What would it take to make the bus beat the car?
Making a bus competitive with the car means addressing the parts of a journey that make a passenger hesitate, as well as the time spent in traffic.
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In franchising and partnership programmes, Authorities have made significant investments in bus priority and still struggled to shift journeys from the car. The issue is often that the scheme is developed as a highways project, while fares and passenger information are left to separate decisions, budgets or procurements.
Passengers do not experience the service as separate highways, fares and information projects. Drivers usually set off with a route in mind, navigation on their phone and no need to decide how to pay until later. Before reaching the stop, bus passengers may still be deciding whether the fare is right, whether the service is running and which app or ticket will work. For occasional passengers, uncertainty can be enough to abandon the journey. Personal safety also affects the decision to travel.
Make the faster journey usable
Bus lanes, junction priority and enforcement remain important where congestion delays services. They can protect buses from traffic queues and make arrival times more dependable. Authorities should test the whole corridor. A short section of bus lane that ends before a congested junction is unlikely to change the passenger experience.
Fares need the same scrutiny. Passengers should be able to see a clear price and buy or use the right ticket without interpreting a fare chart. Daily capping can be useful, provided the Authority has agreed which tickets and Operators are included and how the cap is calculated. A multi-Operator ticket offers little if drivers, retailers or the customer contact team do not understand its acceptance rules.
Passenger information needs the same scrutiny. In England, vehicle-location data can provide real-time information. A live dot on a map, however, does not prove that the predicted arrival is reliable. The test is whether the information matches what happens at the stop. When a journey is cancelled, diverted or running late, passengers need a message in the channel they use and a clear indication of what to do next.
Authorities do not all need to commission a single app. On some networks, sharing reliable information through existing journey planners, websites and stop displays may be sensible. Authorities must decide who checks missing data, approves disruption messages and responds when passengers report that the app is wrong.
| Investment area | Authority decision | Evidence to ask for |
|---|---|---|
| Bus priority | Which delays on the corridor will be removed, and how will the benefit be maintained? | Before-and-after journey-time and reliability data, including peak periods and enforcement arrangements. |
| Fares and ticketing | Can a passenger use the intended fare products across the relevant Operators without prior knowledge of local rules? | The fare rules, the accepted-ticket list, test journeys and an agreed process for resolving incorrect charges. |
| Passenger information | Can a passenger rely on predicted arrivals and understand disruption? | Data-quality monitoring, cancelled-trip and diversion examples and records of how faults are corrected. |
Put the passenger proposition in the business case
A business case for bus priority should set out the recurring cost of the passenger proposition and who will deliver it alongside the capital scheme. An Authority that funds a faster corridor must also ensure that passengers can work out the basics of using it. This does not require technology for its own sake.
Delivery raises practical issues. Daily capping may require a clear approach to cash and to passengers without contactless payment. A multi-Operator offer requires commercial and operational agreement. Clear copy cannot substitute for either. Real-time information requires ongoing attention to vehicle-location feeds and service changes. Specifications, acceptance tests and contract management should address these matters before launch.
LiteFranchise™ includes a Managed Ticketing Service Specification and an Accepted Ticket List. These documents can provide a starting point for an Authority developing a managed ticketing service. They do not resolve local choices about fares, channels or what passengers can expect. Authorities should make those choices early enough to inform the wider business case.
Useful questions
Use these questions for a corridor scheme or network plan to identify where the passenger proposition has been separated from the infrastructure decision.
- Which part of the proposed journey is most likely to deter an occasional passenger: delay, fare uncertainty or lack of trustworthy information?
- Does the business case include the ongoing cost of fare delivery, data monitoring and disruption communication, as well as the capital cost of bus priority?
- Can the Authority show a complete test journey across the relevant Operators, from planning and boarding through to fare capping and customer support?
- Who is responsible for finding and fixing a missing vehicle feed, an incorrect arrival prediction or a fare that has been charged wrongly?
- What evidence will the Authority review after launch to determine whether the scheme has made the bus easier to choose?
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