ISSUE 255 10 DECEMBER 2021
NEWS, VIEWS AND ANALYSIS FOR A SECTOR ON THE MOVE
National Bus Strategy has £5bn funding gap
The government’s spending review offered £2.1bn to improve bus services in England but Bus Service Improvement Plans have requested £7.2bn The funds made available by the government to transform bus services fall drastically short of what is required to deliver the aspirations of the National Bus Strategy for England, the Confederation of Passenger Transport has warned. The spending review announced by the government last month contained funding commitments of around £2.1bn for buses. This included £1.2bn for Bus Service Improvement Plans (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 of all
BSIPs which had funding totals included (40 out of 79) in publicly available documents found that this funding was less than a third of what will be required to fulfil these plans. The 40 Bus Service Improvement Plans, which cover 71% of passenger journeys by bus outside of London, require total funding of £7.2bn - leaving a funding gap of more than £5bn.
“The vision of the National Bus Strategy was rightly much greater” Graham Vidler
“The National Bus Strategy challenged local authorities and bus operators to set out jointly how they would transform bus services. They have risen to this challenge and produced ambitious plans right across the country,” commented CPT chief executive Graham Vidler. “The scale of this ambition will not be met though with the funds that were announced at the Spending Review. Current funding is likely to be able to transform bus services in only a small number of places, including our major cities, but the vision of the National Bus Strategy was rightly much greater.” TURN TO PAGE 09
SUITS YOU, SANTA! Brighton & Hove Buses has made what is (probably) the world’s first Santa suit out of moquette, the hard-wearing fabric used to make bus seats. Santa Bobby Boyjonauth (pictured) is wearing the customised suit on the bus company’s Santa Bus, which visits more than 200 streets across 19 nights in the lead up to Christmas. It was made at the bus company’s Conway Street Trim Shop, where Bobby works. “Anyone can buy a Santa suit but not many people make their own,” said Bobby.
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NEWS
Hendy review makes case for investment
05
Union Connectivity Review concludes
NEWS
England is transport policy ‘outlier’
11
Welsh minister sees divergence of views
COMMENT
What are we doing to tackle racism?
18
Alex Warner asks us to look in the mirror
COMMENT
Devolution hits the buffers in the North
25
A row that could have been avoided?
CHRISTMAS BREAK Passenger Transport is taking an extended Christmas break. The next edition of the magazine will come out on January 14. Season’s greetings to all our readers!
08/12/2021 17:41