Opportunities for coach and bus operators amid a changing industry landscape and greater political interest in the sector will be central to a free-to-attend conference by Backhouse Jones and the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) in Leeds on 16 September.
Titled Route Forward, the half-day event will open at 0900hrs at the Clayton Hotel close to Leeds city centre.
Operators of all sizes, local transport authority (LTA) representatives and other industry professionals are invited to attend, with Backhouse Jones and CPT noting how the gathering will assist members of those groups – including LTA officers – to respond “with insight and practical strategy” to the evolving regulatory environment.
The speaker line-up will be announced soon, but transport legal specialist Backhouse Jones believes that the growing political relevance in how services are delivered will result in every coach and bus operator feeling an impact over the long-term.
The conference will explore how SMEs in areas where bus franchising is on the horizon can engage with that process and seek to win contracts via an understanding of the bidding process, and how others may instead choose to focus on alternative income streams or sell to a third party.
On refocussing, an operator from Greater Manchester that has executed such a shift will address delegates. Home-to-school services were included in franchising-based reform there and they will form part of the change agenda in other areas, leaving businesses that draw income from that work needing to be aware of all possible outcomes.
Operators outside franchising areas will also need to understand how they can run cross-border routes including registered home-to-school provision into franchised territories and the impact local service permit requirements and other stipulations will have on that.
“While there is some insecurity from operators around the changes that are underway, we believe that those developments should also be seen as positive. Helping to take away uncertainty for operators and assisting in exploring options and opportunities is key to the conference,” says Backhouse Jones Associate Director Libby Pritchard.
The event will further examine how operators from outside areas where franchising is planned can become involved in it and grow their businesses by tapping into that momentum. Scope to do so should not be overlooked, Ms Pritchard adds.
CPT underlines how the conference comes as the coach and bus industry is entering what Director of Policy and External Relations Alison Edwards calls “a new era.”
The event “will be forward thinking and will explore the future of the coach and bus sector, focusing on how operators and LTAs can seize the opportunities emerging from the evolving policy landscape,” she continues.
“The new world is that as an operator, you will be looking after politicians’ interests, whether that is via franchising or Enhanced Partnership,” observes Legal Director James Backhouse.
“The conference will effectively look at what life under reregulation – through Enhanced Partnership or franchising – will be like, and that is of critical importance to all operators, including those involved in home-to-school and other coach work,” he continues.
“We believe it is vital that all operators – large and small, coach and bus – understand what politicians want. Those businesses will need to act more politically themselves and be aware of the local dynamic.”
Fully grasping the impact of the legally binding Enhanced Partnership mechanism is equally important, Mr Backhouse continues. The agenda thus includes an exploration of the Bus Services (No.2) Bill in England, which will strengthen such partnership scope.
As part of that, the event will share more about a toolkit being developed by CPT to help LTAs “to navigate the plethora of options that will soon become available to them for delivering bus services,” Ms Edwards adds.
Final touches are currently being put to the speaker line-up. The conference will be hosted by Dave Guest, who is well-known for his involvement with seminar sessions at Euro Bus Expo.
“We think there will be something at the event for every part of the coach and bus market, including operators and LTAs,” Mr Backhouse concludes. “It is based around helping the sector to negotiate the biggest changes to how it works since 1986.”
Register for free tickets at this link.
