New plan to catch dangerous drivers tearing up West Midlands roads<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nWest Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) currently provides an annual subsidy of around \u00a350 million to private operators but this has failed to stop fare increases and service reduction.<\/p>\n
If the model is implemented, bus operators will be able to bid for contracts to run services across the region. It will cost WMCA \u00a322.5 million over three years to move from a deregulated network to a franchise.<\/p>\n
This does not include the purchase or lease of depots and buses which would pass from bus operators to Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) and be funded through either the authority\u2019s transport grants or low-cost borrowing financed through fare income.<\/p>\n
The results will be presented at WMCA Board meeting next week at which the Mayor will decide whether to franchise the region\u2019s bus services.<\/p>\n
Mr Parker said: “Despite getting millions of pounds in taxpayers money each year the bus network is still letting people down.<\/p>\n
“Passengers tell me services are unreliable and don\u2019t always offer the routes or timetables they need.<\/p>\n
“When I was elected to office I made it clear I believed that bringing our buses under public control would help us reduce traffic congestion, clean up our air, support our businesses and keep the region moving.<\/p>\n
“My priority is to deliver a bus network that works for everyone which is why I launched this consultation. The results show people agree that we can, and must, do better.”<\/p>\n
With 236 million journeys last year, bus is by far the most popular form of public transport in the region and, according to experts, every \u00a31 invested in bus services generates \u00a312 for the local economy.<\/p>\n
Under franchising, TfWM would set the fares, timetables and routes of bus services and award contracts to private bus operators to run them.<\/p>\n
If the move is approved, the roll-out of franchised bus services is expected to begin in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mayor said a bus franchise model would bring fares, routes and timetables under public controlNational Express West…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,33451,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-65342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-buses","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114431943308520186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1_Nx-Electric-Bus-Birmingham.jpg\")
National Express West Midlands(Image: Shaun Fellows \/ Shine Pix )<\/p>\n