Issue - meetings

The report proposes that a review is undertaken by the West of England Combined Authority (as the Local Transport Authority) to thoroughly consider the opportunity offered by franchising to improve the public transport offer within the West of England.

Cllr Sarah Warren introduced the report, moved the officer recommendation and made the following statement:

“Our bus industry in England is broken almost beyond repair. Along with other parts of the public sector: the NHS, schools and local government - this industry forms part of the very fabric of society that this government is dismantling with alarming and accelerating speed. Yet thousands of people across Bath and North East Somerset rely on buses to get about every day. For many, buses are the vital lifeline connecting them to schools, work, hospitals, shops, to new opportunities, and to each other.

For far too long, residents have been forced to contend with a bus service that’s too confusing, unstable, unreliable, and expensive. This cannot continue and we can no longer afford to accept a public transport service that leaves behind the very people who need it most.

Bus services were deregulated by the Thatcher government in the 1980s, leaving services organised on a commercial, free market basis, and operators (more-or-less uniquely in the developed world) in full control of which services they will run, the fares they will charge, and the vehicles they will use. This has resulted in an uncoordinated network with a confusing array of ticketing options. Councils watch, impotent, as profitable routes are flooded with buses, leaving other areas at risk of becoming public transport “deserts,” with no alternative to the private car.

For public transport to be a viable option for our communities it needs to be frequent, reliable, fast, affordable, accessible, safe, comfortable, and go where people want to go. However, widespread market failure across the industry has led to rapidly increasing subsidy by local authorities of unprofitable but “socially necessary” services (which are no longer permitted cross subsidy from profitable routes). And this at a time when council income is falling. Following covid, we have seen this culminate in a near total collapse in the most socially important bus services across much of the country, including here the West of England.

With transport currently accounting for 29 per cent of carbon emissions in the Bath and North East Somerset area, and buses a vital lifeline for communities, we are committed to enabling more people to travel by bus. Using the powers that devolution has given us, we want to build an integrated transport system that’s faster, cheaper, cleaner, and more reliable.

This starts by taking back control of our buses to give us (rather than the private operators) greater control over fares, routes, vehicle specification and timetables. That way, we can ensure buses integrate better with other modes of transport and offer simpler and more convenient ticketing.

In the Bus Back Better Strategy of 2021, the Government set out its support for

Local Transport Authorities to access franchising powers as a way of rapidly delivering improvements for passengers. A franchise system would effectively mean that every bus service is paid for by the combined authority, who would in turn receive the income from fares, and they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78