Catch the Bus Month has returned for 2025. Long associated with oversized foam hands – green when the celebration was for a week and now red for its month-long duration – the campaign to highlight the importance of buses and bus services is something that now gains significant political traction.
Launch for 2025 was by Mayor of the West Midlands Richard Parker at Coventry Transport Museum. As with most elected mayors, bus services are important to Mr Parker. After edging out incumbent Andy Street, he wasted little time in coming good on his longstanding promise to roll out franchising in the West Midlands.
It goes without saying that Mr Parker used his comments at the Catch the Bus Month launch to further advocate that overhaul. But the event was nevertheless well supported by bus operators in a further indication that the once-fractious back-and-forth about franchising has subsided, in England at least.
Political buy-in to Catch the Bus Month is not new for this year. In 2024, a suitably adorned double-decker found its way to Parliament Square in London for a photocall with a cross-party group of MPs.
Perhaps a key observation at this year’s launch was from Lydia Horbury, who is incoming Chief Executive of Catch the Bus Month organiser Bus Users UK. She notes how in addition to its longstanding purpose of raising the mode’s public profile, the celebration is now also about making the case for continuous public investment in bus services.
That is a sage comment, although the bus industry in England gained a longer-term outlook on funding earlier this year. More is always welcome, however, and work in that field cannot stop.
Ongoing difficulty in delivering the ‘bet the farm’ economic growth promised by the current government has no easy solution in the medium-term and is posing a severe headache to public finances. Where will that leave transport funding into the 2030s, potentially under a different colour of administration?
Interest from politicians in Catch the Bus Month should thus be welcomed. It illustrates how the campaign has grown in reach and stature since its formation. The work is an important part of the bus industry calendar. Participation is a relatively easy win for operators through engagement via social channels and content-hungry local media in their respective areas.
Bus Users UK says that hundreds of in-person and online events are planned for September, which is an important time of year for the bus industry as children and students return to education. A cliché it may be, but if dealt with correctly, those young people are the full fare-paying customers of tomorrow who will sustain services in the long-term.
No longer is Catch the Bus Month just about foam hands. It has come of age in recent years and now serves the twin purpose of promoting bus travel via a public engagement exercise while forming part of the political toolbox. That is why support from within the sector is so important.
