Skip to main content

New Buses Bill gives councils more power

Reforms are set to make bus travel in the UK more passenger-friendly and give councils more freedom to improve services. Roads Minister Andrew Jones said reforms will help deliver better journeys across the country, as he delivered a keynote speech at the UK Bus Summit. Under the changes in the Buses Bill, councils will be given the choice to franchise services and enter into new partnerships with providers. All companies will have to share information about routes, fares and timetables, paving the
February 16, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Reforms are set to make bus travel in the UK more passenger-friendly and give councils more freedom to improve services.

Roads Minister Andrew Jones said reforms will help deliver better journeys across the country, as he delivered a keynote speech at the UK Bus Summit.

Under the changes in the Buses Bill, councils will be given the choice to franchise services and enter into new partnerships with providers.

All companies will have to share information about routes, fares and timetables, paving the way for programmers to develop new apps passengers can use to plan their journeys.

Local authorities will be given new powers to enter into stronger partnerships with bus companies and agree minimum standards for services, improving reliability and punctuality.

The new partnerships will also be given the power to set standards for local buses and introduce standard ticketing rules over wider areas, paving the way for Oyster-style schemes.

The Buses Bill is due to go before Parliament later this year.

Related Content

  • Enforcement ensures equity for toll road users
    January 25, 2018
    All-electronic tolling boosts traffic flow but introduces the tricky question of enforcement. Workable solutions are starting to emerge. Enforcement is an essential part of tolling and one of the most important ways for a mobility agency to keep faith with its investors, its community stakeholders and the vast majority of its users. It can also be one of the most unpopular and contentious things a toll authority has to undertake. If tolling is about paying for the roads, then everyone has to pay their
  • Shared AV deal for Oxbotica & Nevs
    May 12, 2022
    Companies aim to deploy Sango passenger-share vehicles worldwide from 2025 onwards
  • San Francisco bans facial recognition
    July 23, 2019
    San Francisco has become the first US city to ban facial recognition software – and it is a move which has implications for transit agencies as well as police forces worldwide Big Brother is watching you’, goes the famous saying. Well, not in San Francisco he isn’t. Legislators in the Californian city – home to the tech gold rush and embracers of all things forward-looking – have decided that, after all, there should be limits to technology’s hold over us. By a margin of eight votes to one, the city’s
  • Study highlights regressive effects of road pricing and tolling
    April 9, 2014
    Road pricing can have a detrimental effect on the mobility and employment levels of low income households. Colin Sowman talks to Floridea Di Ciommo to discover why. Since the road pricing and tolling were first introduced it has been acknowledged that such schemes could have a disproportional impact on low income households but a study in Madrid, Spain, has revealed just how regressive such measures can be. The findings revealed that the consequences of a proposed road pricing scheme would be a 17% increas