Extract from Introduction to

“Strengthening Local Delivery: The Draft Local Transport Bill”

Buses play a key role in our transport system. They account for two thirds of all journeys made by public transport. The post-war decline in bus patronage is now levelling off, and we have seen the first year-on-year increases in patronage for decades. However, in too many places the current framework is still not delivering the quality of service that passengers expect. The draft Bill seeks to ensure we have a framework that enables more areas to replicate the successes that some areas have already achieved.

Last year we carried out an extensive review of bus services across the country, and in December 2006 published Putting Passengers First, a set of policy proposals designed to help improve the standard of bus services across the country.

Taken together, they constitute a balanced package of measures, which aim to:

• promote more effective partnership working between local authorities and bus operators, to deliver services that are better matched to the needs of passengers in their local areas;

• make the implementation of 'quality contracts' schemes a realistic option in areas where it is in the public interest for local authorities to take greater control over bus services;

• provide a new regime to deliver better punctuality, for the first time holding local authorities as well as bus operators to account for their contribution to punctuality performance; and

• support further development of the community transport sector, by removing unnecessary restrictions and by streamlining the system for issuing permits to community transport providers.

(Department for Transport 2007)  [dft+localtransportbill]