A response from the Liverpool City Region to the statutory consultation on introducing bus franchising is expected to be published in the autumn ahead of a decision by Mayor Steve Rotheram, with an early indication that around 70% of submissions are in favour.
The consultation closed on 3 August and responses received are now being assessed by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA). Franchising is endorsed by LCRCA as its avenue of choice for bus reform, with five “rounds” identified as the rollout method should it be adopted.
24 statutory consultee responses (including from bus operators) and 91 non-statutory responses have been received by LCRCA as part of a much larger pool of submissions that includes questionnaires.
That feedback is now subject to “detailed consideration,” Merseytravel Bus Strategy Performance Manager Laura Needham told the Liverpool City Region Transport Committee on 21 September.
At the same meeting, Committee Chair Cllr Steve Foulkes underlined members’ support for the franchising agenda. He says that early analysis of submissions to the Liverpool City Region consultation is “encouraging,” and he claims that “about 70%” of those are in favour of progressing with bus franchising.
“We are committed to bus reform,” Cllr Foulkes adds, noting that LCRCA wants a public transport system that is the same as “they have in London.”
In the latest in a series of criticisms from elected officials in the Liverpool City Region on the deregulated bus model, he adds: “If we do not move forward with this piece of legislation, then we will… have to put up with second best. We want to make this happen and we are committed to making this happen.”
Cllr Foulkes adds that a “good, regular, reasonably-priced bus system” is key to modal shift in the City Region, although he did not elaborate why a regulated delivery model is required to deliver such a level of service.
Mr Rotheram will make the final decision on whether franchising progresses, but he has already made clear his view on such a model of service delivery when in March 2022 he denounced “four decades of disastrous deregulation.”
