After three years Fleming Way is open - but buses won't use it for another fortnight
After all this time, Fleming Way is open again.
The barriers which have closed Fleming Way between Cheltenham Road and Princes and at its various junctions for three years will be removed on Friday, August 15 and Saturday, August 16.
Pedestrians will be able to use the newly revamped road, as will cyclists, with a cycle lane on either side of the heavily planted and tree-lined central reservation specially provided.
But private cars will not be able to use it at all between its turning circle at Cheltenham Street and the junction with Princes, except to cross it using Milford Street – and automatic ANPR cameras are set up to enforce that.
And the buses for which it has all been designed and built will not be using it in earnest until the very last day of the month.
As councillors, bus company officials, representatives of passengers organisations and the great and the good, as well as the press, showed up for the official opening, the project manger for the £33m scheme for Swindon Borough Council Liam Hill-Davies explained: “There are more than 400 bus drivers who need to be trained and become familiar with the interchange.”
The guests were assigned one of three buses, one from Swindon’s Bus Company, one Stagecoach and One National Express, which will operate its countrywide services from the interchange, for a brief tour of the road – the first three buses to carry passengers since the road was closed in late 2022.
The buses passed the 186 trees and 23,000 other plants put in either side and the central reservation before pulling in to the stops constructed in the old John Street Car Park.
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Councillor Chris Watts, the council’s cabinet member responsible for the scheme, said: “When I came on board the council and became the cabinet member for this about two years ago, my mind was blown at the number and size of the challenges the team laid out at my first meeting.
“It’s been a huge job, but thanks to the immense work of everyone on this project, it’s been delivered to a high standard and just about on budget.
“This is a landmark for a pro-growth borough – and the investment in this is showing results in the investment we can see all around by First Investment, Zurich and at the Debenhams building.”
The MP for Swindon South, which includes the town centre, and Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander said: “As Secretary of State, I get invited to open a lot of public transport infrastructure schemes, but as a Swindon girl born and bred, being here for this doesn’t get any better for me.”
Ms Alexander reminisced about the town’s bus station, due to be demolished very soon and added: “Along with shiny, shell suits and crispy pancakes, I think the bus station is another relic of the 1980s which we can consign to history.”
As the Mayor of Swindon, Fay Howard, cut a symbolic ribbon, flanked by the MP and Cllr Watts, bus company bosses were equally as enthusiastic.
Chris Hanson, the managing director of Stagecoach West said: “This will help with the regeneration for the town centre and it will make it easier and much more pleasant for people to travel here by bus. It will be an attraction for the bus and will be a huge improvement on the bus station.
General Manager for Swindon’s Bus Company, Andrew Sherrington, added: “The town centre really needed something like this.”
The company’s managing director Ben Murray added: “The execution of it is to a very high standard.”