Bus industry funding is always a big issue, with the approach very different in England, Scotland and Wales.
In Scotland, the post-COVID-19 support has finished and operators are left to take the flack as they start to adjust their networks and increase fares to take into account the end of the funding. While it is encouraging in some regards to see another round of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus challenge fund, the question is would some or all of this £58 million be better spent on maintaining existing bus services?
Just as I write this, the Welsh Government has announced a £46 million extension of bus industry support funding from 24 July until March 2024.
While there is still a need in Wales for a long-term funding plan to be released, it is encouraging to see Deputy Minister for Climate Change Lee Waters acknowledging that the current bus network needs to be reviewed to match post-COVID travel patterns before the introduction of franchising. Hopefully this will be done in partnership with operators and local authorities.
Meanwhile in England, Bus Recovery Grant is replaced by Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP Plus) and BSOG Plus until 2025, which all feels like passing on the issue of setting out long-term funding to the next government.
There is a rather odd phrase in the Department for Transport (DfT) press release on the Bus Fare Cap Grant extension which says that the government will review its “effectiveness and future bus fares.” That seems to suggest that the government and DfT are perfectly happy to continue to dictate how much bus operators can charge, yet at the same time, we are seeing non-capped fare increases of up to 40%.
When it comes to concessionary fare reimbursement there is little guidance, but the fare cap will distort the revenue forgone so that an operator is likely to be worse off, unless pre-cap average fare figures are used with some adjustment for any likely fare change.
BSIP Plus is aimed at local authorities, especially those not in receipt of the original BSIP funding. It seems that common sense has now prevailed and (subject to approval) those authorities that did receive BSIP money can use it to maintain existing services.
Even under the current funding, operators have slimmed down networks or are in the process of doing so to make sure that the business as a whole stays commercially viable, so this new package will not save everything. Added to that are the number of authorities looking to make savings, with the non-statutory supported bus budget an easy target – something that a pro-bus government should address.
What is obvious is that there is still no detailed long-term plan for buses in Great Britain despite lots of posturing, to the detriment of passengers, operators and local authorities.
