South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) is to launch a major public consultation on plans to introduce a bus rapid-transit scheme linking Sheffield and nearby Rotherham along two new routes.

It says it has learned lessons from a disastrous consultation it held five years ago over plans to extend Supertram from Sheffield through to Rotherham, which saw whole groups of people directly affected by the extension claiming they had not been consulted, and allegations of misleading information being put out by the PTE to sway opinion.

An SYPTE spokesman said the consultation would be launched in the next few weeks.