The DfT has unveiled proposals to create the UK’s first all-electric bus town and bids must be backed by operators
I’ve suggested that 2020 could be the Year of the Bus.
Well, it’s got off to a reasonably good start, with the Department for Transport (DfT) announcing last week that local areas can apply for £50m funding to become the UK’s first all-electric bus town.
This is part of a £170m fund to encourage bus use, including £20m to trial on-demand bus sharing services in rural and suburban areas, £70m for “superbus” networks and £30m to improve current services or restore lost routes.
The bidding process
When I first read the DfT’s announcement I was a little surprised about the apparent lack of detail about how the bidding process would work.
Surely, I thought, there must be some kind of guidance explaining how the bidding process would work, what the criteria for assessing bids would be and so on. And, of course, with a little bit of delving I duly found the associated Call for Expressions of Interest.
The critical point I think, at least from an operator’s point of view, is that any bid developed by a local authority must be supported by all bus companies operating routes in the area subject to the bid.
It is clear that this is an absolute requirement.
This is good and will help to emphasise the importance of partnership working between operator and local authority.
The new all-electric bus town will act as a pilot to assess what can be achieved when there is a real commitment to move all buses in a town or city to zero emission, to understand the impact this will have on air quality and the impact it can have on running costs.
It will be an interesting pilot, although it will doubtless be some time before any meaningful results are available. And we won’t know the winner of this particular competition until the back end of this year anyway.
But it’s yet another sign that the environment is a top priority for this government – as indeed it should be.
Bus franchising
Meanwhile, Greater Manchester’s Mayor, Andy Burnham is asking the government to support its plans for buses with “tens of millions” of pounds in revenue subsidy – a clear admission that its franchising plans don’t stack up financially and require on-going public subsidy.
Interestingly, the Treasury is saying that it’s committed to supporting metro mayors develop their own franchised services, with details on how the government will help fund such services being announced “in due course” – I assume, but am guessing, this may be part of the new National Bus Strategy.
To me this sounds like another alarm bell going off for the private operators – a clear statement from the Treasury that it is prepared to support franchised services.
This is going to be a challenging time for supporters of the deregulated market and the Confederation of Passenger Transport has a challenge on its hands as it tries to defend the deregulated model. I have little doubt it will rise to the challenge.
