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Big changes are coming to the way in which bus services are delivered in England following the submission of the first round of Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs) under Bus Back Better, the National Bus Strategy for England.
In total, 79 BSIPs were submitted to the UK’s Department for Transport last autumn and they are as a result of the biggest national conversation England has ever seen about its bus services. From Cumbria to Cornwall, from city region to shire county, Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) have sat down with their local bus operators and thrashed out plans that aim to make buses a more viable and desirable form of transport for many more people.
‘Bus Service Improvement Plans: Leading the bus revolution’ is CitySwift’s free guide to understanding, developing and implementing ambitious, yet achievable BSIPs.
Here are five things you can learn from the eBook:
1. You can't ignore buses
It has been the policy of successive governments to encourage England’s LTAs and bus operators to work in partnership to improve their local bus services, with varying degrees of success. Some areas like Brighton have forged strong and productive partnerships, others have not. Bus Back Better compels them to enter into formal Enhanced Partnership arrangements and work together to develop and implement BSIPs. It’s no longer possible for LTAs to ignore buses, with Buses Minister Baroness Vere telling MPs in April 2021 that “recalcitrant local authorities” must learn from places where strong partnerships have successfully built bus patronage.
The first round of BSIPs will not be a one-off ‘fire and forget’ initiative so that LTAs can grab their share of post-pandemic public transport funding. This will be an ongoing process, with BSIPs reviewed, updated and then submitted to the DfT on an annual basis. Now the conversation has started, the intention from the government is that the voices will not fall silent. LTAs and bus operators must engage in a constant dialogue, refreshing their plans to improve bus networks year-on-year. That dialogue will require data-driven insights to help both sides formulate plans that are both ambitious and achievable.
LTAs and bus operators must engage in a constant dialogue, refreshing their plans to improve bus networks year-on-year. That dialogue will require data-driven insights to help both sides formulate plans that are both ambitious and achievable.
2. A consistent formula has emerged
Some encouraging initiatives have emerged from the BSIP process – bringing together LTAs and bus operators has, in many cases, released the pent up creativity paused by the pandemic. What’s interesting to note is the consistency of the approach that has emerged. Common themes include a commitment to work towards better journey times, improved frequency and the widespread introduction of zero emission buses. But what is really interesting is that this approach is not only consistent between city regions and shire counties, but also between the vast majority of areas that have opted for a partnership-based approach and the one outlier - Greater Manchester - that is backing a move towards franchising.
There’s no doubt that there’s a growing enthusiasm for Demand Responsive Transport and many of the shire counties - and the city regions too with deeply rural or isolated districts - see this as a way forward for rural bus services. However, some LTAs, like Oxfordshire, sound a note of caution and wish to move towards more flexible provision with an offer that blends cutting edge DRT with traditional bus services.
The sum of these parts aims to create more cohesive networks, indeed Bus Back Better clearly sets out how the government wishes to see modal integration and a “network that feels like a network”. Many BSIPs have taken this onboard and some LTAs have ambitious plans to reform ticketing and enhance connections within their areas.
Common themes include a commitment to work towards better journey times, improved frequency and the widespread introduction of zero emission buses.
3. Bus priority is a priority
Bus Back Better promises a bus priority bonanza. It says that local authorities will be expected to implement “ambitious bus priority schemes”. It also states: “We expect to see plans for bus lanes on any road where there is a frequent bus service, congestion, and physical space to install one.”
LTAs and bus operators have risen to the challenge. An analysis by the Confederation of Passenger Transport of 40 of the 79 BSIPs submitted last autumn revealed that bus priority was where LTAs and bus operators wanted to invest the most money – £2.1bn of the £7.2bn requested.
If implemented properly, this could deliver enormous benefits for buses. Research has shown that bus services have become successively slower over decades as traffic congestion has worsened. The extra resources required to maintain the timetable have made buses more expensive while the longer journey times have made buses less attractive - pushing them into a vicious spiral of decline.
CitySwift has data on what happened to bus speeds during lockdown when traffic was free-flowing – and it’s vast! Of course, since then congestion levels have crept back and bus speeds have slowed back down. But the introduction of new bus priority measures could reverse this, creating a virtuous cycle whereby buses become more attractive and cheaper to run. Importantly, this could enable bus services to become much better without the need for large annual subsidies from the government.
An analysis by the Confederation of Passenger Transport of 40 of the 79 BSIPs submitted last autumn revealed that bus priority was where LTAs and bus operators wanted to invest the most money.
4. There won’t be enough money for everyone
The Government has announced funding commitments of around £2.1bn for buses. This includes £1.2bn for BSIPs, £355m for zero emission buses and (potentially) around £500-600m for improved bus services as part of city region sustainable transport settlements. However, CPT’s analysis found that this funding was less than a third of what will be required.
The 40 BSIPs that included funding totals, which cover more than 70% of passenger journeys by bus outside of London, require total funding of £7.2bn - leaving a funding shortfall of more than £5bn.
“Clearly, there are going to be a lot of disappointed authorities, who will feel they have been marched to the top of the hill, and marched down again,” former Transport Minister Norman Baker wrote in Passenger Transport in January.
He continued: “The DfT could decide to get the biggest return by investing in those big urban areas where bus services are already well established and the opportunity for growth in passenger numbers is greatest. Yet it is acutely conscious of the need to deal with those shire counties where bus services are threadbare.
“The DfT, which is doing its best, told me that they intend to help all those who have submitted plans. This is a laudable aim but unless they can deliver a miracle with loaves and fishes, a lot of local authorities will get nothing, or the funding will be spread so thin as to make it almost meaningless.”
The 40 BSIPs that included funding totals, which cover more than 70% of passenger journeys by bus outside of London, require total funding of £7.2bn - leaving a funding shortfall of more than £5bn.
5. Data is crucial
Access to good data - and the means to properly and effectively interpret it - clearly has a huge part to play in the BSIP process. It is now more important than ever for LTAs and bus operators alike to know and understand their numbers.
The pandemic has hastened some trends that were already emerging. As a result bus patronage has shifted rapidly and LTAs and operators alike will need to understand and actively predict how these changes will affect passenger demand, congestion and road use. The keys to unlocking that knowledge will be data analytics, planning and scheduling technology, backed by the very latest machine learning techniques.
This will allow them to forensically analyse where passengers are going: are they still travelling to and from city centres? What is the likely demand to and from business parks? Has the peak shifted? Those preconceived ideas about what passenger demand is will have shifted rapidly in recent years. But data alone is never going to give those answers – we will always require intelligent analysis. But given the right tools, LTAs and bus operators can create and deliver BSIPs that will optimise England’s bus network for the post-pandemic world.
Given the right tools, LTAs and bus operators can create and deliver BSIPs that will optimise England’s bus network for the post-pandemic world.
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