Payment of BSOG in England on a per-kilometre basis would help to support rural bus services, but care would be needed under that approach to avoid a corresponding hit to provision in urban areas, First Bus has said in evidence to the Transport Committee inquiry into buses connecting communities.
The operator warns that the overall BSOG funding pot would have to grow for its suggestion to be of overall benefit. Otherwise, there is a risk of “deleterious impact” on services that return lower average speeds.
While not referencing the drawn-out reform of BSOG in England directly, First Bus notes that other potential change avenues include a payment per passenger boarding or a hybrid approach to combine that with a per-kilometre calculation. The former would have no benefit in rural areas, it adds.
Go-Ahead also addresses rural bus services in its evidence submission. Of wider bus funding, it believes that such monies “could be put into a single stream once the government’s devolution plans are rolled out.”
That may pose a threat to rural bus services if funding for them was diverted away by local authorities with competing demands for bus, Go-Ahead continues.
Transport UK Group – formerly Abellio – includes in its submission a position that franchising of bus services in rural areas would be beneficial, although it adds that the assessment requirement could not be justified in those locations.
Nevertheless, reregulation would instil confidence in passengers there that rural bus services are viable, although tenderers being able to compete in that market is imperative and long-term funding is “especially critical” in those areas, the evidence continues.
Among local authority submissions, Cheshire West and Chester Council notes that a uniform lowering of the concessionary fare age and provision of sufficient funding to support that could help rural bus services.
It adds that rural services currently often operate “on the smallest of margins” and with significant subsidy; even then, provision does not meet customer expectation and viability, and when coupled to rising costs, “makes them increasingly difficult to run.”
Read all evidence submissions on the Transport Committee website.
