Rural Bus Franchising Studies

The key elements and strategic objectives of the Project are: • Our plans for rural bus franchising pilots are framed in the context of other work that the Combined Authority is already progressing in partnership with our local authority partners. A Bus Reform Scoping study, which is taking a high-level view of all bus reform options open to the Combined Authority in order to improve bus services in our area.

This scoping work will provide important context for the rural franchising pilots, which will examine franchising options in more detail and with a more defined spatial context. • A Bus Network Review, which is comparing our current network against a sliding scale of customer expectations in order to identify gaps in provision, many of which will exist in our rural areas. • A review of our existing Enhanced Partnerships, and the preparation of a new Bus Service Improvement Plan, exploring and maximising what the current bus partnership model can deliver, working hand in hand with bus operators to secure immediate improvements to the bus offer. • The scope for each of the five pilot studies is therefore to build on these ongoing workstreams and explore the role that bus franchising models can play in delivering better bus services. We strongly believe that the way to do this is: • Examining different bus franchising models in the context of particular rural geographies in our Combined Authority area, including the additional opportunities afforded by the new Bus Services Act. • Conducting these examinations working hand in hand with local stakeholders that are, or represent, people actually using the bus, or would use the bus if the service better met their needs and using the knowledge and expertise of the local bus operators.