£9.3m boost for county bus services

Worcestershire's bus services have been handed a multi-million boost.

Transport secretary Louise Haigh has announced £100m of government funding to improve buses across the West Midlands.

This includes £9.3m for Worcestershire, which could be used to extend the county’s on demand bus service.

The government says the funding represents a record level of investment for the majority of areas and will help enhance popular routes and protect rural services.

Marc Bayliss, Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said the funding is “very much welcome”.

“As I have previously said, improving bus services is absolutely one of my top priorities and this additional money will enable the council to make a real difference to public transport services throughout the county,” said Cllr Bayliss.

“It will mean we are able to invest properly in our bus improvement plan. This plan includes a wide range of improvements from working with local operators to improve journey times,  frequency and reliability to improving infrastructure such as bus shelters and bus stops.

“We will also look to use this funding to help expand the very successful Worcestershire on Demand service, which currently operates in Malvern and North East Worcestershire, to even more areas.

“This will ensure that we not only focus on better urban routes with operators, we can also focus on making bus travel a good and viable option for people in our more rural areas.”

The Department for Transport said the funding has been allocated based on place need, levels of deprivation and population, to stop areas having to compete for funding as in previous years, as this wastes resources and delays decisions.

Transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “The value of regular and reliable bus services cannot be understated.   

“For far too long, the West Midlands has been suffering from unreliable services with buses hugely delayed, or not even turning up at all.    

“This funding kickstarts the bus revolution to bring an end to the postcode lottery of bus services, drive economic growth and make sure people have proper access to jobs and opportunities.  

“We’ve already committed over £150m to extend the bus fare cap and keep fares low and this nearly £1billion of further funding will mean local routes are protected, reliability is improved and the passenger is put first.”