The Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) has written to the nine recently elected Mayors in the North and Midlands of England to urge them to prioritise coach and bus in their policy decisions.
CPT Chief Executive Graham Vidler is requesting Mayors deliver on Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIP), as well as recognise the important role of coach services.
In addition to London, Mayors for the following regions were chosen via elections on 2 May: East Midlands, Greater Manchester, Liverpool, North East, South Yorkshire, Tees Valley, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, and York and North Yorkshire.
Mr Vidler believes BSIP, City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements and Local Transport Fund allocations are enough to alter modal share away from cars to bus and deliver a 10% increase in bus speeds which would reduce operator costs and boost patronage levels.
He says: “Together these provide more than enough capital funding for the mayors to deliver all of their aspirations for buses. The only thing that will slow down improvements is a lack of political will to pursue their ambitions to shift some journeys away from the car and towards more sustainable modes.”
With the election of several Labour Mayors, taking back public control of bus services is set to be elevated on local agendas, although CPT stresses that the mode of regulation should be secondary to delivering on BSIPs.
While Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham was re-elected, is in the process of reregulating bus services across the conurbation, franchising is also on the way in Liverpool and West Yorkshire via the re-elected Steve Rotheram and Tracy Brabin in those regions.
New West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker is among the others to have talked up franchising.
Commenting on the letters further, Mr Vidler adds: “Millions of bus journeys in England are made in the areas overseen by these mayors, so we’ve written to say that bus operators stand ready to work in partnership with them to transform local bus and coach services using the funding they’ve been given by central government to deliver improvements.
“For better buses, our message is simple: please put bus first on the road by delivering your Bus Service Improvement Plan, including all of the bus priority measures outlined to keep buses out of congestion and deliver the 10% improvement in bus speeds that CPT has called for in its national manifesto for bus.”
With coach largely undervalued at local and regional level, CPT also calls on new mayors to incorporate the transport in their plans, including opening up bus lanes to coaches where sensible.
He says: “We also want each mayor to recognise the importance of coach services to both local residents and businesses by addressing coach properly in their local transport plans; by opening up bus lanes to coaches in all but exceptional situations; and by providing more coach parking as a key part of their efforts to make commuting and tourism more sustainable.”
