{"id":97815,"date":"2025-05-13T10:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T10:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/97815\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T10:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T10:38:10","slug":"government-minister-backs-major-west-midlands-bus-reform-and-says-its-what-people-deserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/97815\/","title":{"rendered":"Government minister backs major West Midlands bus reform and says it’s what people ‘deserve’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The West Midlands bus network will move to a franchise model to give the public control of fares, routes and timetables\"WestWest Midlands Mayor at Wolverhampton Bus Station.<\/p>\n

A Government minister has backed a decision to ‘take back control’ of buses in the West Midlands.<\/p>\n

Local Transport Minister Simon Lightwood said moving away from the current private operator-led system to a franchise model would give passengers the services they deserve.<\/p>\n

The region’s Mayor Richard Parker signed the landmark agreement on Friday (May 9) following a meeting of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Board.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Major reform of West Midlands bus network agreed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Parker said franchising will ensure passengers have control over fares, routes and timetables.<\/p>\n

The first franchised services are expected to start rolling out in late 2027 with the whole process due to be completed in 2029.<\/p>\n

A series of contracts to run services will be awarded to private bus operators to run them.<\/p>\n

There are expected to be nine local area franchises with three rolled out each year from 2027 to 2029, with a number of smaller single route contracts available to encourage smaller bus operators to bid.<\/p>\n

Mr Lightwood said: “I am absolutely delighted that local leaders across the West Midlands have voted with both hands to take back control of their buses to give local people the services they deserve.<\/p>\n

“Residents from Bromsgrove<\/a> to Bloxwich will be able to visit their friends and family, reach exciting job opportunities, and access the public services they need.<\/p>\n

Whose side are you on in the bin strike?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Our incoming Bus Services Bill will unlock opportunities up and down the country for those who have been cut off from reliable local transport for far too long, and drive up living standards, as outlined in our Plan for Change.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re also investing over \u00a31 billion to make services more reliable, frequent and affordable \u2013 including over \u00a3100 million right here in the West Midlands to boost infrastructure, enhance service frequency or improve reliability.”<\/p>\n

There will be one-off costs of \u00a322.5 million over three years to set up and design the new network.<\/p>\n

Bus depots and more than 1,000 buses will also need to be bought or leased through transport authority grants or borrowing through fare income.<\/p>\n

Around 236 million journeys were made by bus last year, accounting for 80 per cent of public transport trips.<\/p>\n

The Combined Authority currently subsidises the existing deregulated model with \u00a350 million per year just to ensure services are not axed as private operators struggle with costs.<\/p>\n

Bosses said franchising would open up contracts to a wider range of operators and increase competition – something an independent audit last year concluded would provide better value for money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The West Midlands bus network will move to a franchise model to give the public control of fares,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97816,"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-97815","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":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97815","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=97815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}