The Bus Services Act 2017 (c. 21) is an
Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
. It provides for local transport authorities to create partnership schemes to improve bus services in their areas, and to introduce advanced ticketing schemes.
The Act also provides for
mayoral combined authorities to partially re-regulate bus services by creating franchise schemes similar to the one operated by
Transport for London. It, however, prohibits local authorities from reversing complete
bus deregulation
Bus deregulation in Great Britain was the abolition of Road Service Licensing outside of Greater London for bus services. This began in 1980 with the abolition of Road Service Licensing for long-distance bus services and was extended into local ...
by forming a
company for the purpose of providing local services.
Franchising schemes
Greater Manchester
The
Mayor of Greater Manchester
The Mayor of Greater Manchester is the directly elected metro mayor of Greater Manchester, responsible for strategic governance in the region that includes health, transport, housing, strategic planning, waste management, policing, the Greater ...
announced on 13 December 2017 that, following regulations laid down by the
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent i ...
under the Act coming in to effect the following week, Greater Manchester would become the first city-region to start the process of bus franchising by requesting data from bus operators.
On 24 June 2019,
Transport for Greater Manchester
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is the public body responsible for co-ordinating transport services throughout Greater Manchester in North West England. TfGM is responsible for investments in improving transport services and facilities. ...
proposed that a bus franchise system was the region's preferred option. The
Greater Manchester Combined Authority
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is a combined authority for Greater Manchester, England. It was established on 1 April 2011 and consists of 11 members; 10 indirectly elected members, each a directly elected councillor from one ...
accepted the assessment on 28 June 2019 and instructed independent auditors to provide a report as required by the Act.
Following on from the audit, the GMCA announced a public consultation on the combined authority's plans for its franchising scheme on 7 October 2019, with the consultation running for three months and closing in January 2020. The consultation closed on 8 January 2020, with more than 8,000 responses with the results and a final decision on the scheme planned for publication by March 2020. In June 2020 the GMCA announced that 83% of consultation respondents supported the proposed franchise scheme, however the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
's impact on bus services prompted them to carry out an additional consultation running from 2 December 2020 until the 29 January 2021. In March 2021 the GMCA announced that 82% of respondents to the second consultation supported the franchising scheme.
On 25 March 2021
Andy Burnham
Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...
announced the decision that buses in Greater Manchester would be franchised following nine of the ten local authority members of the GMCA voting in favour of the scheme.
Franchised services will be introduced in three phases over two years, starting with
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
,
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
and
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...
on 17 September 2023, with subsequent areas being franchised over the course of 2024.
Legal Challenges
The plans to franchise bus services in the
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
area were criticised by both the
and
Stagecoach Group
Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses, express coaches and a tram service in the United Kingdom.
History
Stagecoach was born out of deregulation of the British express coach market in the early ...
, with Rotala taking the case to
Judicial Review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
, a process under which
executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dir ...
,
legislative
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...
and
administrative
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...
actions are subject to review by the
judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
. Rotala operator
Diamond Bus North West
Diamond Bus (North West) Ltd., trading as Diamond North West, is a bus operator providing services in the districts of Bolton and Wigan in Greater Manchester operating an extensive commercial network along with tendered services on behalf of Tra ...
launched a website which stated that £20 million has already gone on consultants towards the bus franchising proposals.
In March 2022 the franchising system was judged by the courts to be lawful, with both Stagecoach and Rotala stating they were disappointed by the decision.
The Judge,
Mr Justice Julian Knowles, stated in his decision that he was not "persuaded the impugned decisions were either unlawful or irrational". Stagecoach accepted Mr Justice Knowles’ decision and has not sought leave to appeal, however Rotala later appealed against the decision of the courts. On 25 July 2022 the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
dismissed the appeal.
Bus Open Data
The Bus Services Act required the
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
to work with operators to provide
Open Data
Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license.
The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...
systems for bus timetables, fares and
vehicle locations in England.
This requirement was implemented by the
Bus Open Data Service
The Bus Open Data Service (BODS) is a government-funded service in England, established in 2020 as part of the Bus Services Act 2017. It was created in a partnership between ITO World, the Department for Transport and KPMG.
The service is des ...
with a requirement for operators to provide AVL, timetable and basic fare information by January 2021 and
Local Authorities
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
to provide stop data by December 2020.
Implementations
A small number of websites have included Bus Open Data information including:
*
Bustimes.org
Bustimes.org is a transportation information website created to take advantage of Bus Services Act 2017 requirements for bus operators by the Department for Transport that bus timetables, fares and vehicle locations could be provided in an open ...
- A website which has implemented timetable, stop, fares and vehicle location data
Criticism
Despite providing fare, time and vehicle location, the Department for Transport has ruled out including key accessibility information on bus stops, stations and vehicles despite the Bus Services Act making specific provision for open data, 'for the purpose of facilitating travel by disabled persons'.
References
{{UK legislation
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2017
2017 in transport
Transport policy in the United Kingdom
History of transport in the United Kingdom
Transport legislation
Bus Services Act 2017