Staffordshire County Council reveals plan to improve bus services
Bus services across Staffordshire could improve after the county council announced it plans to help companies deliver better services.
Staffordshire County Council wants to create an enhanced partnership (EP) with local bus companies.
This will help the county council when it bids to central government for additional funding for improved local transport in years to come.
After the cabinet approves the plan existing bus services will be fully reviewed and form the basis of the enhanced partnership arrangement. This will then be submitted to government to demonstrate Staffordshire’s commitment to better and expanded services.
Councillors hope to reverse the decrease in bus travel experienced over the pandemic period. In 2022/23 there were approximately 8.3million adult passenger journeys in Staffordshire, compared to 12.6million in 2019/20.
The government has allocated funding to the county council to support improved bus services from July this year to April 2024. Funding for the following year will be received when the enhanced partnership has been established.s.
Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet support member for highways Robert Pritchard said: “Improving the county’s bus services wherever possible is important to our communities – enabling people to access the services they need, connecting with friends, family and work and helping to boost the economy.
“While we’re not responsible for bus services, we work closely with companies operating in Staffordshire to support them in shaping the network and can access central government funding as part of this.
“The county council is also committed to working towards a low emission bus network and encouraging more people to use buses to reduce traffic on our roads.”
The Staffordshire Bus Strategy will be discussed by members of the Prosperous Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Thursday July 6.
