Bus Users Scotland: Maximising The Benefits of Bus Partnerships For Rural Communities

Role and Purpose of BUS: We give Scottish bus passengers a voice We work closely with bus operators to resolve complaints/issues Host Your Bus Matters events around the country to gather feedback from passengers and promote engagement Raise awareness of transport issues affecting Scottish communities Promoting better standards in bus services across Scotland Consulting with central and local government as well as other key stakeholders Compliance monitoring on behalf of the Traffic Commissioner with 4 compliance officers.

Partnerships: - Under a bus services can continue to be operated by commercial bus operators (whether private sector or local authority owned and whether providing contracted services to a local authority or not). - However new standards are set which are agreed for the bus operators to meet. The overarching view is to improve bus services and increase patronage

Challenges for bus service delivery 18% of population live in rural Scotland 98% of Scotland is classed as rural 11% live in areas <1000 population 5% live in area <500 population 409 million bus journeys made in 2015/16 136 million of those by Concession card holders

Possible Benefits: Improved journeys with newer buses that could have Wifi,USB ports etc. Minimum Service frequency, or more even spread of buses Improved passenger information e.g. real time info on app Route or area branding Improved payment options- App tickets/ contactless Better transport connections to other bus services/modes Low emissions buses being used – environmental benefit Maximum fares for given routes or services Increased stability of service provision for bus users.

Rural Challenges: Loss of a rural bus service can leave people very isolated and leave them in a situation of transport poverty. Negative impact on wider community, e.g. local business suffer, population migration, house prices can fall etc etc.

Rural Challenges (cont.) A lot of rural services cannot be run on a commercial basis whereby the local authority has to help support a service financially. Most councils operate a core time policy for rural services e.g. 7am-7pm which can result in very few services out with these times. Lack of infrastructure in the rural environment can cause problems for passengers especially with the use of interurban coaches being used by operators e.g. high steps to access seating areas. Also poor mobile data signals results in real time apps being made redundant

Maximising The Benefits:

Key Factors to Success of Partnerships: Aims and outcomes have to be achievable Open communication and trust with all parties involved Passenger representation is crucial to ensure that decisions made have value to passengers Build in an annual review to ensure that outcomes are still being achieved or working to be achieved. Voluntary partnerships can be more effective as there is more willingness of those involved compared to the previous SQP type whereby uptake of these was very low in Scotland.

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