Bold plans to deliver radical improvements in bus services across the Liverpool City Region are being finalised by the region's leaders.
The new Bus Services Improvement plan (BSIP) will be be a blueprint for delivering improvements designed to encourage more people to travel by bus.
The idea is to create services that are more frequent, reliable and affordable - while making them easier for passengers to understand and use.
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Key areas for improvement and investment will include frequency improvements, fare reductions, new bus lanes and zero emission vehicles.
The city region's combined authority is bidding for a share of £3 billion of national funding to make the improvements.
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has already announced plans to bring the region's buses under public control - under what is called a franchising model.
This is part of his wider vision for an interconnected, London-style transport system that will link up buses, trains and ferries across the city region.
It is hoped that the new Bus Improvement Plan will work alongside this to help deliver big improvements to bus journeys in all parts of the region.
Buses are vitally important to the Liverpool City Region as they make up 82% of public transport journeys here.
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “Good public transport is vital for connecting people with each other and with opportunity, with people in our region overwhelmingly relying on the bus to get about. Thanks to the failed deregulation of the 1980s, too many bus services don’t work for the people who use them.
“I’m determined to fix that. Getting around our region should be quick, cheap and reliable – like it is in London. If it’s good enough for the capital, then it’s more than good enough for people in our region.”
The BSIP will include the four key areas of improvement that were agreed as part of the LCR Vision for Bus in July 2019 and shaped by city region residents and businesses through the Big Bus Debate:
- Punctuality and reliability of bus services
- Ticketing and the cost of travel
- Network design (hours of operation, service frequencies, network coverage and integration)
- Onboard experience
A customer charter is also being developed, which will set out the standards passengers should expect when travelling by bus.
The outline approach for the BSIP will go before the Combined Authority’s Transport Committee on Thursday September 16 followed by the Combined Authority on Friday September 24.
The final BSIP will be submitted to the Department for Transport by October 31.
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