Water bus to link Southampton & Portsmouth?

The £15m waterbus service would provide a new way of travelling between the cities and the county's transport chiefs say it will help ease congestion on the M27.

The radical idea is included in a wish-list of priority schemes drawn up by Transport for South Hampshire (TfSH) following an extensive review of the road, rail, bus and water networks.

TfSH chairman Councillor Mel Kendal said there was support from Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth councils for a waterbus service operating along the south coast.

"I'm quite keen on a waterbus running from Gosport or Portsmouth, all the way round and right up Southampton Water," he said.

"That's something I've got no doubt will occur in time. Once we have worked out a route and the feasibility it will be a question of going out to tender."

Cllr Kendall said an express service could operate between Southampton and Portsmouth at peak times for workers, while more intermediate stops at Hamble or Lee-on-the-Solent could be available through out the day.

He added: "I just can't believe that we haven't actually as a maritime nation done this already.

"I do know that the water can get pretty choppy at certain times of the year, but then that is no different to the ferry link between the Isle of Wight and Southampton."

Red Funnel trialled the route in 2003,with a trip from Southampton to Gosport lasting 35 minutes and a return ticket costing £10 per adult and £5 per child.

The ferry operator yesterday said it had no plans to reintroduce the service on a permanent basis.

However, one of the UK's leading suppliers of high-speed ferries said coastal cities across the country were looking to introduce highspeed waterbuses.

The spokesman for World Water Taxis said: "It's a quicker and easier way to get from A to B. If the boats are running efficiently it's better than having thousands of cars stood in a queue ticking over.

"Once you've got your boats there is next to zero maintenance infrastructure - you don't have to repair the water."

London has Britain's most extensive waterbus service, Thames Clipper, which carries more than 20,000 passengers per week up and down the River Thames.

Hampshire County Council deputy director of environment Stuart Jarvis said the viability of a Solent waterbus service would need to be studied.

"At this stage it's part of the overall strategy, given the geography of south Hampshire we are surrounded by water and have got to consider what opportunities there might be to move people around by water," Mr Jarvis said.

Also included in a new 20-year vision to keep the region moving is a plan to extend the M271 into the heart of the docks.

As revealed by the Daily Echo in January, freight trucks would access Southampton Container Terminal via a flyover or tunnel to bypass traffic snarl-ups at Redbridge and Millbrook roundabouts. There is also support for widening the M3 and M27 into four-lane super-highways. Under the scheme, the hard shoulder would become a fourth lane to help ease crippling bottlenecks.

However, there are currently no plans to introduce a London-style congestion charge any time soon.

The South East England Regional Development Agency (Seeda) will be approached to fund the multimillion- pound projects once feasibility studies have been carried out.

Cllr Kendal said the investment in transport infrastructure was vital if the region was expected to meet theGovernment's demand for 80,000 new homes by 2026.

Over the next two decades, Southampton will see the biggest increase in homes (16,300), followed by Winchester (12,240), Isle of Wight (10,400), Test Valley (9,520), Eastleigh (7,080), New Forest (4,140), Fareham (3,720) and Gosport (2,500).

Two strategic development areas (SDAs) - new self-contained communities built on undeveloped greenfield land - will also be created north-east of Hedge End (6,000 homes) and north of Fareham (10,000).

The local target is part of an overall strategy to build 128,300 new homes in Hampshire and 640,000 across the south-east.

Cllr Kendal said: "To support the economic growth we knowwe need quite a lot of changed transport infrastructure. We have looked at where the current transport difficulties lie and how we might resolve them.

"At today's prices we think that is probably going to cost about £2.6 billion and of that probably about £400,000 will come from private money such as the extension of the airport and extension of the railway network.

"We are doing a fair bit of thinking at our end, but nowwe need the Government to put their money where their mouth is."

Improvements to the M3, M27 and M271 (£1 billion):

• Motorway junctions and widenings to increase capacity (£412m).
• Active Traffic Management, including hard shoulder running and variable speed limits (£251m).
• Extending the M271 to the docks.
  
  Eastern access to Southampton (£183m):
• Bus and high occupancy vehicle priority lane from Windhover to the centre of Southampton along the A3024 (£9m).
• Bus priority on the approaches to and across Junction 7 of the M27 (£25m).
• Botley bypass to protect the village from extra traffic (£27m).
  
  Access to Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport (£344m):
• A tram/bus hybrid - known as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) - along a disused rail line from Gosport to Fareham and all the way round the harbour into Portsmouth (£175m).
• Supported by an area-wide premium bus network (£36m).
  
  Access to the South Hampshire Strategic Employment Zone at Eastleigh (£298m):
• A new link road (Chickenhall Lane) to the employment zone from Junction 5 of the M27 (£73m).
• Significant improvements to the Eastleigh rail chord by adding a second track to Easteligh to Fareham line (£160m).
• Improvements to Southampton Airport Parkway station (£50m).
  
  Strategic Traffic Management (£70m):
• South Hampshire Traffic Control Centre (£10m).
• Other traffic management and information systems (£50m).
  
  Other packages (£473m):
• Access to North Whiteley (£40m).
• Solent waterbus (£15m).
• Rail access to Southampton waterfront (£10m).
• Western access to Gosport (£100m).
• Reopening of waterside rail line (£30m).
  
  Park-and-ride:
• Three park and ride sites, holding up to 1,000 cars each, have been identified at Nursling, Stoneham and Windhover.
• Two park-and- ride sites in Portsmouth at Tipner and Farlington have been identified.