Latest travel news for Nottinghamshire

Tram news - Bus pass holders in Nottinghamshire will have extended free travel on Nottingham Trams from April.

The duration of free travel will cover the whole period between 9.30am and 11pm Monday to Friday and all day at weekends and bank holidays. The half fare two hour period from 4 to 6 pm will no longer apply.

New ticket machines are being installed at every tram stop, but are not fully operational (as of 25th March).

Concessionary bus pass holders will soon be asked to scan their pass at the ticket scanners before boarding the tram. Tram inspectors on the trams may ask to rescan your pass to check it was done before boarding.

Tram passengers who pay for their travel will soon be able to use the MANGO cards, currently only used on trent barton buses, to get 25% off tram fares. For more information go to www.thetram.net

Stagecoach Supertram has announced that it is freezing fares on its tram tickets in Sheffield to reflect the next phase of rail replacement works taking place across the network this year.

The price freeze will take effect on single tram tickets, as well as Stagecoach tram and bus dayrider and megarider tickets, meaning customers will continue to benefit from the same value fares that they currently pay.

The next stage of the works, which began on Saturday 29th March in the Hillsborough/Malin Bridge area of the city, will see VolkerRail continue to replace worn out sections of tram track across the whole of the Supertram network.

The work is expected to continue until September.

Further afield, Blackpool Council is to withdraw the provision of free tram travel in Blackpool for non-Blackpool residents eligible for the English National Travel Concession Scheme, with effect from 1st April.

Despite hopes that Lancashire County Council would step in to fund this provision, a decision has now been taken that this will not go ahead, so now only people who live in Blackpool will be able to use their concessionary travel passes on the tramway.

On the buses there are a few changes to timetables and route numbers are expected in the next month or so:

Stagecoach services 82, & 82A, Chesterfield to Langwith, will have a revised timetable with effect from 27 April 2014.

The Stagecoach/ trent barton ‘pronto’, Nottingham to Mansfield and Chesterfield and trent barton ‘the threes’, Nottingham to Hucknall , Sutton and Mansfield will each have revised Friday & Saturday night timetables with effect from 9 May 2014.

From 27th April, there will be minor timetable alterations to Stagecoach service 53, Mansfield to Clowne and Sheffield and Stagecoach service 96 (Alfreton to Tibshelf, Pilsley and Chesterfield will be re-routed via Spital Lane and there will be minor timetable alterations. Service 96A journeys will be re-routed and renumbered X96.

Finally trent barton have refurbished their Hucknall Connect buses which link the tram terminus with the town centre. They have new comfy seating and each one has been given a name and dedicated to heroes within the local community. One bus is named after soldier Paul Sandford, who was killed in Afghanistan, another bears the name of Eddie Heath, caretaker at Hucknall National Church of England Academy, who helped save the life of a teenage pupil two years ago. The third commemorates William Fox, a well-known Hucknall builder, who died in 2012 at the age of 94.