Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) has approved the development of an Enhanced Partnership Plus (EP+) plan for bus services in the county, ruling out the prospect of franchising in the immediate term.
After considering four options, the council’s cabinet decided to strengthen the existing Enhanced Partnership arrangement.
Franchising was deemed to be not feasible for the time being due to the government’s proposed local government reorganisation.
A report into the various options for bus operation in Oxfordshire had recommended the EP+ approach over franchising, creating a municipal bus company and maintaining the status quo.
OCC estimates a transition to franchising would likely take around 45 months, by which time the council may have been replaced by a new unitary authority and a mayoral authority could have taken responsibility for transport.
Councillors also had concerns that a move towards franchising would pause bus operator investment into the bus network.
Councillor Andrew Gant, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport Management, says: “We believe going down the EP+ route will leverage most of the benefits associated with franchising without the significant additional financial and resource risks and responsibilities.
“Any move towards franchising would take nearly four years and likely halt any private sector investment in the bus network during that period.
“If the government’s programme for local government reorganisation proceeds according to schedule, then Oxfordshire County Council would cease to exist during that period, and those responsibilities would pass to a successor council or mayoral authority.
“Therefore, we believe it’s not sensible to invest considerable amounts of time and resources into initiating changes which would not come to fruition during the lifetime of this council.”
OCC observes that, while bus franchising would offer some advantages, it would also come with risk and significant cost.
Strengthening the existing relationships with bus operators in the area, including Stagecoach and Oxford Bus Company, would bring some of the same benefits as bus franchising but “in a more timely, cost-effective, and lower-risk manner”, says the council.
Mr Gant also stresses that overcoming the challenges faced by bus services in the county was not dependent on the model of bus regulation.
He says: “For many reasons, including geography and historic relationships with the bodies that run the bus services, there is no common solution that suits everywhere. And, while we appreciate the need to explore other options, just because something works well in one part of the country, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in Oxfordshire.
“Here we have two main bus operators, while many other places don’t have the benefit of this element of competition. As a council we have a good, close working relationship with our bus operators and regularly discuss matters such as routes and ticketing to help deliver the service that people in Oxfordshire need.
“However, it must be remembered that the single biggest challenge to bus service improvements has nothing to do with who runs them. Problems with increasing bus journey times, reliability and punctuality are largely due to growing traffic congestion, and a change of model alone would not address these challenges.”
