£1.9m overhaul of Cradley Heath bus station

The interchange, next to the town's railway station, will get the overhaul as part of a wider £10m scheme to improve bus transport in the area.

But a planned £3m bus station at Merry Hill shopping centre has been shelved as it would have been too expensive to build.

Transport authority Centro, which is spearheading the scheme, will now meet Sandwell Council, bus operators and architects to thrash out the finer details of what commuters at Cradley Heath will see from the work, which is expected to start in the spring and be finished around Christmas next year.

The authority has already confirmed they are hoping to see a two-way system for buses, improved shelters, enhanced information and signage, and a safer road system. Improvements are also planned for the nearby junction of Forge Lane and High Street and the pedestrian crossings outside the interchange.

The wider scheme is being part funded by local sources, while £5m was awarded by the Government's Better Bus Area Fund.

It had originally been hoped a brand new station could be built at Merry Hill shopping centre, but those behind the scheme now realise that would have been a step too far.

Mark Langford, media officer at Centro, said: "When we first won the funding the dream scenario was to do this at Merry Hill, but the more we looked into it the more we realised it wasn't going to be feasible with the available funding.

"So we looked into what else we could do and identified that the bus interchange was a good fall back for us to pursue and develop."