English bus usage continues to fall (in most places)

[overthewater]

Here is the point about Sunday services, because of the trading law, how busy is most English towns outside 5pm? Its all very well and good wanting a bus at 10pm on a Sunday night but is there really a demand?

I've notice it still an English problem where buses are being cut back and councils are cutting back. Why is that? Also Scotland were much quicker to make changes years ago with having more Dail a bus or taxi service for many rural areas. Even SPT does it and there all number around 100/200/300/400/500/600 have done for 5 years.

 

[Starmill]

Even if the bus were cheaper than the train (it isn't) for me to get to Manchester, my main issue would still be quality. I've got no idea standing at a bus stop when the bus will turn up or if it will. Timetable changes are poorly publicised and there are discrepancies on some routes which have up to 3 operators. Bus schedules also appear to have almost no resilience, on one route just knowing if you'll have a driver change on that journey allows you to predict if an alternative is quicker (of course there's no way of knowing this so you're left with the worst of both worlds). Buses are not doing anything to shake their reputation of being unreliable, uncomfortable and slow. It's a modern phenomenon perhaps that they're also often more expensive for local journeys than trains.

 

[jon0844]

Also worth noting that in many places, getting the bus basically hasn't changed since the 70s: you have no idea when the bus will turn up (timetables are routinely out of date, and in any case are useless in case of disruption), you often have no idea how much it's going to cost, you can only pay by cash, and the driver will get a**ey with you if you don't have the money in a suitably convenient denomination (basically impossible if, say, travelling early morning and the local cash machine's only spitting out £20s.)

Fares are also going up, and services (particularly evening and weekend services, which are crucial for leisure passengers, and flexibility for workers who might stay late or be delayed on their connecting train) are declining in many smaller towns.

So is it any wonder bus usage is declining when the bus is (far too often) inconvenient, infrequent or finishing far too early?

Arriva wants exact money and as far as I am aware, still can't issue change in the form of a voucher. Uno can, so is less bothered about exact money - but not all drivers know they can issue vouchers.

Not having a clue how much the bus is going to cost does very likely put people off. They probably know they're supposed to have the exact money, but unless you're carrying stacks of change then you're pretty much stuffed.

As such, any ad hoc travel is unlikely (unlike in London where if you're tired, it rains or whatever - you may just decide to hop on a bus when you planned to walk before). Most bus users will be bus users who are regulars, but perhaps not regular enough to warrant keeping services going. It doesn't help when Uno admitted it discounted fares too much for students, so even having students (which was the original reason for creating University Bus, now Uno) doesn't seem sufficient to fund services.

The university now seems to prefer to promote a local taxi firm to students, which goes to show how mad things are. I assume the taxi firm pays a little commission for this to be done.

Reducing service frequencies really won't help. Only those who have no alternatives will use buses, and will either reduce their travel or seek to use taxis. Or maybe drive if they have the means.

Best of all, when usage falls further, it means councils have a nice easy way to convince all those people who moaned about cuts that they were not only necessary, but need to cut deeper because it's not practical to fund buses with virtually no usage now.

I know that in my case Herts County Council knew many routes were well used, but cuts had to be made. Talks with local operators had been ongoing to get them to be run commercially, but I expect the bus operators didn't want to bother, when it can just run what it's paid to run.

Suffice to say, bus drivers aren't best pleased. They've lost overtime and despite Uno having to still recruit and train new drivers, it's not because of a need for more drivers to cover ever expanding routes - but rather because drivers are leaving.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Arriva wants exact money and as far as I am aware, still can't issue change in the form of a voucher. Uno can, so is less bothered about exact money - but not all drivers know they can issue vouchers.

Eh? I am not aware of any Arriva UK Bus operations with an exact change policy - certainly not the Shires. They might be poor at carrying a sufficient change float, though.

Not having a clue how much the bus is going to cost does very likely put people off. They probably know they're supposed to have the exact money, but unless you're carrying stacks of change then you're pretty much stuffed.

I do agree with this. Single fares should be simplified and widely published.

 

[Robertj21a]

Arriva wants exact money and as far as I am aware, still can't issue change in the form of a voucher. Uno can, so is less bothered about exact money - but not all drivers know they can issue vouchers.

Not having a clue how much the bus is going to cost does very likely put people off. They probably know they're supposed to have the exact money, but unless you're carrying stacks of change then you're pretty much stuffed.

As such, any ad hoc travel is unlikely (unlike in London where if you're tired, it rains or whatever - you may just decide to hop on a bus when you planned to walk before). Most bus users will be bus users who are regulars, but perhaps not regular enough to warrant keeping services going. It doesn't help when Uno admitted it discounted fares too much for students, so even having students (which was the original reason for creating University Bus, now Uno) doesn't seem sufficient to fund services.

The university now seems to prefer to promote a local taxi firm to students, which goes to show how mad things are. I assume the taxi firm pays a little commission for this to be done.

Reducing service frequencies really won't help. Only those who have no alternatives will use buses, and will either reduce their travel or seek to use taxis. Or maybe drive if they have the means.

Best of all, when usage falls further, it means councils have a nice easy way to convince all those people who moaned about cuts that they were not only necessary, but need to cut deeper because it's not practical to fund buses with virtually no usage now.

I know that in my case Herts County Council knew many routes were well used, but cuts had to be made. Talks with local operators had been ongoing to get them to be run commercially, but I expect the bus operators didn't want to bother, when it can just run what it's paid to run.

Suffice to say, bus drivers aren't best pleased. They've lost overtime and despite Uno having to still recruit and train new drivers, it's not because of a need for more drivers to cover ever expanding routes - but rather because drivers are leaving.

I certainly can't think of any Arriva operation requiring exact fare - where is it ?

Could Uno be having to recruit and train new drivers simply because they're really not very good at retaining them ?

 

[jon0844]

Eh? I am not aware of any Arriva UK Bus operations with an exact change policy - certainly not the Shires. They might be poor at carrying a sufficient change float, though.

I didn't mean they insist on the right fare (but they do want exact money - as do all drivers), but that they can't break large notes all the time and have no facility to issue a change voucher, which Uno can (and others using the HCC supplied ticket machines).

Arriva should look at doing this too, as it's really useful (although I now use mobile tickets wherever possible, but that's a whole different story as they're flawed in so many ways).

I am not sure what they (Arriva) do if someone boards with a £50. I've seen £20s and £50s being used on buses many times. Before the new machines, Uno drivers either told people to get off OR let them travel free. Now they get a voucher.

I suspect that's actually why some people tried to pay with large notes!

 

[A0]

They might be poor at carrying a sufficient change float, though.

I believe most drivers have a choice of whether to carry their own float or take the company's float - BUT the company's float means zero inaccuracies are accepted.

Having worked in a shop in the past, even the most careful management still results in a few pence variance from one day to the next - over a period of time it does level itself out.

Having said that, I don't believe anyone should be boarding a bus with a £ 20 or £ 50 note as tender. A £ 10 I can understand since that's what most cashpoints dispense.

Perhaps it's also time that the bus companies found a way to accept 'contactless' payments - most fares are sub £ 10 so a contactless payment on a debit card should be easy enough.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Having said that, I don't believe anyone should be boarding a bus with a £ 20 or £ 50 note as tender. A £ 10 I can understand since that's what most cashpoints dispense.

£50 no, you can't spend those in most shops. But if I can spend £20 for a £5 magazine (say) in a shop, I should be able to spend £20 for a £5 day ticket (say) on a bus, and *certainly* for a weekly pass.

Perhaps it's also time that the bus companies found a way to accept 'contactless' payments - most fares are sub £ 10 so a contactless payment on a debit card should be easy enough.

Absolutely. Contactless is *made* for public transport. Finally a decent opportunity to get the cash off the bus and speed things up for everyone, provided a way can be found to make the option accessible to those of limited means as well, which I'm sure it can.

At the very least, it should be possible to use contactless to pay for the issue of a paper ticket on local buses. Once you've started there, you can then progress to better, more London like schemes.

 

[Starmill]

£50 no, you can't spend those in most shops

Really?

If I walk into Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, BHS, Boots or The Co-Operative how many will tell me they can't accept my £50 note?

I haven't even seen one in more than a year so I really don't know. I can understand what you say being true if I go to my corner shop, Lidl, Aldi, Poundland, Poundworld, B&M or Home Bargains.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I can't remember the last time I was on a bus with an exact fare policy, for the most part bus drivers round here are happy to take £5 and usually £10 notes. For the last 18 months I've had a monthly Mcard though so it hasn't been an issue. Keeping timetables at stops up to date does seem to be a problem for Metro though, until recently the stop right next to Yorkshire Tiger's Waterloo depot still listed Yorkshire Traction as the operator, with listings for services (all in the 2xx range, which haven't been used in that neck of the woods for almost 20 years) to Barnsley and Sheffield which were withdrawn in about 2002!

 

[overthewater]

Be glad your not in Scotland we have Green £100 notes.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Really?

People and businesses are very wary of £50 notes indeed. It might be mainly small shops, though I suppose.

But that's by the by - it is almost impossible to end up with a £50 note by accident - I don't know if I have ever had one, and I think I've seen one maybe twice in my whole life. It's not as if cashpoints issue them. £20, the note most likely to be issued by a cashpoint, is a totally different issue.

 

[northwichcat]

Really?

If I walk into Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, BHS, Boots or The Co-Operative how many will tell me they can't accept my £50 note?

I haven't even seen one in more than a year so I really don't know. I can understand what you say being true if I go to my corner shop, Lidl, Aldi, Poundland, Poundworld, B&M or Home Bargains.

That's the problem. As people rarely see them it makes it harder to spot fakes so sales assistants don't want to risk it. Even if they don't have an official policy of rejecting them they might say they don't have enough change.

Slightly related I recall an American tourist in Rome buying two slices of pizza from a takeaway and pulling out a €100 note to pay. They accepted it but I didn't even know €100 existed prior to that as the largest one I've finished up with has been €50 and I would have tried to avoid using that for a small transaction never mind a €100 one.

 

[me123]

£50 no, you can't spend those in most shops.

The vast majority of places will accept £50 notes, the only places that generally won't are places where you really shouldn't be trying to pay with one (like buses and newsagents, where the average transaction is less than £10). There is a bizarre myth that they are "not accepted" - you shouldn't really have any problems with them in any sensible transaction.

Anyway...

It does not surprise me that bus usage is declining, based on my own experiences. I want to use the bus, believe me I do. And there's a bus just two minutes walk from my door that takes me to the front door of my place of work. So why don't I use it?

The reality is that buses are often not very user friendly. To catch the bus, I need to be at the stop well in advance of the time. As my stop is not a "timing point", if the bus gets a good run it could be early. The frequency is low too (one an hour at best). I need exact change, which means I have to plan my cash in advance if I'm going to catch the bus. If I can't pay the exact fare, I'll have to overpay. The bus goes through lots of small towns and villages and incurs delays. On the last return trip I tried to make, the bus was over two hours late. There is no information available, and all the bus company could do was confirm that the bus was supposed to have been there, but they had no idea where the bus was.

I am busy and frankly do not have time for this. I do not have time to make sure that I have four one pound coins in my pocket for the exact fare. I don't want to arrive at bus stop 5-10 minutes early just in case the traffic's good today. I don't want to trawl through countless little villages at silly o'clock in the morning to pick up an old lady traveling one stop. I don't want to be stranded at night because the bus got stuck behind a tractor going down a single track road.

The fare for that bus is four pounds for a twenty mile journey- and it would be excellent value if the service was up to standard. But it's not. I can't afford to be late for work. I'm too busy to be waiting for hours for the return service. Other buses I've used have been incredibly expensive for what they are (First Aberdeen, your fares are ludicrous!).

This is why bus usage is declining - whilst the rest of the world is moving on, bus companies seem to be reluctant to take up technology. Contactless, as has been mooted, is a brilliant idea for buses, so why has no-one outside London got it?!? They have the NFC readers so it shouldn't be too hard. Why can't more bus companies have real-time information? I'm not going to risk being stranded at a bus stop for two hours. If the bus companies can't bring their services in line with modern living, then perhaps they will become less relevant in modern life.

Another factor, of course, has to be fuel prices. Fuel prices are lower than I ever thought they'd be, which makes private transport a much more attractive option.

FWIW, my commute now takes me to a park and ride where Lothian buses have gained my custom. They have accurate journey time information, excellent reliability and mobile ticketing. That's how it should be done. If more buses could go the way of Lothian buses and TfL, I think you'd see more people on them.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Speaking of poor quality information and poor timekeeping, the route I use to work is regularly 15-20 minutes late in a morning.

I know Arriva Northumbria have had an application to change the timetable (and route) accepted by VOSA. This takes place from 23 January. They are still yet to announce what these changes are, whether it's a slight alteration of a time and a stopping point or whether it's a timetable re-write. I think that sums the bus industry up.

And Arriva- with their m-tickets and their live tracker app- are one of the better operators!

As for drivers not giving change for big notes, personally I blame the banks for never stocking ATMs with fivers any more.

 

[me123]

That's the problem. As people rarely see them it makes it harder to spot fakes so sales assistants don't want to risk it. Even if they don't have an official policy of rejecting them they might say they don't have enough change.

Ah this old trope... the £50 note has similar security features to the £20 note (I'm thinking English notes here, but the same is true for all the Scottish ones). Indeed, the security features are similar to almost every banknote in existence in the UK! The BoE have an excellent guide to the security features. Given that the vast majority of people do not check their £20 notes (which would be sensible given that you're over 50x as likely to see a fake 20 than a fake 50), I would suggest that this is a very poor excuse.

 

[Robertj21a]

Speaking of poor quality information and poor timekeeping, the route I use to work is regularly 15-20 minutes late in a morning.

I know Arriva Northumbria have had an application to change the timetable (and route) accepted by VOSA. This takes place from 23 January. They are still yet to announce what these changes are, whether it's a slight alteration of a time and a stopping point or whether it's a timetable re-write. I think that sums the bus industry up.

And Arriva- with their m-tickets and their live tracker app- are one of the better operators!

As for drivers not giving change for big notes, personally I blame the banks for never stocking ATMs with fivers any more.

Plenty of ATMs now stock £5 notes again - not a majority, but still a lot more than a year or so ago.

 

[radamfi]

How does one end up with a £50? The cash machine doesn't give you them so the only way most people would get one is if by deliberately asking the bank for one just for fun.

 

[wellwhatitis]

I know Arriva Northumbria have had an application to change the timetable (and route) accepted by VOSA. This takes place from 23 January. They are still yet to announce what these changes are, whether it's a slight alteration of a time and a stopping point or whether it's a timetable re-write. I think that sums the bus industry up.

.

This is one of the biggest turn offs for passengers these days, and Arriva are one of the worst offenders. They can't leave routes or timetables alone for 5 minutes. One minute they're branding a route to within an inch of its life, flooding it with buses, then 3 months later when they haven't achieved the exact premiums they were after, ditched.

Since the smaller window of notification required by DVSA for alterations, and the removal of any legal requirement to advise passengers of revisions in good time anymore, operators (Arriva in particular) play their cards as close to their chest as possible in order to wrong foot potential competitors. The victim is the regular passenger, whose services can now very realistically be mucked about with 4 or 5 times a year, with barely any notice. Consequently they give up and find some other way.

 

[overthewater]

How does one end up with a £50? The cash machine doesn't give you them so the only way most people would get one is if by deliberately asking the bank for one just for fun.

Alot of trades people use £50 notes.

 

[exile]

Well in areas where multi-operator tickets aren't available or you cross a boundary you might have to finish up buying 2 x £5 tickets to make a return journey using 2 different bus operators so the railway may be cheaper or around the same price.

For local journeys within Warrington, with its notoriously high bus fares, the train is
certainly cheaper.

 

[SWT444PORTS]

I'm not surprised that bus use is declining - as many people have said, local authority cuts have decimated local bus services, particularly in rural areas.
I also feel that the quality and convenience of services are declining. Where I live on the edge of Teesside, there is an hourly service into Middlesbrough (used to be half hourly 2 years or so ago) and the bus takes an hour to reach the bus station. Middlesbrough centre is 9 miles away and a car journey takes approx. 15 mins. A return ticket is £6 and to top it off the last bus now leaves before 6pm. To be honest, I'm not surprised that bus use is declining if this is the service that is provided.

 

[ste898]

Not suprising passenger numbers falling if the services accross the country are anything like stagecoach in carlisle

The most miserable drivers and buses just turn up whenever!!!

 

[THarris123]

I think it's ashame to read that bus patronage has declined - it is expected of course. The harsh reality is that when a council/authority find they can't cut much else, cutting the bus funding for certain bus services is the next favoured option. I do hate how a council can consider withdrawing funding for a bus service that some of the most vulnerable of people use and they then realise that the bus company doesn't want to run it commercially, so have to put in funding again.

I think the government have got their ideas wrong on transport - and as a Tory member (boo, hiss), I can say that Instead of funding big futuristic projects, they should be focusing on ensuring that everyone has a chance to use public transport, whether it be by train or bus (i'm also against the plans for HS2, as I believe that the money for that should be invested in improving local train services and adding back lines which were taken out by Beeching).

The issue is, and has been for many years, that the government's persuasion has been on the use of cars and until that changes and they start to draw their attention to public transport, numbers aren't going to increase in the way they should and some of the most vulnerable, yet independent people will continue to lose their local bus link.

It does seem a lot like the government isn't trying its best to encourage individuals to use alternative methods of transport. In my local area, there has been a proposal to put in a new park and ride in Bath, which our local MP has just presented a 6000 strong petition against putting in a new park and ride to parliament - I wonder how many of those 6000 are regular commuters into Bath and have to put up with the constant traffic problems. It doesn't exactly spell out encouragement to use buses when so many people oppose it.

Certain authorities have continued their funding, whilst others are really giving it all they can with cutting the funding. Bristol and Banes have continued a lot of their funding (Banes is going to start cutting from April though), whereas Somerset have continually cut everything they can - and are now consulting on cutting more. In the last year they have cut the funding for 2 specific services - 184 and 161 - 184 they virtually withdrew all funding leaving it to First to run commercially and 161 they cut the funding to end up with a service going every 2 hours. Then in August First near enough scrapped 161 and 184, leaving it to some very angry Frome residents to plea to Somerset for funding again - which they took on again until later this year when it's reviewed.

But it isn't just the authorities - the bus companies are making hard work for themselves all the time and I voice what other people have been saying - that the constant changes to both fares and services are adversely affecting the number of passengers that use the bus. It also doesn't help with the stupid regulation and competition rules that go on - in Bristol we now have Wessex competing against First on a lot of services (and vice versa) which do exactly the same routes but the fares are ever so slightly cheaper. It's the same in Somerset, where Webberbus are directly competing against First on virtually all of their services. In all of these cases I would prefer the competitors to focus on providing services to areas which have very little in terms of a bus service, rather than scrape a few passengers off of a service operated by a major operator - it is having a big effect - look at service 29 in Taunton - due to Webberbus competing with a Wells-Taunton service (that doesn't follow the same route), First have now cut their service back to every 3 hours, meaning that residents of the small villages across the levels don't have the opportunities they had to use a bus.

All of this, and all the silly adjustments that companies are making, are giving an adverse opinion to current and potential passengers. They then decide against using the bus and then use their car to cause more of a traffic jam, which in turn delays the buses and then turns more people against using the bus.

It's a vicious circle and if the government really want to get people onto public transport, they have to change their outlook and provide better funding to services, along with looking at the competition in the industry and the regulation.

 

[ag51ruk]

I'm unsurprised by the low usage numbers in one area that I'm familiar with (Cheshire East) - an affluent, mostly rural area with few large population centres - but I am surprised by the figures for Derby (a fall of around 10% in the last year).

Many of the problems identified by people in other posts shouldn't be a problem in Derby - it's a compact urban area, well served by a frequent network of buses that mostly operate through to late evening 7 days a week. Almost the entire network is commercially operated. Traffic congestion can be bad, which should push people on to the bus - although that does impact bus reliability as well.

The two main operators (Trent Barton and Arriva) both operate modern fleets, during the period described there were very few big changes to the network, almost every stop has an up-to-date timetable and many have real time info displays (plus both operators have real-time info via smartphones). Fares are higher than PTE areas but don't seem that high, TB's Mango card is popular enough that very few people pay cash anyway on their services and Arriva offer some pretty good value day and weekly tickets. What's not to like?

 

[overthewater]

With Derby is it only just Arriva? Are people going else where? Could it be the fact less uni traffic around? Or are people using trentbarton more?

The problem I have with these firgues is how do you know:

A: How many actually journeys are taken place?
B: If its Megariders or First weeks, It could just be there are more actually passengers using buses to work but the overall number of journeys are down because there don't need to changes buses or etc? working longer hours, Also alot of people are now working 12 hours shifts over 4 days. I see alot of full buses in the morning, but daytime and evenings peak can be dead, I just wonder where people disappear to. If your going to pub you might take a taxi back etc.

Also a number of routes have better frequencies especial in the Stagecoach areas than many years ago. First have also seen improvements.


Does anyone get what I mean?

 

[ivanhoe]

Competition is killing off buses outside of London in many towns and cities. I would like LA's to sit down with operators and sort out a decent bus service for the majority of the people. I would like to see tickets sold that allowed transfer to other routes within a 60 minute timeframe. It works elsewhere!
Quality routes are a waste of space. In my dream world, I would like to see Leicestershire served by three companies. First in Leicester and Arriva and Trent Barton(Kinch) in Leicestershire. I would like investment in technologies to enable passengers to find out when the next service is due at the majority if not all bus stops. I'm sure Smart Phones would be useful. I would like to eradicate cash payments and be replaced by contactless cards and/or County Bus Cards.
There would be no competition allowed whatsoever and Bus Companies would probably make a decent return if the contract was guaranteed for a minimum period of 5 years. I'm not harking on back to days when the only operators were Leicester City Bus and Midland Fox. Those days are finished and the assets are now in the hands of operators. I just want our elected local people to have involvement in strategic bus provision and am happy for the big guys to deliver. Are government at all interested? They don't seem to be showing any interest outside of the NorthernPower region.

 

[northwichcat]

I'm unsurprised by the low usage numbers in one area that I'm familiar with (Cheshire East) - an affluent, mostly rural area with few large population centres - but I am surprised by the figures for Derby (a fall of around 10% in the last year).

As far as I'm aware bus usage on the bus routes which remain in Cheshire East is generally higher than it was a few years ago, with the exception of some very short routes seeing a drop in usage as more people walk in to town as a result of fares going up (which has affected routes like the onelink service in Crewe.) However, there are of course a number of rural routes which have been withdrawn.

 

[jon0844]

With m-tickets, which I swear I'm about the only user, you can now buy a single ticket within Hatfield that's valid for 60 minutes.

Officially it's sold as a ticket for a single journey. Unofficially, you can use it multiple times within that hour (ideal for when you need to change bus).

You also get 10% off when buying m-tickets, yet despite a few posters in buses, there's no advertising that I can see that would inform those who aren't already using buses.

No leaflets through the post, no ads in the local press.

If people knew they could download an app, pre-pay a bunch of single tickets that are valid (AFAIK) indefinitely, then pay as they go, that might just increase usage. It's no fuss.

Out you are, on foot, it starts to chuck it down. Fire up the app, activate a ticket, job done. No need to even tell the driver where you want to go (and that's another issue - bus information, or lack of, for passengers who have no idea when they need to get off if they're not regular users or from out of town).

Clearly contactless cards must be taken too (those out of towners won't download the app limited to that area only, because clearly we can't have a national system for bus ticketing - no, we need one per council or even per operator!) and real-time info is a must at ALL stops too.

But there's hardly much incentive to invest in that, when some councils seem unbothered about public transport, just as they show contempt for road users too through poor road maintenance and this awful 'surface dressing' nonsense.

 

[THarris123]

Competition is killing off buses outside of London in many towns and cities. I would like LA's to sit down with operators and sort out a decent bus service for the majority of the people. I would like to see tickets sold that allowed transfer to other routes within a 60 minute timeframe. It works elsewhere!
Quality routes are a waste of space. In my dream world, I would like to see Leicestershire served by three companies. First in Leicester and Arriva and Trent Barton(Kinch) in Leicestershire. I would like investment in technologies to enable passengers to find out when the next service is due at the majority if not all bus stops. I'm sure Smart Phones would be useful. I would like to eradicate cash payments and be replaced by contactless cards and/or County Bus Cards.
There would be no competition allowed whatsoever and Bus Companies would probably make a decent return if the contract was guaranteed for a minimum period of 5 years. I'm not harking on back to days when the only operators were Leicester City Bus and Midland Fox. Those days are finished and the assets are now in the hands of operators. I just want our elected local people to have involvement in strategic bus provision and am happy for the big guys to deliver. Are government at all interested? They don't seem to be showing any interest outside of the NorthernPower region.

Completely agree with everything your saying, but I would have it operated more like the rail network at the moment - franchise routes out, having a few funded by authorities and have fares controlled near enough by government - it could potentially mean you could go from Lands End to John o Groats on one ticket. I don't think i'd have our regions run by just 3 operators though and would use all the bus companies around, but allocate certain routes to the smaller operators and let the big operators pick up the rest.

Something else that I think could work, would be to have ticket machines at bus stops as well as on the bus - similar to the railway. I'd also ensure that there would be some sort of facility to pay by card too.