (predominately along Pinhoe Road) supports up to 9 buses an hour in each direction from Monday to Saturday. 

Over 800,000 passengers use these corridors annually, travelling to/from the city centre and key employment destinations. Effective bus corridors, which improved speed and reliability of buses, will particularly benefit the elderly, disabled and young people who may rely more on public transport than the private car.

The proposed corridor improvements include a mixture of technological and infrastructure changes as well as amendments to bus lane operation times. These elements together create a package of measures that improve bus services and bus user experience along both corridors.

The technological improvements will enhance coordination between traffic light junctions and enable buses to be detected, allowing them to be prioritised at traffic lights when necessary.

Further details of the proposals can be found below, but overall, the combination of changes to signal timings, civil works and bus lane operation times are anticipated to achieve up to 4 minutes of journey time savings on the Central Corridor and 3 minutes and 20 seconds journey time savings on the Eastern Corridor. Note these savings will fluctuate depending on the bus route, congestion levels and direction of travel along the corridors.

These proposals have been the subject of a previous informal consultation in Spring 2024.