Bus franchising versus an 'enhanced partnership': Local authorities debate the future of public transport in Peterborough

Local authorities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are reviewing the region’s public transport to help shape its future.

One of the key questions is whether bus franchising or an 'enhanced bus partnership' would be best placed to realise residents’ priorities.

Consultation, undertaken earlier this year by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), revealed that more bus services for rural areas is what’s most important to most people.

Better integration across the network and quicker and more reliable journey times came in second and third.

The next stage of the process – currently underway – is to draw up a business case for the new strategy, which will involve either bus franchising or an enhanced partnership.

Peterborough City Council (PCC) members, who have been consulted throughout the review process, were presented with the benefits of each policy at a scrutiny committee meeting.

Bus franchising, firstly, would put routes, frequencies, route numbers, fares and even branding in the hands of the local transport authority.

There would be a centralised approach to planning and management of the network, with profitable services cross-subsidising others, the report says.

An enhanced partnership with bus companies would, meanwhile, give local authorities more influence over buses than at present, but not to the same degree: it would still allow multi-operator ticketing, setting vehicle standards and setting fares, but only on supported services.

Management of the service would be negotiated between the partnership and there would be no cross-subsidising.

The CPCA says that both options are currently being assessed, but their impact also depends on the level of financial investment.

High level investment in bus franchising would result in “significant bus service enhancements and investment in infrastructure” while business as usual would mean there would be “replanned bus services and limited investment in infrastructure”, it says.

High level investment in an enhanced partnership, meanwhile, would also result in enhancements to buses and infrastructure – with the main difference being that there would be multi-operator ticketing and targeted fare discounts rather than network ticketing and capped fares.

But with a business as usual approach, bus services would “remain largely unchanged”, the CPCA says, although there would be multi-operator ticketing.

In the meantime, though, some rural communities around Peterborough – notably Castor, Ailsworth, Wansford and Wittering – remain disconnected from the city's bus network.

With CPCA’s review rumbling on since 2019, can residents expect to see change any time soon whether it’s through bus franchising or an enhanced partnership?

The CPCA is already subsiding multiple services in Peterborough, including 60’s, the 23 and 24, the 29, Call Connect buses, Community Transport and Stagecoach Citi evening and weekend services.

It also recently announced it would subsidise a minibus service between Eye and Thorney.

Meanwhile, though, overhauling transport in the region is a slow process and requires input from multiple local authorities and services.

With local elections every year in Peterborough – all of which have the potential to change the city council’s administration – and a CPCA mayoral election due in May 2025, ongoing support isn’t guaranteed.

But PCC councillors have given an indication that, whichever political party they’re from, they will support bus franchising, voting through a motion during a full council meeting agreeing to campaign for a franchised network last month.

At the scrutiny committee meeting, made up of a smaller number of councillors, PCC members asked that Peterborough be looked at as a separate entity to Cambridgeshire during the review and that parish councillors also be consulted on the improvements needed to buses in their areas.

Other priorities for the new bus strategy identified through consultation include introducing more electric buses to the network, improving bus stops and providing priorities to buses to speed up to improve reliability.