Public transport chiefs are considering plans for a bus terminus close to Preston's railway station, the Evening Post can reveal.
But funding for the project looks likely to be delayed due to the recession.
Bosses at the nearby Fishergate Shopping Centre will pay £400,000 towards "public transport improvements", including the bus "hub", as part of their planned mall extension and multi-storey car park.
But they still have no timescale for when work might start, releasing the cash.
Work needs to get underway before January 21 to avoid the planning permission expiring but the money - which also includes £100,000 to improve pedestrian and cycle paths - is only payable within 12
months of a "substantial commencement" of development.
Planners have given the green light but a spokesman for centre owners Warner Estates said: "At the moment, because we've taken a long-term view, as and when the economy recovers, we'll be able to make more announcements then."
John Crellin, city centre planning manager at Preston Council, described the proposed interchange as a "hub".
He said: "It would be an enhanced pick-up and drop-off area - not a bus station as such.
"No plans have been drawn up on that and that would only be done once we've some certainty over the date of the payment."
And he said work on the car park was important "as development takes place elsewhere".
A total of 1,152 spaces will be lost if the bus station is knocked down as part of the Tithebarn development,
and planned work at the Avenham Street and Fox Street car parks will see the loss of 350 and 80 spaces respectively.
But Coun Tom Davies, a member of the council's planning committee, said: "There's one car park I will never park in and it's this one (Fishergate) because you can't get out.
"With the multi-storey car park going in, we're putting more cars in that corner and it's no good.
"You can have as many buses going down there . . . it's getting out that's the problem."
Chris Anslow, Lancashire County Council's public transport policy manager, said: "The council is investigating all options for a bus interchange facility, to be located in the vicinity of the railway station, but no decisions have yet been made."
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