Buses in the West Midlands are 'letting people down' but reform will take a long time

Concerns have been raised about how long a transformation of bus services across the West Midlands is going to take. West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker said, if plans are agreed, a new franchise model for the region's bus network could take more than two years to come to fruition under current legislation.

Former Birmingham City Council cabinet member for transport Liz Clements raised the issue at a meeting of the Combined Authority's Joint Scrutiny and Overview Committee, asking if new Government legislation would help 'speed up the process'. But Mr Parker said it was likely they would have to work under current rules if franchising is to be brought in.

He said results of an initial audit of the current routes and bus patterns is expected to be presented to the authority Board on December 13. If members agree to moved forward, a 12 week consultation will take place starting on January 6.

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It is then anticipated that a formal decision on whether to proceed will be taken in May and, from that point, Mr Parker said: "It could take a further two years before we start to implement the first franchised routes in the region." He also said Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, will meet West Midlands leaders to share his experiences having gone through bus reform.

Councillor Clements said: "I'm excited by the potential of the legislation the government is putting through to put both bus and rail back into public hands. But I'm a bit concerned about the timescale for bus franchising under the current legislation.

"Do you see potential in the Better Bus legislation for us to speed up bus franchising and what's the potential to move to a municipal bus company that's actually owned and operated by West Midlands Combined Authority."

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Mr Parker said: "Eighty per cent of the users of public transport in this region use the buses and the buses aren't getting people to work, college, the high street or the hospital currently. We've got a public transport system that isn't meeting the needs of the public and giving young people particularly the opportunities that would change their lives. We're letting them down.

"I was really pleased at the last board meeting all the council leaders approved we go to the first stage of the process. The process, I admit, is rather ornate and complicated and that's because the previous Government didn't want bus franchising to be a possibility and created hurdles to stop it.

"But we've got to the first stage and we have to follow due process. Sadly, it's likely our processes won't be able to be aligned with any new legislation so we're currently working on the basis we're having to follow the existing legislation.

"It will be a longer timeframe for implementation than I'd like given the current issues we face but sadly we have to work within the current regulatory constraints."

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