Change is Happening

Stronger partnerships between local authorities and operators will help us to achieve the target set out in The One Billion Challenge.

Where partnerships are strongest, research undertaken for CPT’s On The Move Campaign (2008) shows that bus patronage is growing.  And patronage can continue to grow with further improvement of services. Bus operators providing modern state-of-the-art vehicles on punctual, affordable routes and local authorities providing the infrastructure – safe and clean bus stops/stations, clear and concise timetabling information, dedicated bus lanes etc – can help us to achieve.

Below are examples of where change is happening

• In Brighton, bus patronage has grown by around 5% per year since 1993 contributing to a 3% reduction in city centre traffic in the last 3 years
• In partnership with Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire PTE, FirstGroup have been improving the quality, punctuality and reliability of their services. Over the last six years their passenger numbers have grown by approximately 10%
• In York there’s been a 56% growth in bus patronage over the past five years
• Kent Fastrack has seen passenger numbers up 50% on forecasts. 20% of Fastrack passengers previously used their car for the same journey
• In the past decade, London has seen a 58% increase in bus patronage and a 5% decline in the car share of total passenger journeys encouraged by congestion charging
• In Cambridgeshire there has been 100% growth in bus patronage over the past seven years

And this is just the beginning. With the widespread application of policies conducive to bus and coach travel the industry could go much further, taking billions more car journeys off the road and making a huge contribution to delivering on the Government’s carbon reduction targets. It’s now time for the rest of the UK to join them.