Are you concerned about the village Bus Service?

You may well be aware of Somerset Bus Partnership, which was established in April 2021 in response to the government's Bus Back Better initiative, to be the voice of passengers and stakeholders in Somerset.

Somerset Bus Partnership have done a superb job with raising awareness and geting information out about existing bus services in Somerset, not least through their bus stalls, which have become a regular and familiar sight in many towns across the county, and through events linked to Catch The Bus Month for example. It is no coincidence that there have been significant rises in the number of passengers using existing bus services in Somerset since Somerset Bus Partnership was formed, and given the limited budgets for

publicity available to local bus operators and Somerset Council, many of those significant rises in the number of passengers using existing bus services in Somerset can reasonably be linked to Somerset Bus Partnership's excellent efforts.

Unfortunately though, the prospects for the improvements to existing bus services in Somerset that are so desperately needed are not so positive. The only notable genuinely new improvements to bus services in Somerset since Bus Back Better was launched have been a handful of new evening services concentrated in the Taunton hinterland, along with a much delayed Digital Slinky demand responsive transport trial in the Somerton area, with less than a year's worth of government funding left to keep these improvements in

place.

Aside from that, Somerset has suffered a sad story of managed decline of its bus network over the past few years, with almost every timetable change bringing fresh bus service cuts that have affected all parts of the county in some way.

Therefore, we feel that something has to be done to reverse this decline, and that a fresh new approach is required.

With this in mind, we have formed a new organisation called Better Buses For Somerset, which is made up of experienced public transport campaigners with a track record of achieving bus service improvements, and bus industry specialists who also have a similar track record of achieving bus service improvements. 

Although we are not part of Somerset Bus Partnership, we intend to slide into the space alongside their excellent work in promoting and increasing usage of existing bus services in Somerset, with us taking on the task of helping to reverse the current managed decline of Somerset's bus network, and using our public transport and bus industry skills, experience and expertise to start to help facilitate and put in place the improvements to existing bus services that passengers in Somerset so desperately need. We intend to do this by building credible business cases for bus service improvements in partnership with the bus operators and Somerset Council.

The reason we are contacting you is because we need your help to do that. What we want is to build up a detailed picture right across Somerset of what the issues with existing bus services are, and what improvements to those existing bus services need to be made. We feel that it is really important that we build those links with local people and representatives like yourself in areas all over Somerset, so that we can listen to and truly understand what you want and need from your bus services.

Therefore, if you could reply to this email with that information for your area, then we would be very grateful indeed.

Yours Sincerely

James Smithers

Better Buses For Somerset

name : James Smithers

email : jamessmithers123@yahoo.com

2nd July 2024