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PEOPLE across Merseyside are being asked for their views on plans totransform the region’s bus services

Residents, businesses, trade unions and stakeholders can have their say on a new bus franchising scheme proposed by Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram

Currently, private operators decide the routes, timetables, fares and standards There is also limited coordination between private bus operators and other forms of public transport

Bus franchising would give the Combined Authority greater control over fares, routes and timetables, allowing the services to be operated in the interests of local bus users with private operators running them under a contract with authority

Reform of the region’s bus network is a key part of Mayor Rotheram’s wider ambition to build a London-style transport system that makes getting about faster, cheaper, cleaner, more reliable Mayor Rotheram said: “For far too long, people in our communities have been forced to contend with a secondclass bus service that’s too confusing, too unreliable, and too expensive

“I want this to become a thing of the past – because we simply can no longer