Cheshire East Council unveil plans to transform bus services

Cheshire East Council has published its Bus Service Improvement Plan, setting out plans to transform services in the borough.

The plan sets out proposals to work with local communities, public transport users and bus operators to boost services and deliver improvements across the network.

Cheshire East Council’s plan seeks to deliver more reliable, more frequent services, integrated ticketing across bus operators and routes, as well as with other transport options. The BSIP will also build on the successes of the council’s Flexilink and ‘go-to’ demand-responsive bus services.

The document has now been submitted to the Department of Transport in a bid to secure funding through the government’s national bus strategy ‘Bus Back Better’.

Cllr Craig Browne, chair of Cheshire East Council’s highways and transport committee, said:

This is an ambitious plan and improving the speed, reliability and quality of public transport would help encourage more residents to choose the bus, make fewer car journeys and contribute to our carbon reduction commitments.”

The BSIP focuses on three phases:

• Phase one: Stabilisation of the bus network (2021-23) – improving reliability and punctuality, simplifying fares and improving integration of public transport; 
• Phase two: Improving quality (2022-25 and beyond to 2030) – including more frequent services, better access and information and improved value for money; and
• Phase three: Network growth (2023-25 and beyond to 2030) – making bus use more attractive, such as via investment in bus/rail interchanges and multi-modal ticketing.

Cllr Laura Crane, chair of the members’ advisory panel on the BSIP, said:

The bus network in Cheshire East is facing a number of challenges due to a long-term structural decline in passengers – including a 24 per cent fall in passenger journeys since 2011 – compounded by recent loss of custom during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“Use of buses could take some time to recover, as passengers need to be confident that using bus services will provide the reliable, safe and cost-effective transport that they expect. 

“We need a bus service that works for our residents – a more reliable, more user-friendly and greener service to ensure that bus travel does not become a thing of the past.”

The next phase of preparation towards plans to transform bus transport in Cheshire East is a new statutory enhanced partnership agreement with operators, set to complete in April 2022.