Bus back better: How can we improve bus services across North and West Northamptonshire?
Overview
North Northamptonshire Council and West Northamptonshire Council have both committed to develop a Bus Service Improvement Plan and form an Enhanced Partnership with local bus operators to implement improvements in their bus networks in line with the Government's National Bus Strategy “Bus Back Better”.
To help us with this work, we are seeking your views on the improvements you would like to see in local bus services by answering the survey below.
This is your opportunity to give feedback on bus services and connectivity in West and North Northants and help shape future plans for services across the county. The information you provide will be collated and analysed to identify issues and needs of residents in relation to public transport.
We will share the feedback received and how this has helped to shape our services in due course. Details of this will be published on our ‘We asked, you said, we did’ web page.
Related documents and further information
Please read the following documents to gain a better understanding of the above before you complete this survey:
More Information
The National Bus Strategy (‘the Strategy’) sets out an ambitious vision to dramatically improve bus services in England outside London through greater local leadership, to reverse the recent shift in journeys away from public transport and encourage passengers back to bus.
Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) and local bus operators must work at pace with local communities to develop a Bus Service Improvement Plan and deliver a fully integrated service with simple, multi-modal tickets, more bus priority measures, the same high quality information for all passengers in more places, and better turn-up-and-go frequencies that keep running into the evenings and at weekends.
More Information
An Enhanced Partnership is a statutory arrangement under the Bus Services Act 2017 which can specify, for example, timetables and multi-operator ticketing, and allows the Local Transport Authority to take over the role of registering bus services from the Traffic Commissioners.
The main difference versus franchising is that operators in an Enhanced Partnership have a much greater role, working with Local Transport Authorities to both develop and deliver improvements for passengers and having a real say on how bus services should be improved.
Enhanced Partnerships also offer significantly more flexibility than franchising.
More Information
In March 2021, the Government published Bus Back Better, the National Bus Strategy for England which is backed by £3bn of funding to transform bus services and help the bus industry recover from COVID-19.
The strategy encourages councils to form Enhanced Partnerships with the bus operators which will enable delivery of improvements for passengers such as improved timetables and multi-operator ticketing.
The step by step timescales for the formation of an Enhanced Partnership are for North and West Northamptonshire Councils to:
- commit to form an Enhanced Partnership by 30 June 2021
- publish a Bus Service Improvement Plan by the end of October 2021
- have the Enhanced Partnership in place by April 2022
By forming an Enhanced Partnership, the North and West Northamptonshire Council's will be able to access the funding to help transform bus services.
For more information about the national strategy, please see Bus Back Better: national bus strategy for England (PDF 9.2MB).
Have your say
To help us with this work, we are seeking your views on the improvements you would like to see in local bus services across North and West Northamptonshire.
Please tell us your views by completing this survey - using the link below.
You do not have to answer all of the questions or give us your feedback on every section. If you do not wish to answer a question or give feedback on a specific section, then you can skip those questions and move on to the next section.
Your feedback will be part of a report with many other people’s feedback, so you will not be personally identified.
You can email or send your comments in by post using the contact details below.
If you have any queries, comments or would like a copy of this survey in another format, you can contact us by email, post or telephone. Our contact details are as follows:
Email address: haveyoursay@westnorthants.gov.uk
Postal address:
- Nicky Hyde-Pulley
- West Northamptonshire Council
- One Angel Square
- Angel Street
- Northampton
- NN1 1ED
This survey will run from Friday 17 September to midnight on Sunday 10 October 2021.
For information about how consultation and engagement responses are managed, please see the consultation and engagement privacy notice.
Please note: This is a partnership activity between West Northamptonshire Council and North Northamptonshire Council. The online survey for this activity is hosted on the West Northamptonshire Consultation Hub, but the survey is also open to respondents from North Northamptonshire.
Interests
- Engagement activities
- Parking, roads and transport
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